As promised, here are some paper prompts for both The Glass Menagerie and Trifles.  Some of these prompts are individual to one author or the other, and some ask for an argument that synthesizes readings of the two plays. As I noted before, I have benefited from the advice of my friend and co-teacher, Tiffany Gilmore. The paper prompts below were written variously by Tiffany or by me.

• Modern plays, and Tennessee Williams’ in particular, are often intensely dialogue-driven and often include minimal stage directions and sets.  Consider how either stage directions or props help develop the theme(s) of one of the plays we read.  You may not choose the glass menagerie as a prop to develop the theme for dreams/fantasy/illusions.  However, all other props are available: the father’s portrait, the victrola, the furniture, etc.  You may use multiple props within one argument but your essay should not list an analysis of several props (the furniture represents this….. the photos on the wall represent this….the clothing represents this….) Avoid the obvious: “the shabby apartment , furnishings and clothing represents the poverty of the Wingfield family.”
• Trifles is about small things which “say” a lot, what do we learn about the other characters, the plot, or something else through these small things which are overlooked by the male characters?  Stage directions focus the attention on the character/actor’s movements.  How is a character developed through their movements in or relationship to the physical space of the set?  How is a particular theme developed through stage directions that we could not get through dialogue alone?
  
• Compare and contrasts the images of the sets for Trifles and The Glass Menagerie. Why do you think that these sets are so sparse? How does that sparseness do signifying work in the plays? How does the physical space of modern theater affect the way that you judge Tom and Mrs. Wright?
  
• Does Glaspell seem to think that justice has been achieved by the end of Trifles?  Whether or not you think Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were right for hiding the evidence from the men, how does the play make you want to see it one way or another?  You might consider how the plot develops, the stage directions impact our understanding of central conflicts in the play, or certain items seem loaded with symbolic meaning.  How do these literary devices make the reader consider justice from a certain point of view? 
  

And this final paper prompt is one that I liked a lot--but it's putting The Glass Menagerie into dialogue with Shakespeare instead of with Glaspell. Even though it's a bit off-topic, I thought I would share it with you!

• Compare and contrast the theme of dreams in the two plays we read in our class, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Glass Menagerie.  How does reading the two texts together give you insight into the kind of statement about dreams that one of the plays is making? We spoke at length about how the dreamers in The Glass Menagerie can seem to be both courageous and selfish—and how the play presents dreams as either necessary or dangerous.  Does that discussion of dreams affect how you think about the types of dreamers in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, whom Theseus helpfully lists as lovers, madmen, and poets?  Alternatively, does thinking about the ambiguity regarding whether or not the dreamers in the forest outside of Athens learn from their journey help you to conceptualize whether or not Tom has learned anything as he presents his memory play to us?

Susan Glaspell's one-act play is a fantastic play to teach. It's not only short, so you don't have to devote a huge chunk of your syllabus to it, but also rich with symbolism and provocative in its assertions about justice and gender. Students usually end up have so much to say about the play.

Before I dive into anything, I want to share a heart warming anecdote from my experience teaching this play. After the final exam, one of my male students hung back to talk to me as I was collecting the exams and saying goodbye. He had a story that he wanted to tell me that he had been too embarrassed to share up until that moment. 

When he was studying for the exam, some friends of his drove to Davis from San Francisco to surprise him. He told them that he couldn't really hang out because he was studying for his English final, so they inquired about the material. When he told them that he was reviewing a play, they proposed that they act out the play together to help him study. So, they had a few beers together, and proceeded to stage an impromptu, private performance of Trifles.

If that wasn't adorably dorky enough--apparently, they got REALLY into it, and by the end of the play, all three boys were in tears thinking about poor Mrs. Wright and what she must have been going through to have gotten to the point where she snapped and killed her abusive husband. They were so worried about her and whether she would have to face consequences that her husband would never have had to face.

!!!!!

How amazing is it that three young men (hopefully all 21 by this time since they were probably also pretty drunk) spent their weekend together bonding over Trifles and thinking deeply about the ways that the justice system can be skewed toward the people who are already in power? God, being a teacher is the best job ever. That student, by the way, aced his final exam.

Onward to teaching strategies!
So this is another installment of "My Smart Friends," because I have lots of ideas to share with you that come from my friend Tiffany Gilmore, who is a general bad-ass. She is wicked-smart, hilarious, and generous; and she runs the full gamut between irreverently dirty-minded and pristinely proper--the type of lady who could make men blush at a hockey game and then turn around and whip up pistachio macarons that cause Martha Stewart to feel a deep sense of shame because she's been doing wrong all these years.

The image above is one that Tiffany recommend to me, which you can find on the website for the Susan Glaspell Society. That site, by the way, is a treasure for information about Glaspell and criticism on her works. The photograph is from the first performance of the play, and Tiffany uses it as a spring board into discussion about the play itself. Here's what she has to say about the activity:

Tiffany also has a paper prompt that puts Trifles in dialogue with Williams' The Glass Menagerie, which I will share in a future post.

Tiffany recommends also starting with an in-class writing prompt for the first 10 minutes of class: are the women justified in hiding their findings from the men, why or why not? This generates a really good discussion on justice, versus morality etc. 

Both Tiffany and I have had the experience that each term some students are adamant that withholding information is absolutely illegal because someone was murdered and some think that--while not exactly legal-- it is at least understandable because Mrs. Wright was at the very least emotionally abused, and her alibi is so weak, that she will probably be found guilty anyway.

I like to hold a mock trial for Mrs. Wright, using as "evidence" passages from the play itself--this is good for their papers because students start gathering textual evidence immediately. I divide the classroom into two: a prosecution side that argues for the charge of first degree murder with a death penalty sentence and a defense side that can either argue for innocence ("not guilty by reason of insanity") or for a lesser crime like manslaughter. I usually act as judge, but it could be cool to assign an actual jury in the classroom along with a student judge.

My activity differs from Tiffany's because she's asking students to judge Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale whereas I am asking students to judge Mrs. Wright. We might then go to the next logical step and ask students to consider if there is anyone or anything else that we could or perhaps should be judging. Who or what is really on trial in this play?