The Values of the Patriarchal Culture of the 20th Century Society in the Trivia by Susan Glasper

Susan Glasper, one of the major dramatists of the 20th century whose masterpiece “trivia” has always been considered a classic feminist drama. Although the performance of this one-act play was only half an hour, it described a thought-provoking murder case and analyzed the spiritual world of female characters from the seemingly bland narrative. The article aims to analyze and interpret “trivial matters” by applying Foucault’s discourse power, revealing how women lose their right to speak in a patriarchal society, and then how to pay attention to the men’s disappointment through the two women in the play. The trivial matter and the silent voice of the heroine subvert the authority of men and regain the right to speak and their autonomy.

The Trivia, which was created in the early 20th century, is a rare one-player drama that has been widely influenced in the history of American drama. “Trivia” reflects the values of the patriarchal culture of the society at that time. The script describes the investigation process of a cowardly case. The background of the story was fixed in a remote house on a farm. The heroine, Mrs. White, was accused of murdering her husband while her husband was asleep. Prison guards and lawyers came to the scene to find evidence. Mrs. Peterson, the wife of the police, accompanied her neighbor, Mrs. Hale. After the investigation, the prison guards and lawyers found nothing, but the ladies guessed Mrs. White’s psychology from the details, and also began to introspect their own lives. They decided to hide the evidence and shelter Mrs. White.

Glasper records the differences between men and women in a magnifying perspective and the state of women’s survival in the male-dominated society. The segregation of men and women in the stage space metaphorizes the differences between the two sexes in terms of social and political life, language, and way of thinking. It is the use of this hierarchical way that the writer demonstrates her thinking about the relationship between women and women and the rights of women.

As a representative of post-structuralism, Foucault has a profound influence on various disciplines, and his theory provides a new theoretical basis and basis for literary analysis of feminism. Foucault’s discourse on discourse and subject makes feminism aware of the existence of internal complexity, external complexity and the importance of competing for discourse. This thesis aims to analyze and interpret the “trivia” by applying Foucault’s theories, revealing how women lose their right to speak in the patriarchal society, become “aphasia”, and finally fall to the tragic fate of the people. Then through discourse to expose the limitations of male information exchange and the advantages of female emotional exchange, the two women in the drama subvert the male authority by paying attention to the “trivial things” that men do not care about and the silent voice of the heroine. And regain the right to speak and their autonomy.

“Discourse” is an unusually ambiguous concept in Foucault’s philosophy. Foucault himself has never made any clear definition of this. From an extension point of view, the concept of “discourse” has broad and narrow meanings. Broadly speaking, “all forms and categories of cultural life” are “discourses”. The narrow “discourse” is close to the “form of language.” Foucault believes that discourse is the result of the interweaving of “knowledge will” and “will to power.” Foucault believes that the seemingly respected “discourse” on its surface also conceals the fear of a deep dialogue. The control, imprisonment and obstruction of dialogue are the embodiment of this discourse phobia. This civilized society’s attitude towards discourse, the violent, dangerous, chaotic and militant fear of dialogue, constitutes the starting point of Foucault’s research discourse, that is, power determines the right to speak. Foucault’s discourse on discourse has caused a lot of controversy in society, but it also provides a way for feminism to rebuild women’s subjects, enabling women to become a product of new discourse and knowledge structure.

The “disadvantage” of women’s discourse power under hegemony

Male discourse power, as the name suggests, means that the power of discourse is controlled and dominated by men. The hegemony of male discourse is reflected in the overwhelming control and oppression of men versus women. Men in the early 20th century enjoyed absolute control in society. Their contempt and suppression of women were indisputable social phenomena. This phenomenon also promoted the development of tragedies in Trivia. In the short play, Glasper uses both language and behavior to demonstrate the status of inequality between men and women, revealing the superiority of men to women. Men who have mastered the right to speak not only construct their grammatical rules and language systems, but also instill and strengthen the cultural values behind them, so that women are both materialized and tortured in the process of pursuing themselves. The struggle to lose the right to speak and express is very painful but there is nowhere to vent. Women’s resistance and subversion to the patriarchal society often end in tragedy such as madness and death, and eventually become the funeral objects of society. This not only causes women’s own tragedy, but also makes other women in society have a fearful thinking, which in turn strengthens The hegemonic position of men in society. The ridicule and neglect of the male characters’ discourse in the “trivia” and the end of the tragedy of Mrs. White fully reflect the society’s discrimination and disregard of women, and the suppression and disregard of female discourse.

At the beginning of the 20th century, female identity was confirmed by the males to which they belonged. The title of all women in the short play was defined by the male surname. Through the memories of Mrs. Hale’s later, we can find the changes of Mrs. White-Minnie White before and after the marriage. Before marriage, Minnie was a lively and open-minded woman. After marriage, in order to cater to the social and cultural ethics, and the male superiority to obey the male social concept, she was forced to close herself until she was completely lost. This practice of obliterating women’s personal thoughts and eliminating differences reflects the widespread neglect and prejudice against women in the patriarchal society.

Women’s loss of self-awareness is focused on emphasizing the loss of women’s “self”. In the opening remarks of the script, the man’s first appearance runs counter to the “women’s priority” principle advocated by that era. The first act of this stage clarifies the true dominant position between men and women. The indifference of the men seems to have insinuated the existence of men’s presence on the ladies. The role of the three men in the crime scene was the accident investigator, who was responsible for finding the motive for the crime. They were unquestionably responsible for the main role at the scene of the crime. When a woman appears, she is a vulnerable group and a neglected object. Their words have been neglected. In the eyes of men, women are ignorant and weak. They are just the “followers” of the husbands, who have been left in the kitchen during the “investigators” survey and are free to talk after they leave. Not only did they lose the right to freely talk, but they were also accused and despised.

