Susan Glaspells Trifles - Overview of the History of Censorship - Essay Example

? Censorship of Books in the United s and Susan Glaspell’s Trifles Overview of the History of Censorship in the United States Books and other forms of literature are banned for several reasons, but mainly because the material is considered “sexually explicit,” it contains “offensive language,” and that it is “unsuited to any age group” (“About Banned & Challenged Books”). The banning of the books in the United States of America unofficially began in 1749 with John Cleland’s Fanny Hill was condemned for its “frank sexual descriptions” (“The Online Books Page”). At that time, there was no clear law yet that banned books and other forms of written materials. However, in 1873, the 1873 Comstock Act was made into law by the federal and state governments. It called for the banning of all literature considered “sexually arousing” as well as those about contraception (“Book Censorship”). The author of the act, Anthony Comstock, was appointed leader of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice and helped in the banning of foreign literature during his time, such as Chaucher’s The Canterbury Tales, Defoe’s Moll Flanders, Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, several editions of The Arabian Nights, and Boccaccio’s Decameron (“The Online Books Page”). After the 1873 Comstock Act, the law was modified into many other various laws that banned literature. This led to the banning of Margaret Sanger’s Family Limitation in 1915, James Joyce’s Ulysses in 1918, anti-war pamphlets in 1919, Rousseau’s Confessions in 1929, Voltaire’s Candide in 1930, Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience in 1950, John T. Scopes’ Civic Biology, Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind in 1978, the Grimm’s Fairy Tales in 1989, and even the Christian Bible in 1996 (“The Online Books Page”). Books were banned in schools and the banning was supported by teachers, parents, churches and even civic groups, all with various agenda. Among the works banned in America during the early 20th century were those of Susan Glaspell. Biography of Susan Glaspell Susan Glaspell is considered as “the mother of modern American drama” (Real i). Moreover, according to Rohe, Glaspell is known as “the spirit and he mind and the soul of the real America of to-day, expressed in literature” (qtd. in Real i). Glaspell was born in Davenport, Iowa in 1876 and grew up there until she graduated from college in Des Moines and eventually landed a job in the Des Moines paper, where she was assigned the task of writing about the murder trial of a certain John Hossack in 1900. This murder trial became the basis of her 1916 one-act play Trifles. Overall, Glaspell authored 14 plays, 9 novels and 3 short story collections (Gainor & Dickey 35). Susan Glaspell was born and became a playwright, journalist, poet and novelist during the era of literature known as modernism, a movement where irony and satire were used to express governmental or social criticism. Glaspell’s hometown, Davenport, was extremely instrumental in making her one of the most controversial and critical writers of her time. In fact, Davenport is described as “a community more conducive than many other Midwestern locales to fostering creativity and progressive thought” (35). This is something which is characteristic of modernism. A huge part of modernism was the vindication of women’s rights, which was still an issue during Glaspell’s time. In fact, her first profession was journalism as it was, according to Glaspell herself, “comparatively receptive to women” (35). By 1915, Glaspell and her husband George Cram Cook – a classics professor, itinerant farmer and poet/novelist – left Davenport because of its increasing conservativeness and conventionality, and headed for the more radical environs of Greenwich Village. This occurred at exactly the same time that artists, intellectuals, bohemians and political activists also began seeking their own place as they all began embracing modernism (35-36). Glaspell and her husband depended on royalties they have earned from her short stories and novels. Her husband’s death brought her to an affair with a young writer named Norman H. Matson. Shortly after this, she was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1931. However, Glaspell struggled with alcoholism and failing health in the 1930s as productivity was low and the Great Depression has set in. in the 1940s, critics have lost their taste for Glaspell’s work. It was also the time that she passed away – 1948 in Provincetown, Massachusetts (Ozieblo 255-265). Glaspell’s play Trifles is considered her “best-known drama” (35), but underwent censorship after its publication. In fact, all her 14 plays “reflect both stylistically and topically the stresses endemic to an era of upheaval and redefinition” (35). Furthermore, through these plays, Glaspell was able to successfully represent the struggles of the community in which she lived. The Censorship of Susan Glaspell’s Trifles The one-act play Trifles was all about Glaspell’s “deep engagement with feminist issues and with other women’s activism” (39). Although there was no exact mention that Trifles was censored, one of her short stories entitled “Finality in Freeport” was banned by the Davenport Public Library but the ban was repealed through the efforts of the Ethical Society of Davenport, a group of socialists who were peers of Glaspell’s husband. The main reason for the banning of the book is that “in it [Glaspell] pokes fun at the conservatism of the community as well as the righteous indignation of the opposition, including herself” (“Finality in Freeport”). Aside from this, there were no other details except some inkling of political machinations, which was suggested by Glaspell herself (“Finality in Freeport). Nevertheless, in the play Trifles, where he character Minnie Wright was accused of killing her husband, the idea of women who kill men somehow “[challenged] societal constructs of femininity – passivity, restraint, and nurture” (Ben-Zvi 141). Thus, the play, although not stated by any available information, may have been banned by the Davenport Public Library, especially since the latter was in the midst of a conservative community (“Finality in Freeport”). The reason is perhaps the fear of the male-dominated conservative society that females would soon rise up in power and subdue the males by gradually becoming assertive of their rights. Moreover, another reason why Trifles may have been banned was that the male characters in the play – Hale, the County Attorney, and the Sheriff – are actually portrayed as stupid for they did not exactly know that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have already discovered the ultimate evidence to the crime – the bird with “it’s neck…all to the other side” (Glaspell). With this evidence hidden from the men, especially from the Sheriff and the County Attorney, the weight of evidence against Minnie Wright would somehow be reduced. This is female connivance against the men at its best, and a picture of betrayal, especially since Mrs. Hale, who was Hale’s wife, did not even take her husband side and instead chose to hide the evidence from him. Such scenes in the play display female dominance, male stupidity, a wife’s betrayal, and an overall violation of the law through the concealment of evidence. During the time of Glaspell, these would constitute enough evidence for the censorship of the play. Bottom of Form Works Cited “About Banned & Challenged Books.” 2012. American Library Association. 30 Jun. 2012. Ben-Zvi, Linda. “Murder, She Wrote: The Genesis of Susan Glaspell’s Trifles.” Theatre Journal 44 (2):141-162. The Johns Hopkins University Press. Print. “Book Censorship.” 2010. U.S. Legal.com. 30 Jun. 2012. “Finality in Freeport by Susan Glaspell.” 2009. Quadsville Bookworms. 1 Jul. 2012. Gainor, J. Ellen & Dickey, J. “Susan Glaspell and Sophie Treadwell: Staging Feminism and Modernism, 1915-1941.” A Companion to Twentieth-Century American Drama. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005. Print. Glaspell, Susan. Trifles. Print. Ozieblo, Barbara. Susan Glaspell: A Critical Biography. NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Print. Real, Noelia Hernando. “Staging the Power of Place: Geopathology in Susan Glaspell’s Theatre.” Susan Glaspell: A Critical Biography. Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, 2007. Print. “The Online Books Page.” n.d. University of Pennsylvania. 28 Jun. 2012. Read More