The nineteenth century saw the emergence of several prominent female literary figures, two of which included Kate Chopin and Fanny Fern. Like many other women writers, Chopin and Fern wrote about the inequality of the sexes and the inability of women to live their own lives without reliance on men; in this way, they helped pave the way for female writers of the twentieth century. Glaspell, who struggled with similar themes and concerns, inherited a rich legacy from these women. Indeed, when Susan Glaspell and her husband George Cook arrived in Greenwich Village in the middle of an artistic revival and renaissance, Glaspell began to write openly about these issues. In 1915, Cook, Glaspell and others started the Provincetown Players, a venue for American plays that where too experimental and controversial for Broadway. Female writers such as Chopin and Fern, and Glaspell’s involvement in the Provincetown Players, strongly influenced the creation of Glaspell’s play Trifles.
The end of the nineteenth century saw the emergence of many female writers which dealt with issues similar to those that would concern Glaspell. Judith Fetterley suggests that there exists "an extraordinarily rich, diverse, and interesting body of prose literature written in the nineteenth century by American women" (Introduction 1). The focus of most of this literature was on "women and their lives--or, in other words . . . they chose to write about themselves" (Fetterley, Introduction 7). Glaspell’s Trifles is typical of this focus, for the play takes place in a kitchen, the domestic sphere, and revolves around the lives of women.
Kate Chopin and Fanny Fern represent two writers who are a part of this rich history. In her works, Chopin was concerned with exploring "relationships among . . . various classes and, especially, relationships between men and women" (Skaggs 635). Chopin’s favorite theme was "the inherent conflict between the traditional requirement that a wife form her life around her husband’s and a woman’s need for discrete personhood . . ." (Skaggs 635). This is seen in her short story "The Story of an Hour," where the main character, Mrs. Mallard, first experiences a rebirth when she is told that her husband has died in a train accident but then suddenly dies at the end of the story when Mr. Mallard walks in the front door. Like Chopin, Fanny Fern was first and foremost concerned with revealing the hidden lives of women. Judith Fetterley suggests that Fern demonstrated a "willingness to articulate that women’s point of view conventionally ignored or suppressed . . ." ("Sara Willis Parton" 246). Fern’s desire to explore women’s issues that at the time were thought unconventional marked her as forerunner in women’s literature and a source of inspiration for other female writers. Indeed, the works of Chopin and Fern helped pave the way for other female writers such as Glaspell.
In addition to the influence of the female writers who came before her, the venue of the Provincetown Players served to mature Glaspell as a writer. The Players became a major artistic influence of the time, and also a major influence in Glaspell’s life, giving her a forum and voice for her ideas and introducing her to new people and new thoughts. Her husband, George Cook, also a member of the players, introduced her to new ways of thinking: "she had met Cook and was pulled into the world of socialism, a concern with women's suffrage, and a more realistic apprehension of the world around her--a new vision--which was expressed in her second novel, The Visioning (1911)" (Bigsby 6). The Players also helped Glaspell mature; Bigsby suggests that "in Susan Glaspell it [Provincetown Players] produced a writer much more accomplished than her present dwindled reputation would suggest . . ." (20). Bigsby notes that Glaspell wrote eleven of the ninety-three plays produced by the Players (20). The Provincetown Players greatly influenced Glaspell by connecting her to new people and ideas, by maturing her as a writer, and by providing her an avenue for expression.