As a suspect, Minnie, after she got married, to give up her husband and social customs, gave up everything she originally belonged to and gave up her self. Minnie seems to have married a powerful, socially-sexual man, but the price paid for it is the “rights” of the self, until the loss of the right to speak. She lost the opportunity to communicate and communicate with the outside world, from a lively, energetic, hopeful girl to a housewife who lost her depression and lost her status.

Therefore, whether Mrs. White or Mrs. Hale or Mrs. Peterson, the role played in the play is no self or a depressed self. More wives in the patriarchal society chose to remain silent, give up their sense of self and independent personality, and eventually became a male accessory. Third, the “de” of female discourse power after the dissolution of hegemony.

Male discourse power is an important manifestation of patriarchy and a force for oppressing women. And if women are to be completely independent, they must break this power. “Trivia” seeks to subvert the ideology of positive centralism, thus freeing its bondage to women. First, Glasper used the irony strategy to subvert the myth of male absolute subject. Judging from the type of short play, “Trivia” is a one-act play. From the opening to the end, there is only one scene. The ups and downs of the plot happen in the kitchen. Even the important material evidence of the case is found in the kitchen. . Second, the characters on the stage are mainly women. The male characters are only the “helping thrust” for the development of the plot on the stage, which makes the males marginalized and secondary. In addition, the most important point is that the final secret disclosure and exposure is a female rather than a professional male “investigator”. The male neglect of the female world leads to their blindness to some truths. Women’s hiding of evidence is a punishment for them, and it also reflects their desire for self-destination control and contempt for patriarchal social law.

The return of female identity is mainly reflected in: First, the recognition of self-identity, female characters began to appear as an independent individual subject. For example, Mrs. Peterson awakens herself. At the beginning, Mrs. Peterson was only a subsidiary of her husband to a certain extent. Her words and deeds were more representative of Peterson’s position and point of view. Mrs. Hale step by step guides Mrs. Peterson to discover herself and discover the truth of the facts. Mrs. Peterson’s self-identity is gradually waking up. Although, from the beginning to the end, both of them just called each other’s wife and did not reveal their real name. But when the lawyer and the sheriff taunted the two again, the two gave a counterattack. Moreover, when two people work together to keep secrets, they also reflect their recognition and affirmation of self-identity. The return of Minnie’s self-identity is one. With the death of Mr. White, Minnie is no longer the role of Mrs. White, but returns to the self. The other is a retelling of Minnie’s role through Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peterson. As the investigations gradually deepened, Minnie’s identity was gradually highlighted and deepened, and she finally got rid of the role of Mrs. White. The bondage has returned to the self. Most importantly, herself is recognized and protected by her.

During the investigation, the playwright Glasper deliberately arranged the two camps facing the two men and women. In the men’s camp, the men have been busy, looking for evidence of crimes from various locations to crack the motive of the crime: and in the women’s camp, they are waiting for the rest, the still wife. Such a move and a quiet form a sharp contrast. From the beginning of the plot, Mrs. Hale showed an independent female consciousness, and her speech was very active and positive. When the prosecutor Peterson walked into the messy kitchen and dismissed it with disdain, she immediately defended the woman’s work sensitively. This statement was instinctively justified, showing a strong sense of opposition and self-preservation. And the wife of the Sheriff’s wife, Peterson, is weaker and more obedient than Mrs. Hale. The expression of her own opinion is more of her husband’s point of view, and therefore gives Mrs. Hale a rebuttal.

Mrs. Hale understood the pains of Mr. White and Mrs. White, and vividly told these things to Mrs. Peterson. She even subtly influenced Mrs. Peterson, who was higher than her. At first, as the wife of the sheriff, Mrs. Peterson resorted to her husband’s male perspective and tone. It can be seen that although Mrs. Peterson sympathizes with the situation of Mrs. White, she believes that the law is above all else. However, Mrs. Hale’s description of Mrs. White’s tragic life made Mrs. Peterson see her situation. She finally understood that she was only a man’s accessory and eventually re-recognized herself and returned to herself.

While Minnie is lively, but because of the changes in her married life, family life has become dull and lifeless, and her own inner heart and reality have also produced great conflicts. Minnie has tried to balance the conflict between the self and the reality, trying to pin my love and enthusiasm for life on the bird and get a temporary peace of mind. However, this compromise and concession lost its fulcrum after the canary was killed. The “self” eventually lost its sense, and Minnie fell into a collapse, and then used revenge to strangle the cruel husband in the same way, ending the long-standing confrontation. And oppression, but it has become a victim of this era.

As a pioneering work of female short dramas, “Trivia”, although there is no political history narrative of Hongdae, shows the importance of women’s issues that cannot be ignored. Through the description and behavior of the inner world of the wives in the short play, women’s resistance to the male-dominated society is reflected. In the early stage, women lost the right to speak to the society and the patriarchal constitution and concede. However, with the development of society, the various negative and unscientific consequences and contradictions brought about by the patriarchal society and male hegemonic locks have intensified. Women challenge the patriarchal society to women by group, initiative and practical actions. Sex discrimination and neglect of women’s identity and status lead to “discourse power”. The “loss” of women’s right to speak has triggered women’s thinking about their social status and self-identity. It is also this extreme phenomenon that makes women realize the importance of “discourse power”. The “missing” discourse power promotes the pace of women’s “winning” discourse power to a certain extent, and thus reaches the awakening of the revolutionary consciousness of the female group, thus issuing a woman’s self-rescue declaration – a woman’s positive self-property consciousness is the true fate of women dominate.