English 1020 Research Paper You will be doing research on the treatment of women in America and then analyzing how the play Trifles and a story, poem, play, or film of your choice reflect what you...

Parallels between the treatment of women in ‘Trifles’ and ‘Thelma and Louise’
Table of contents
1. Title Page
2. Introduction
3. Background
4. Analysis
5. Works Cited
Parallels between the treatment of women in ‘Trifles’ and ‘Thelma and Louise’
Introduction
The rise of feminism and feminist thought can be traced back to the early 1900’s. This was also the time when lots of literary works focussing on women were released. Even though they did not gain extreme popularity in their time, the second wave of feminism in the latter part of the century encouraged the rediscovery of literary works by women of earlier times resulting in the rediscovery of many stories, plays, and poetry by female authors focussing of female issues (Shih, 237-256).
A prominent example of this is ‘Trifles’ by Susan Glaspell, that focussed on the treatment of women and the possible reactions it could bring about. Similar is the message depicted by the film ‘Thelma and Louise’ which was released years later. It took the audience of its time by storm. It threw a strong message across the West that women deserved dignity and respect. Oppressing women may seem inconsequential but could also result in undesirable and unaccounted for consequences. (Ben-Zvi 141-162)
Background
The background that ‘Trifles’ sees, is vastly different from that of ‘Thelma and Louise’. There is a whole generation gap between the two yet somehow, their themes seem to intertwine in the fact that they deal with the derogatory treatment that women receive from men. An underlying theme that can be noted here is that even over nearly a hundred years of struggle, women still faced stereotype and bias. The relevance of this theme is applicable even today as women still struggle for equality in many fields.
In the 1960’s and earlier, women in America assumed the role of house makers and carers (Petruso). Little was expected of them outside of those boundaries even though many women had come out of that circle and started to earn and make a living. The dominant idea was that women had less intelligence, were better suited for menial home jobs and could do little beyond that. Under this setting, ‘Trifles’ was published to knock on the minds of the populace that women had intelligence and understanding and could function like men or better if they chose to do so.
‘Thelma and Louise’ on the other hand is set in the 1990’s where women have already released themselves from the barricade of the household. However, they are still viewed as sex objects rather than individual, powerful and independent creatures. They are still not perceived to be able to take free and daring decisions like the ones the characters in the film take. All in all, where women seem to have been set free physically, yet they are still viewed in the same way by men.
Analysis
‘Trifles’ observes the life of a typical American housewife of the 1970’s. Most families were considered wholesome and complete, with men taking a patriarchal role while women the submissive one (Johnson...