Susan Glaspell's Trifles and Sophie Treadwell's Machinal each offer their readers examples of women who feel trapped by their gender roles. Trifles" Mrs. Wright and Machinal's young woman both lead a life in which they are almost entirely dominated by someone else, and most often a man. The common gender code in which a woman submits to her husband proves to be a restrictive bond for both women. In both cases, each woman is married to a rather forceful husband. The two own similar experiences and seal their own fate in rather parallel fashions. .
Both of these two characters accepted their lives simply because that was what was expected of them. They both take place in a time in history where it was basically expected of a young woman to get married and bear and raise children, whether that was what she wanted to do with her life or not, and regardless of her own aspirations, dreams, or any other facet of her previous life. "She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir. But that-oh, that was thirty years ago" is a statement that Mrs. Peters makes about Mrs. Wright (Glaspell 20). This leads the reader to believe that Mrs. Wright was much happier before she was married to her husband and was forced to give up things that she loved to live a more domestic life. The young woman in Machinal got married to her husband because, as a woman, she did not know what else to do. There seemed to be no other options available for her. In a way, the young woman was almost a slave to her gender role. It seems that she does not really even want to get married to her boss in the first place; she just wants to do what is expected of her. "And I suppose I got to marry somebody-all girls do." (Treadwell 743).
Both of these characters also seem to honor their gender codes even when they are in trouble. For example, while Mrs. Wright was in jail after being accused of killing her husband, she requested an apron and wanted her preserves to be checked on.
