D. Definition of Terms
Definition of Terms is used to give understanding about the meaning of some words used in this study. Besides, it functions to avoid misunderstanding
and to give a path for the readers to understand this study. There are several terms that are used in this study as follows.
1. Satire Satire can be described as “the literary art of diminishing or derogating a
subject by making it ridiculous and evoking toward it attitudes of amusement, contempt, scorn, or indignation” Abrams, 1985: 187. Holman and Harmon
define satire as “a literary manner that blends a critical attitude with humor and wit for the purpose of improving human institutions or humanity” Holman and
Harmon, 1986: 447. 2. Blunt Satire
A style of literature which uses exaggeration, representation, irony and laughter obviously aims at correcting the misbehavior of certain society, human
institution or individual by making it ridiculous in a straightforward way. 3. Male-domination
In Humm’s The Dictionary of Feminist Theory, it is stated that domination is “the power of one group or individual over another group or individual”
Humm, 1990: 55. In this study, male-domination means the power of men over women.
5
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW
A. Review of Related Studies
Bryan D. Bourn in his “A Feminist Criticism of Susan Glaspells Trifles” states that to understand Trifles, it is necessary to identify and understand the
plays two major metaphors. The first of these is the birdbird-cage metaphor. Mrs. Hale describes Minnie, before her marriage to John, as kind of like a bird
herself— real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and— fluttery. The comparison in this context is between Minnie and the bird. The bird is caged just as Minnie is
trapped in the abusive relationship with John. Other major metaphor is the quilt. The quilt represents Minnies life. Mrs. Hale sums up the womens feeling when
she replies to the county attorneys question about the quilt, saying we call it — knot
it, Mr.
Henderson, which
means to
end the
abusive http:www.hongik.edu~yhyoglaspel.html, Saturday, May 26
th
2007. Another critic, Elizabeth M. Evans concerns Susan Glaspell’s Trifles is
affected by Glaspell’s life with her husband, George Cook, who was “a practitioner of free love”, and who was difficult to live with because of his many
affairs. Besides, after they resided in Greenwich Village in New York, she was influenced by a group of friends who were intellectuals, socialists, feminists and
radicals. Glaspell herself was a founding member of Heterodoxy, a radical group of women activists who were prominent in the feminist movement of New York
in the years 1910-1920. It was within this atmosphere that Glaspell would be
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