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Engl. 105 3/14/2000 Gender Roles and Stereotypes in Trifles and Oleanna Individuals commonly address the issues of gender roles, gender stereotypes, feminism, and political correctness in everyday conversation as well as in modern literature and modern drama. Questions have arisen concerning the differences between men and women other than obvious physical variance. Are men and women inherently different? If so, are they equal? Should men and women fill different societal roles? Are potential differences a result of …

…feminist and politically correct views of today's society. Despite their differences in social commentary, both of these plays revolve around the use of stereotypes in order to reverse the dominant role from male to female. The women in Trifles act in a stereotypical manner which allows them to ultimately control the fate of a woman that would normally be controlled by men, while Carol in Oleanna abuses modern gender stereotypes in order to ruin John.