1.Unstable situation:
The story begins in the home of the Wright family. Mr. Hale, a nearby neighbor came looking for Mr. Wright, but to his surprise, Mr. Wright has been killed. After, Mrs. Wright is accused of murdering her husband at his sleep. Fellow neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Hale come over along with towns attorney, Mr. Henderson, Sheriff Peters and his wife, Mrs. Peters. While the men snoop around the house looking for further evidence to convict Mrs. Wright, the women stay behind in the kitchen. Glaspell, the author, integrates early feminism as a major theme in the story. Often women were considered as simply house hold items, nothing more than an extra pair of hands around the house and their thoughts were irrelevant to the matter.
…show more content…
By showing how two women bonded by acknowledgement of the truth, she shows how society considers women to be unimportant and often to follow a certain role in their lives, thus letting men dominate what they can or can’t do.
7.Climax:
Once the women investigate on their own by looking at all the little things, they find the dead bird in a nice, little box. With the box symbolizing how Mrs. Wright might had seemed normal on the outside, when in reality, she was already gone in the inside. With no immediate action of the women and interruptions of the men, it leaves the audience with a sense of suspense and mystery, for will they share what they know, or will they stand together, as they should, to show resilience from men and society, despite the law.
8.Title Effectiveness:
Trifles by definition, means all the little things. The men throughout the story, often disregarded the little things that would eventually solve the mystery. Glaspell, using the title, “Trifles,” she tried to show a story with a name meaning little things, such as women were considered at the time. Women were left with often living unhappy lives due to the social norms of society of the time and the bigotry of men at the time such as portrayed by three men. Also, while the
Hale and Mrs. Peters find a dead canary and a broken bird cage, it becomes obvious that Mr. Wright was an aggressive and controlling husband. Mrs. Hale states, “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird- a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too” (1012). The canary represents Minnie Foster. Before she married Mr. Wright, she was a joyful girl who sang in the church choir. After her and Mr. Wright get married, she is forced to stop singing and is stripped of her happiness. The broken cage represents Mr. and Mrs. Wright’s controlling marriage. The bird cage is violently broken to represent how Mrs. Wright violently escaped her marriage. The women’s discoveries cause Mrs. Peters to sympathize with Mrs. Wright. Ultimately, Mrs. Peters decides to stand up for what she believes.
The setting of both stories reinforces the notion of women's dependence on men. The late 1800's were a turbulent time for women's roles. The turn of the century
The title, Trifles, as well as the examples all represent how men view women. A "trifle" is something
While talking, the women find a fancy box belonging Mrs. Wright. Inside the box, is what they believe to be Mrs. Wright’s dead pet bird. They realize that “somebody – wrung – its – neck” (1172) Remembering a similar incident in her life, Mrs. Peters says, “When I was a girl – my kitten –there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes, ..If they hadn’t held me back I would have hurt him.” (1172) They place the dead bird back in the box, and then, surprisingly, they hide the box. You can almost see what’s going on in the mind of these two women as they must be imagining poor Mrs. Wright, horrified that her awful husband killed her bird, then she must have snapped and strangled him to end her own suffering.
In the early 1900’s, both males and females were perceived as complete opposites of eachother. Women were considered physically weaker and morally superior to men. The gender roles during this time period were clearly demonstrated in the play “Trifles”, by Susan Glaspell. At a first glance it may seem like the play is only about the death of Mr. Wright. The play could simply be interpreted that the characters all work together to determine the murderer of Mr. Wright. The initial perception overlooks how the women were treated during this time period. The men conclude that the women are incapable of finding the murderer of Mr. Wright only because they are female. Similarly, Mr. Wright does not think twice about how poorly he treats his wife
As the ladies examine the house, while the men are other places, picking clothes and an apron up for Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Hale gains sympathy for her until finally she starts to take action. When they find the block of quilting that has stitching askew, she starts to fix it, perhaps to cover for Mrs. Wright?s distraught state of mind. While Mrs. Hale is finding sympathy for Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Peters offers a counterpoint that tries to justifies the men?s viewpoints and actions. Her comments to Mrs. Hale?s resentful musings on Mrs. Wright?s unhappy life and on the actions of men in regards to women in general all seem to be rote answers programmed into her by society and a desire not to cause any trouble. This all changes as soon as Mrs. Peters finds the bird.
