Theme Analysis of the play Trifles Essay

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.

Wright’s motive. Mrs. Hale reminisces on a similar situation: “When I was a girl… my kitten—there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes—before I could get there… If they hadn’t held me back I would have hurt him.” No one was holding Mrs. Wright back. Her husband killed her most treasured possession, and she took revenge in the same way: strangulation. Although the Wrights owned a gun, Mrs. Wright took a violent and personal approach. She wanted to force him to suffer instead of swiftly killing him. Mr. Wright, a cold man, broke open the bird cage and strangled Mrs. Wright’s beloved canary to death. She was infuriated, and in return, strangled her husband to

The title of the play “Trifles” is a major symbol of how men viewed women in the early nineteen hundreds, something small, and of little value or importance. One of the examples of trifles within the play is the bird in the cage which symbolized Mrs. Wright and the life not only she had to live, but other women faced during this time as well. Women, as well as Mrs. Wright, felt caged in her own homes, and some were not able to associate with their friends. Women had no right to vote, or have a say so as to anything except what went on inside the home as far as cleaning, cooking, sewing, and tending to their children.

There are many literary elements that contribute and help to further explain the theme of Susan Glaspell’s one-act play, “Trifles”. The theme of isolation in “Trifles” can be backed up by multiple dramatic literary elements that are very evident in the story. Characters can help support the theme in many ways by difference in gender, how isolation affects the theme, and how they work together. Another literary element that is crucial to the theme of isolation is the setting of a lonely farm house back in the woods unseen by the public from the road. Lastly, the literary element of conflict relates to the theme of isolation in the many ways that conflict brings out isolation between the characters in the play. The theme of isolation in “Trifles”

Symbols are important, especially in literature. They have been known to inspire hope and life, in turn inspiring some of the most profound actions in the history of the world. Yet, humanity’s statement to symbols goes beyond us finding meaning in innominate or non-human objects. People assign humanity into objects, almost a part of themselves. This concept is clearly demonstrated in Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles. The work contains many element of symbolism that make important and relieving comments on the characters of the play and the themes of the story.

The protagonist, Mrs. Wright, is trying to keep from being accused of murder and this is why she hides the dead bird. The two women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, begin to warm up to what really has happened and throughout the story continue to grow more sympathetic towards Mrs. Wright. The suspense is built up very well trying to figure out whether or not she will get convicted. In the climax, the two women find Mrs. Wright's dead bird and realize what has happened. They are faced with the dilemma of whether or not to turn her in for what they now know she is guilty of. The reader does not find out what happens but is left to assume the best ending. Although the plot of this story is not very exciting, it does achieve its central purpose of showing the women leaving the men out in the cold and uniting together. Throughout the plot and structure they were some instances of irony that were used very well.

Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, shows the importance of staging, gestures, and props to create the proper atmosphere of a play. Without the development of the proper atmosphere through directions from the author, the whole point of the play may be missed. Words definitely do not tell the whole story in Trifles - the dialog only complements the unspoken.

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

Symbolism such as the bird and the cage, the jars of preserves, and the quilt in the play Trifles help to enhance the reader’s experience by characterizing the people and actions throughout the play. The bird and the cage in the play Trifles represents Mrs. Wrights life and the way that she had limited space and very little freedom. The bird cage is symbolic of the roles of men and women in this drama. “She

A trifle is something that has little value or importance, and there are many seeming "trifles" in Susan Glaspell's one-act play "Trifles." The irony is that these "trifles" carry more weight and significance than first seems to be the case. Just as Glaspell's play ultimately reveals a sympathetic nature in Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, the evidence that the men investigators fail to observe, because they are blind to the things that have importance to a woman, reveals the identity of the murderer and are, therefore, not really "trifles," after all. Thus, the title of the play has a double-meaning: it refers, satirically, to the way "trifling" way some men perceive women, and it also acts as an ironic gesture to the fact that women are not as "trifling" as these men make them out to be. This paper will analyze setting, characters, plot, stage directions, symbolism, themes and genre to show how Glaspell's "Trifles" is an ironic indictment not of a murderess but rather of the men who push women to such acts.

      While reading Susan Glaspell's play Trifles, the use of characters, descriptive language, and symbolism teaches the audience that one person's home and one person's way of living can also be an introduction to one person's private hell.  Throughout the play, discoveries are made to teach the audience that maybe things are not what they seem and that sometimes people must take a deeper look into what is around them.

The true definition of the world trifle is something of very little value or importance. “Trifles” is a story about a small group of people trying to solve the mystery of why a woman killed her husband. Two women named Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are helping the two men, the sheriff and the county attorney, find Mrs. Wright’s motive to kill her husband. The women begin to find small details that reveals plenty of information that could be useful in the investigation of the murder. These small details that the women find around Mrs. Wright’s home are “Trifles” to the men. As Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale search around the house, Mrs. Peters finds a birdcage in a cupboard. Mrs. Hale finds a dead bird wrapped in a box with its neck broken, and in finding this, they come to the realization that Mrs. Wright killed her husband because he killed her bird. The women know that Mrs. Wright’s husband did not enjoy her singing and he would never allow her to have a bird because it sang too.

"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.

The setting of the play which takes place in the early twentieth century has established the theme that women have been looking down by men. ‘Trifles’ that is used as the title of the play has further foreshadowed the theme of the play in which discrimination of women will happen in the play. During the investigation of Mr Wright’s death, the men that involved in finding out the murderer have despised