Susan Glaspell's Use of an Unseen Central Character in Trifles

The worst part of it all is that she had a little pet bird that she treated like her own child and John Wright has killed by wringing its neck. She has nothing to love or care for and definitely has no one to love and care for her in the way she so desperately needs. When John Wright kills her only friend that brings her happiness, her little bird, she has to kill him. Minnie always had friends and loved life until this man kept her away from it. Minnie has every right in the world to kill her husband.

"A Jury of Her Peers" opens with debate encompassing Minnie Foster Wright, who is in prison on suspicion that she killed her spouse by strangling him. Mrs. Wright's story is told by implication through a discussion between Martha Hale, whose spouse uncovered the grouping of John Wright, Mrs. Diminishes, the wife of the neighborhood sheriff. The sheriff asks Mrs. Robust to go with them to the Wright's house so she can stay with his wife while the men explore the homicide scene. Put together by condition, the ladies structure a prompt bond as they start assembling some of Minnie's possessions to accumulate to her prison cell. Presuming that there is nothing in the kitchen aside from "kitchen things," the men start their examination in the upstairs of the house and in an outside animal dwelling place. Left alone in Minnie's kitchen, in any case, the two ladies start uncovering their pieces of information about Minnie's conceivable intention in executing her spouse. Step by step, Mrs. Sound and Mrs. Diminishes start perceiving insights about Minnie's life that escape the notice of their spouses. They perceive Minnie's forsaken, separated presence, her broken furniture, the once-over kitchen where she needed to cook, and the battered clothes she was compelled to

Suzy Clarkson Holstein the author of “Silent Justice In a Different Key: Susan Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’” writes about the men in the play looking for reasons why Minnie would kill her husband at a very legal standpoint. By looking through the scene of the crime, searching for obvious clues to why Minnie would murder her husband. The woman Sympathize with Minnie, they look at her house, and the little things around them: her kitchen, her quilt. They realize that her life doesn’t reflect her personality . “The mundane details of Minnie's life lead Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to comprehend what their husbands do not: the motive for the murder” (Holstein 283-284). They go through the parts of Minnie’s life that were deemed unimportant by their husbands

She shows this agreeance by saying “It is not just because he killed the bird, but because Minnie herself was a caged bird and he strangled her by preventing her from communicating with others.She includes in her text “Minnie’s existence and her behavior are determined by her man…” (Alkalay-Gut 6) hence Minnie’s lack of social connections and her choice to murder were all controlled by John. Alkalay shows her understanding that it was not Minnie and that John’s actions could very well lead any women to murder when she says“Mrs. Hale...could have committed the same crime as Minnie had she been married to Mr. Wright”. (Alkalay-Gut

In a time when women were thought of as airheaded and unconcerned with matters of importance by men, a woman’s compassion and intuition can hold incredible power. “In a Jury of Her Peers”, Minnie Wright is judged by her peers, and by their knowledge of her prior life, her current circumstances, and forced destitution, she is found innocent. In the story, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters accompany their husbands to the Wright home in a quest to find evidence implicating Minnie Wright in the murder of her husband. From the moment they enter the home, Mrs. Hale is sympathetic to Minnie Wright. When the county attorney looks over Minnie Wrights kitchen and states, “Not much of a housekeeper, would you say ladies?” Mrs. Hale’s stiff reply is, “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm.” Although Mrs. Peters begins the story with a firm stance of support for her husband saying, “Of course it’s no more than their duty,” in response to Mrs. Hales comment about the men snooping. However; as the story progresses, Mrs. Peters views begin to match with Mrs. Hale.

The central problem of the story "A Jury of Her Peers" is the repression brought by social expectations due to imposed gender roles. Minnie was a woman that was psychologically and presumably physically battered. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters were wives whose husbands forbade from giving input or opinions that would in any case agree with Minnie's actions against her husband. In a moment of what seems to be a build-up of frustrations she killed her husband and fell into a state of shock. As a result, she now has to face a jury of her peers to determine whether she is indeed guilty or she did it in a moment of temporary insanity. Finding out her verdict would also help establish what sort of things took place in the household which prompted her

When Mr. Hale walked into the Wright home following John’s murder, he found Minnie sitting alone in the living room. In an effort to make conversation following

In Susan Glaspell's play, “Trifles”, Minnie Wright the protagonist,is a woman of many flaws, but she is no tragic hero. The reason Minnie isn't a tragic hero is the fact that you must have some fall from noble stature, The punishment does not exceed the crime, and there is no lesson learned.

