The play, Trifles, is about Mrs. Wright’s murder, while Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters figure out the reasoning and who committed the crime. The short story, “A Jury of Her Peers” is the same story but retold in a different fashion. This change in storytelling creates changes to the story by using thoughts and narration more often than only using conversation and action. The changes between Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and “A Jury of Her Peers” are shown by the changes in the opening, the characterization, and the descriptions of the stories.
To begin, the opening of the short story differs a lot from the play. The location in the opening is different between the play and the short story. In Trifles, the scene is set in “the now abandoned farmhouse
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Mrs. Hale, like other characters in the story, did not have her first name mentioned and was only referred by her last name. The play mentions that Mrs. Wright leaving her things out was familiar to Mrs. Hale, but no detail was given about that. The closest the reader get to understanding that is when Mrs. Hale mentions that she does not like leaving things unfinished when she redoes Mrs. Wright’s sewing. Because thoughts are harder to show in plays, it does not appear that Mrs. Hale has any worry about what Mr. Hale will say while he recounts what he saw. The short story improves the characterization of Mrs. Hale by showing more backstory and thoughts. Mrs. Hale is called Martha Hale multiple times during the story, which is more description of her character. The opening of the story begins with Mrs. Hale rushing out of the house to avoid having people wait on her. While this happens, she leaves her sugar half sifted, which would further explain the familiar feeling that Mrs. Hale has when she saw the bread sitting out and the men talked bad about the kitchen being left uncleaned. This bit of detail gives the reader a better understanding of why Mrs. Hale feels for Mrs. Wright and wants to help her. Additionally, Mrs. Peters has a few smaller detail changes compared to the changes Mrs. Hale had. Trifles was shorter and did not focus on characterization as much as the …show more content…
The house had a few minor details that were different between the play and the short story. The play describes the house as being a lonely place. There are descriptions of the items in the kitchen and the display of things that are left out. The short story gives some more details to describe the house. The house has more descriptions of how it is lonely. There is more emphasis on it being at the end of a lonely road with lonesome trees in the yard. The actions and thoughts are portrayed differently between the short story and the play. In Trifles, actions are used commonly, because speech and actions are the only ways to portray something. Thoughts are only able to be shown through a character’s dialogue or actions. Which goes into the descriptions given while trying to hide the canary. The actions are quick and are used to show how Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are thinking. The actions and thoughts are represented differently throughout “A Jury of Her Peers”. There are many details throughout the story that would be difficult to portray in actions, therefore these thoughts are unique to the short story. Using thoughts in the story allows Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters emotions to be show more while they are discussing what they find and while attempting to hide the canary. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Wright have many details throughout the story because they are a major focus of the story. In
“A jury of her Peers” and Trifles are works of literature. In these works, they depict the murder of Mr. Wright. The men accuse Mrs. Wright to the murder of her husband, however are they are trying to find evidence to prove this. Both works are loosely based on the murder of John Hossack, which Glaspell reported on while working as a news journalist for the Des Moines Daily News. Hossack's wife, Margaret, was accused of killing her husband. However, Margaret argued that an intruder had killed John with an axe. She was convicted but it was overturned on appeal. In the play Trifles and the short story “A Jury of her Peers”, Susan Glaspell conveys how she transforms the play to the short story by change in the plot, the characters, and the themes of Female vs men and freedom
The play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is type of murder mystery that takes place in the early 1900’s. The play begins when the sheriff Mr. Peters and county attorney Mr. Henderson come to attempt to piece together what had happen on the day that Mr. Wright was murder. While investigating the seen of the murder, they are accompanied by the Mr. Hale, Mrs. Hale and Mr. Peters. Mr. Hale had told that Mrs. Wright was acting strange when he found her in the kitchen. After taking information from Mr. Hale, the men leave the women in the kitchen and go upstairs at seen of the murder. The men don’t realize the plot of the murder took place in the kitchen.
Although “A Jury of Her Peers” and “Trifles” are similar in plot, Mustazza’s article, “Generic Translation and Thematic Shift in Susan Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’ and ‘A Jury of Her Peers’” highlights the differences and similarities between the two. Mustazza’s article may help aid readers to understand the differences between Glaspell’s two works and provide understanding as to why Glaspell may have changed the genre and form of the plot. “Trifles” is a dramatic play whereas “A Jury of Her Peers” is prose fiction. While some differences may be seen on the surface, other differences will need to be inspected closely. Mustazza’s article may help one to understand Glaspell’s works by providing analysis and additional perspectives on both “A Jury of her Peers” and “Trifles”.
As the women walk through the house, they begin to get a feel for what Mrs. Wright’s life is like. They notice things like the limited kitchen space, the broken stove, and the broken jars of fruit and begin to realize the day-to-day struggles that Mrs. Wright endured. The entire house has a solemn, depressing atmosphere. Mrs. Hale regretfully comments that, for this reason and the fact that Mr. Wright is a difficult man to be around, she never came to visit her old friend, Mrs. Wright.
