Extract: Domestic Violence Essay

Domestic violence reflected in the abused characters of the plays: “Two Can Play” by Trevor Rhone and “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell

Domestic violence and abuse is not due to the abuser’s loss of control over his or her behavior, it’s a deliberate choice made by the abuser in order to control you (Smith & Segal , 2011). Physical abuse is the use of physical force against another person in a way that ends up injuring the person, or puts the person at risk of being injured. Verbal or nonverbal abuse is more of a psychological, mental and emotional abuse and may include threatening or intimidating to gain compliance, destruction of the victim’s personal property and possessions and other. (Benedictis, Jaffe, & Segal, 2006). Although the different types of domestic violence, verbal or nonverbal abuse can be much more emotionally damaging, as you can see in the abused characters of the readings: “Two Can Play” and “Trifles”.

Information of Domestic Violence

In Susan Glaspell’s play “Trifles”, someone murdered Mr. Wright, and that someone might have been his wife, the central figure of the play, Mrs. Wright. We can extract signs from the play that show that Mrs. Wright was abused with nonverbal actions, in other words, she was under psychological, mental and emotional abuse. After their wedding, Mrs. Wright was emotionally abused by being isolated from friends and family in a place that Mrs. Hale described as: “It never seemed a very cheerful place”(Glaspell, 1916). At the heart of her loneliness laid the abusive and tyrannical behavior of Mr. Wright.

In Trevor Rhone’s play “Two Can Play”, Gloria is abused in various ways. In her case, there’s physical and psychological abuse from her husband Jim. There is verbal and nonverbal abuse, for example when Jim screams at her and blames her for how he acts or feels. She is also economically abused because Jim withholds economic resources from her, and you can notice it when she says: “Jim, I haven’t spent a penny on myself in twenty years” (Rhone, 1984).

In conclusion, domestic violence isn’t simply a person physically hurting another. It implicates a lot more things like, psychological, mental and emotional abuses. Furthermore, these types of abuse are more damaging than physical abuse.