Canary

Susan Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles is based on the murder investigation of John Wright. Minnie Wright’s isolation and the death of her canary are the major factors that led to the murder of her husband. Glaspell stresses the perceived supremacy of males when investigating the murder by giving the men lead roles in the investigation and by making fun of the “trifles” that the women are choosing to observe. It is ironic because the ordinary items observed by the women were thought of as “trifles”

important roles and work these women play in their home. As Hale says sarcastically in the play, "Well, women are used to worrying over trifles. “ Also is that if Hale, the Attorney, and the Sheriff would have understood women's work, then the dead canary and the condition of the stitching, if they might have found enough clues and a motive then they would have been able to convict Mrs. Wright, but because the women had realize that Mrs. Wright's victimization by her husband and the sexist attitudes

suspicion to the obvious signs like a dirty kitchen and a messy stitched quilt. Throughout the story, the readers are given many objects that symbolize more than what they really are such as the rope, the broken fruit jars, but more importantly the canary. In Trifles, the rope represents death. Mr. Wright is

The Unhinged Canary In Susan Glaspell's “ A Jury Of Her Peers” Mrs. Wright’s husband is found strangled in their bed and Mrs. Wright is in the living room calm but in the same way concerned, claiming she “sleeps sound” and didn’t wake up or hear anyone in their house that night. Mrs. Hale a lifetime friend of Mrs. Wright compares her to the canary saying “She was like a bird herself. Real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and-fluttery.” Although Mrs. Wright does not initially appear capable of

love of music, she loved to write poetry. Dove won the Pulitzer Prize in poetry in 1987. (Poetry Foundation). Her powerful voice sends a strong message in her poems. Even though her work is powerful, an example of some of Dove’s powerful work is “Canary”. Rita Dove’s story begins on August 28, 1952 in Akron, Ohio. Dove was the first African American woman to write poetry. (Poetry Foundation). Dove loved poetry, writing, and music when she was in school. When she graduated high school, she studied

is in the county jail as a suspect. The two women examine the fruit preserves, the quilting, and the box with the dead canary and realize both the criminal and her motives. Glaspell creates a feminine union between the female characters that both creates sympathy for Minnie Wright and a greater understanding of the struggles of early 20th century women. The symbols of the canary and the quilt in “Trifles” create a dramatic irony between the female jury and the audience where only they can understand

discover the biggest symbol throughout the entire story, the canary. After finding the dead bird Mrs. Peters says “Wouldn’t they just laugh! Getting all stirred up over a little thing like a dead canary. As if that could have anything to do with- with- wouldn’t they laugh” (Glaspell 574) Here we see that Mrs. Peters is using the canary to symbolize their roles in the story saying the men would laugh at them for the dead canary. The dead canary is the thing that seems insignificant to the men, but holds

the men are wasting their time thinking like typical men of the time, they ignore the obvious clues within Mrs. Wright’s daily activities, such as her sewing, the dirty table, and looking through the cabinets where they would have found the broken canary cage. As the men believe that the “women are used to worrying over trifles” it appears that these trifles actually lead to the women finding the

In Susan Glaspell’s short story “A Jury of Her Peers”, the women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, were able to outsmart the men in the investigation of Mr. Wright’s death by discovering the motive for the murder. Minnie Wright is Mr. Wright’s wife and she is the one who murdered him by strangling him in a room upstairs. The woman in the story, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, figured out the Mrs. Wright killed her husband because there was evidence and hints around the kitchen. The men that came to solve the

had killed the canary by breaking its neck, so she probably killed her husband by strangling him as well. The men missed this clue because they believed the women were trifles and had no importance of the investigation. Once the women found this clue, the county attorney said to the Sheriff, "No sign at all of anyone having come from the outside. Their own rope. Now Let's go up again and go over it piece by piece." (9) Mrs. Wright is a tragic hero because the killing of her canary helped solve the