Susan Glaspell's play Trifles explores male-female relationships through the murder investigation of the character of Mr. Wright. It also talks about the stereotypes that women faced. The play takes place in Wright's country farmhouse as the men of the play, the county attorney, the sheriff, and Mr. Hale, search for evidence as to the identity and, most importantly, the motive of the murderer. The attorney, with the intensions of proving that Mrs. Wright choked the husband to death, was interviewing Mr. Hale on what he saw when he came in to the house. The women, on the other hand, were just there to get some clothing for the wife who was in jail for suspected murder of her husband. However, the clues which would lead them to the answer
One critic, Leonard Mustazza, argues that Mrs. Hale recruits Mrs. Peters “as a fellow ‘juror’ in the case, moving the sheriff’s wife away from her sympathy for her husband’s position and towards identification with the accused woman” (494). Though this is true, Mrs. Peters also comes to her own understanding. What she sees in the kitchen led her to understand Minnie’s lonely plight as the wife of an abusive farmer. The first evidence Mrs. Peters reaches understanding on her own surfaces in the following passage: “The sheriff’s wife had looked from the stove to the sink to the pail of water which had been
Firstly, the play “Trifles” is a genre more focused on the items throughout the book that lend itself to continue chapter by chapter using different items to enhance the story. In “A Jury of Her Peers” Glaspell uses more or less the same dialogue from the play but intensifies it with the story focusing on characters such as Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. The short story adds a more descriptive insight into the story allowing us as readers to dive deep into the emotions and minds of its characters. The play does not do this as well due to the fact that it was written so that the actors and actresses on stage can portray the emotions and help develop the story through there acting. In the play, the items are the things that judge Minnie Foster whereas the story uses Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to interpret the objects and tell the story that way. The other main difference is that the male characters have more depth in the short story than in the play.
The definition of trifles is “the meaning of little value but very important”. The point of view is Very important and in Trifles the point of view is third objective in the play the problem was they were trying to figure out if Mrs wright has killed Mr wight.but in the play they looked over and didn't pay much attention to things that could have helped within the crime. Because of the play getting straight to the point is a reason why we had to guess how the character were feeling. We had to figure out the tone to see if there were sad ,mad ,happy etc.
The audio and visual representations of Trifles captured the main aspects the play. During the first scene, Glaspell establishes the plot, setting, and characters. As a result, the first scene, which presents the murder of John, Mrs. Wright husband, is a vital aspect of the play. The first scene begins with the Sheriff, George Henderson, who is the attorney, Lewis and Martha Hale, and the Sheriff’s wife. All the characters are gathered in Mrs. Wright's living room discussing the murder and the events leading up to the murder. All in all, the audio and visual plays remained true to the original written version, captured the emotion, and lived up to my expectations, but they both contained similarities and differences.
“Trifles” was set in a lonely hollow in Mr. and Mrs. Wright’s home. At the beginning of the story, the county attorney, the sheriff, Mr. Hale, Mrs. Hale, and Mrs. Peters are all in the kitchen of the Wright’s farmhouse talking amongst themselves about what might have happened. The characters being gathered in the
In Trifles, the play takes place at an abandon house at a farm where John Wright and his wife, Minnie Wright lived. John was killed with a rope around his neck while his wife was asleep. The neighbor, county attorney and sheriff came to the crime scene for investigation. Along with them
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
Clues and Conclusions In the one-act play Trifles, Susan Glaspell distinctly displays the purpose of the title by unraveling the murder of local farmer Mr. Wright. Broad evidence leads county attorney, George Henderson; sheriff, Henry Peters; and neighbor, Lewis Hale, to the conclusion of a fluke murder by some unknown suspect. Further evidence found by Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale leads to their conclusion that the death of Mr. Wright was caused by his own wife. The audience learns from the concerns in the kitchen more about who Mrs. Wright was before her marriage and how that could have induced her to kill her life partner.
Hale both decide to make a joke out of a murder. By hiding the truth from the authorities, they could have received charges for obstruction of justice and received jail time ( Cornell ). The other viewpoint would be from the women in the story or possibly anyone reading it. After years of constant neglect and criticism, Mrs. Wright decided to break out the cage of a marriage she was in with her husband. Feeling for her pain, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale mock the men as they investigate the crime scene. By not telling the truth to the Mr. Hale and the County Attorney, the women are getting revenge on the men for the they have been treating them.
"Trifles" is a play with a unified plot. Although there are verbal flashbacks to the events of the day of the murder of John Wright, the play's entire plot begins and ends in a span of one day. The author also extends the unified plot to create a single setting (the farmhouse kitchen). The plot centers on John Wright's murder. Mrs. Wright is the main suspect; an investigation is taking place as to the motive or reason for the crime.