In Trifles, the men (Attorney Henderson, Sheriff Peters, and Mr. Hale) are investigating the murder of John Wright and conclude, by means of evidential findings, that Minnie Wright, wife of John Wright, was the only possible suspect. However, the men could not find a clear motive to why she would kill him. This lack of evidence is the last crucial piece to prosecute Mrs. Wright for the murder. Without a possible motive, the jury would most likely be sympathetic to her, as they are to women in general during this time period. Meanwhile, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, wives of Sheriff Peters and Mr. Hale, believe they have found evidence to why Minnie Wright murdered her husband (finding a broken birdcage and a dead bird that Mrs. Wright kept).

The image of her singing in the choir actually shoes how outgoing she really was before she married John Wright. Another example of Minnie’s isolation is when Mr. Hale says “I'm going to see if I can't get John Wright to go in with me on a party telephone. I spoke to Wright about it once before and he put me off, saying folks talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet—I guess you know about how much he talked himself” (10) (Glaspell). Throughout the play, it is mentioned several times that John Wright was a very closed and quiet man, he did not enjoy company and enjoyed being alone. The root cause for Minnie’s isolation was her husbands, love for isolation. “Trifles” was originally celebrated as an early feminist drama, however, it stands on its own as an engrossing story (Jaworoski). The play involve to women Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, these two women discover Minnie Foster or Mrs. Wrights motives behind murdering her husband. “The women examine the details the “trifles” of the suspect's life to discover a deeper meaning and in the end solve a mystery by exposing a tragedy”

Feminist rights have been a controversial issue throughout human history, so naturally this theme manifests itself often throughout many works like the play, “Trifles” does. In fact, the whole conflict of Trifles happens because a feminine revolt against male dominated oppression in the form of a murder and this allows the main character, Minnie, to become liberated. The following quote shows how little Minnie’s voice mattered between the couple and one of the motivations to why Minnie killed John Even the other character, Hale, acknowledges that John doesn’t care about Minnie’s opinion which illustrates the oppression Minnie had undergone because of her gender role; this is similar to another work called “The Story of the Hour” which also features a female protagonist who feels liberated just as Minnie did after hearing about her husband’s death (Chopin). Glaspell’s theme for Trifles is that women were belittled and discredited in society, and this is evident by observing the setting, conflict, and the characters.

This compelling play is about the investigation at the farmhouse of John and Minnie Wright after his murder. The sheriff, county attorney, and neighbor discuss the evidence and look at the crime scenes to try and discover the murderer and motive. The sheriff and neighbor's wives remain in the kitchen where through looking at Mrs. Wright's sewing basket and cupboards they discover the truth of the crime. The setting is a small rural farmhouse that appears isolated from its neighbors. The isolation is a theme of the story. The broken birdcage, quilt, bread, and cherry preserves are all important images within the play for understanding Mrs. Wright and her life.

The story is given through the opinion of two women. The women portray the writers view. Throughout, the story it tells about the background of Minnie Wright, The story tells about how she lived in the past and how she lives now.The sheriff and the country lawyer use her past and present to make a decision on whether or not she is guilty of killing her husband in cold blood. Although, Minnie is the main character the conflict of the decision is based off of what the other two women decide to do with the evidence they find against her. The main idea of the story is about sisterhood, women sticking together no matter what the situation is.

In Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, Minnie Wright is accused of killing her husband, John. The sheriff, Henry Peters, and the attorney, George Henderson, come to investigate the murder along with the key witness and neighbor, Lewis Hale. They are accompanied by Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, who have come to collect some of Minnie’s personal items to bring to her in jail. The men find it strange that John is strangled when there is a gun in the house. They also find it puzzling the way the murder happened and are hoping to find out why. Although they are sure the wife is responsible, they have yet to find a motive.

From this play, I can predict on the Minnie’s tragic life during her marriage with John Wright, until she took a crazy decision by killing him. According to Mrs. Hale’s point of view that Minnie such a cheer and happy girls during her teen years, it makes the readers realized that John Wright is not a good husband, as he tortured her life throughout their marriage. I found that this story from the play still exists in this modern era, and Susan Glaspell have done the great work by published this play to give big awareness to people. For my part, I think if I were Minnie in this story, I would ask John Wright for a divorce instead of killing him, even though women did not have any rights to make any decision during that period and divorce considered to be as a bad thing, but maybe that it is the only right thing to do as I, Minnie, was already bear the pain for too long until I could no longer see any solution to settle down the issue. Hence, every woman deserves to be happy and have rights on making choices. Thus, Minnie would not kill him, her husband, if she has chances on getting a