The title, Trifles, suggests that the story is mainly focused on insignificant events or conversations. As the play proceeds, one can be amused by the satirical unfolding of events. Trifles a short story about the murder of Minnie Wright’s husband,
Finally, the reader is introduced to the character around whom the story is centered, the accursed murderess, Mrs. Wright. She is depicted to be a person of great life and vitality in her younger years, yet her life as Mrs. Wright is portrayed as one of grim sameness, maintaining a humorless daily grind, devoid of life as one regards it in a normal social sense. Although it is clear to the reader that Mrs. Wright is indeed the culprit, she is portrayed sympathetically because of that very lack of normalcy in her daily routine. Where she was once a girl of fun and laughter, it is clear that over the years she has been forced into a reclusive shell by a marriage to a man who has been singularly oppressive. It is equally clear that she finally was brought to her personal breaking point, dealing with her situation in a manner that was at once final and yet inconclusive, depending on the outcome of the legal investigation. It is notable that regardless of the outcome, Mrs. Wright had finally realized a state of peace within herself, a state which had been denied her for the duration of her relationship with the deceased.
The theme of the story concentrates on women's suffrage. Mrs. Wright apparently has been pushed over the edge with the restrictions set on her life and one day she finally snaps. This implicit theme suggest
Glaspell develops the theme of gender roles by what Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters fret about at the crime scene. For instance, the first concern that Mrs. Peters voices revolves around Mrs. Wright’s fruit preserves and implies that the women are housekeepers. Both the Sheriff and Mr. Hale remark about how the women are “worryin’ about her preserves” and “worrying over trifles” (Glaspell 3). Later, when the men go upstairs to look for evidence, the women decide to bring Mrs. Wright’s apron, fruit, shawl, and quilt for her in prison. To further establish Mrs. Wright as a domesticated housewife, Mrs. Peters suggests that Mrs. Wright wants her apron “to make her feel more natural” (Glaspell 5). Because of what Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters discuss at the crime scene, Glaspell verifies that the women play the role of housekeeper and cook.
The women empower themselves through silence, particularly in the kitchen communicating and reflecting upon things around them in the limited space they were given. The men dismiss the kitchen finding nothing that is relevant to the murder case. The men keep crisscrossing through the kitchen, ignoring and not realizing they could find the vital evidence through trivial details. Even though they were having difficulty in finding clues that lead to the murder. While the women were alone looking through Minnie’s kitchen they found the most valuable evidence the “missing piece to men’s puzzle” (Holstein 283). Mrs. Hale found the dead bird strangled in the sewing box telling “Mrs. Peters-look at it! Its neck! Look at its neck!” (782). Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters recognize the bird was strangled brutally “their eyes meet. A look of growing comprehension, of horror” (Glaspell 782). Both of them realized the bird was killed the same way as Mr. Wright with the rope around their neck. The strangled bird represents Minnie Foster how her freedom and joy was strangled to death. When the men came in the kitchen, the county attorney noticed the bird cage, wondering if the bird flew away, but Mrs. Hale lied and said “we think the- cat got it” ( Glaspell 782). The county attorney seek only visible evidence for murder he was wasn’t thinking critically what it may mean. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters covered the evidence keeping it between themselves for their own knowledge. They
The play Trifles takes place in a rural area and centers around a woman, Mrs. Wright, who has been accused of killing her husband by strangling him. The act starts off in Mr. and Mrs. Wright’s home on a cold, winter morning the day after Mr. Wright’s body was discovered by the neighbor; the county attorney, the sheriff and his wife and the neighboring farmer and his wife are all inside the
Trifles is about how women come together during a time when they were treated with disrespect by the beliefs of men. The plot of Trifles begins with the audience being introduced to the characters in the play as well as the setting in which all of the major events of this one-scene drama play. The setting begins in a farmhouse that appears to be abandoned. The author Susan Glaspell based this play on her personal experience of visiting the same kitchen that Margaret Hossack is being accused of killing her husband. Although, Trifles is being portrayed as a murder mystery the scene of the crimes plays out in the kitchen of the abandoned farmhouse.
While searching a cupboard for some sewing supplies to fix a poorly sewn quilt, Mrs. Hale finds a birdcage tucked away inside of it. The birdcage that Mrs. Hale finds is the most symbolic object that reveals the motive for the crime. A birdcage can be symbol of confinement or imprisonment. Mrs. Hale says, “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird—a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too” (781). Mrs. Hale compares Mrs. Wright to a bird in the sense that birds sing but Mr. Wright does not want her