American Theatre Book of Monologues for Men Book

As many people do, I read Trifles in school. Years later, I thought I'd revisit Susan Glaspell. I do think her writing is really worthwhile, both in the prose and the ideas but the three other plays in this collection strained my patience though the scripts are not very long. If I had to rank the plays, they would go... 1. Trifles 2. Inheritors 3. The Verge 4. The Outside

Trifles works the best because it's a fairly simple concept and the subtlety Glaspell is forced to employ because of the "mystery/detective" aspect works in the play's favor. There is no question of sympathizing with the women in Trifles.

Inheritors was frustrating because I found Felix Fejevary the second to be the most reasonable character in the play once the set up of Act I was over with. I did enjoy the characters in Act I, particularly the Grandmother. Holden began as a very uncompromising idealist and I found his willingness to adjust compelling but I don't think Glaspell did. The problem with Inheritors for me, is that she frames the moderate characters as villains who've compromised their ideals and raises up the extreme revolutionaries as angelic heroes even when they're violent and unreasonable. The arguments of the moderate characters are just brushed aside. That's fine if those are your beliefs but to me, it reflected a larger pattern in her writing. Felix is noticeably absent towards the end of the play so that other characters can step in with an undercurrent of racism/classism and an us vs. them mentality that makes the extreme position more sympathetic. It wasn't quite a strawman but it was also playing dirty from a rhetorical standpoint. If your argument is strong enough, you shouldn't need such tricks. I will say I didn't find the characters themselves as irritating...

Which is not something I could say for The Verge. Claire drove me up the wall. I wanted to go along with this play but she was monstrous and she fully admitted to it. I will say it was somewhat compelling to have this wholly unlikable female character, but for the fact that I don't think Glaspell saw her that way. She's selfish and horrible to everyone and yet espouses this blatant privileged, white feminism that maybe held more weight when this play was written but is hard to stomach now. As her sister says, I don't agree that Claire has the right to hurt please and there's no good reason for her to act this way. Then there's the tawdry soap opera aspect and they would have to cast some actress to make the audience believe all these people (especially the adoring men) would put up with this woman. Also, personally I think Glaspell undercuts all her messages with the ending she chooses.

The Outside annoyed me less than Inheritors and The Verge but it ranks the lowest because I had trouble remembering that I read this play. It's a pretty simple message. Of the four plays it seems to have the least ambition to say something. I did find the Captain annoying. I wish he would have gotten some comeuppance.