Susan Glaspell's Trifles

611 Words2 Pages

The title of the play, “Trifles”, is an important signal of the conflict that arises throughout the play. This provides a tension for the situation between a household that is anything but trifling. Mr. Wright has been murdered by his wife, Mrs. Wright. The men of the town who are in charge of the crime scene are unable to complete the murder mystery through standard criminal justice procedures. Instead a few women who visit the house are able to piece together the situation by observing the smaller things about the crime scene. The women notice certain items such as the preserved fruit, a sewing box, and an empty bird cage which all play a significances in the play. Using these trifles as evidence, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are able to make sure that Mrs. Wright isn’t held accountable for the murdering of her husband. …show more content…

Wright is found by Mr. Hale in a rocker with a queer look on her face. Mr. Hale wanted to see if Mr. Wright wanted to buy a telephone. They started to talk about Mr. Wright and if he could talk to him. Mrs. Wright then explained that he was no longer alive. She told him, “He died of a rope round his neck”(1082). Mr. Hale then asked if she was asleep while this took place and she said, “I sleep sound”(1082). All of this is being explained to the county attorney. The county attorney and the sheriff fail to notice what Mrs. Peters does. Mr. Hale acknowledges the facts that women notice the trifles. Mr. Hale says, “ Well, women are used to worrying over trifles”(1083). During this time period gender equality was a major

Show More
Related

  • Power In Trifles

    2135 Words  | 5 Pages

    The jar of preserves, the broken birdcage, and the re-stitched quilt pieces lead to the connection leading Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to the joint decision about guilt and innocence. Susan Glaspell illustrates how women can share experiences and become empowered. Most women value their lives as women and see themselves as man’s equal. The female characters pay attention to the more insignificant clues and quickly uncover Mrs. Wright’s motive for the murder. Supposedly based on a true murder story, Susan Glaspell's Trifles does more than just rework a tale of murder; it reveals the features of the society that produced the crime. The one-act play Trifles utilizes characters, dialogue, symbolism, language, and themes to present real-life problems that have faced nations for many years. The drama illustrates the issues of equality, male domination and the empowerment of women. The themes of gender differences and isolation shown through the ways the roles of men and women are viewed and by the male dominance over women. In contrast, it is the women who give legitimacy to the evidence, as they empathize with Mrs. Wright who, in their final assessment, may have flipped out as a result of ongoing domestic violence. Through the course of the play, the men fumble around in the dark, unaware of the incriminating evidence that surrounds them. The author blends

    Read More

  • Minnie Wright Argumentative Essay

    511 Words  | 2 Pages

    Hale and Mrs. Peters are quick to aid the defense of Mrs. Wright. Specifically, when the County Attorney is talking about how badly she keeps her home. “Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies,” in which Mrs. Hale retourts “There's a great deal of work to be done on a farm.” Later on when the men are off looking for evidence, that is when the ladies discover the bird with the ringed neck. Glaspell (1916) writes “But, Mrs. Peters — look at it! It's neck! Look at its neck! It's all — other side to. Somebody — wrung — its — neck.” The ladies then discuss who they think may have done it. Mrs. Hale is quick to blame Mr. Wright, identifying him as the the person who wrung the birds neck: “No, Wright wouldn't like the bird — a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too,” and when Mrs. Peters says they do not know who killed the bird, Mrs. Hale replies “I knew John Wright.” In the end the county Attorney asks them what they collected for her, and they end up hiding the bird from the Sheriff and attorney. They most likely realized that the bird would provide a motive into the killing of John, something they desperately need if they will convict

    Read More

  • Response to Trifles by Susan Glaspell

    651 Words  | 2 Pages

    The action begins when the men leave the women in the kitchen alone. This where Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find out themselves find out who had kill Mr. Wright. For some unknown reason the women were acting like they were profession detectives, they were asking question and making conclusion. They were discussing the way the kitchen was left are the murder. For example, when Mrs. Peters was looking through the cupboard, she finds out that Mrs. Wright had bread set. Mrs. Hale concludes that Mrs. Wright was going to put the loaf of bread beside the breadbox. Another example is when Mrs. Peter notices that Mrs. Wright had been making a quit. They were asking question if Mrs. Wright making quilt or making a knot, like a professional detective. The men come back in the kitchen and overhear th...

    Read More

  • Trifles By Susan Glaspell Literary Analysis

    537 Words  | 2 Pages

    In fact, when Mrs. Hale comments that Mrs. Wright was not one for housekeeping, Mrs. Peters replies by saying “Well, I don’t know as Wright had either.” (748). The disheveled state that the house is in, as well as the fact that Mr. Wright is characterized as a hard man who is unwilling to share his part expresses the idea that their marriage was unhappy, and in turn, Mrs. Wright could have motive to harm him. Likewise, when the men leave the women to find clothes for Mrs. Wright, the two discover more possible evidence that the men will shrug off. For example, Mrs. Hale examines some quilt work that Mrs. Wright was working on, and notices that the most recent square is very sloppy compared to the rest of the work on the quilt. Moreover, the fact that they believe she crafted it by knotting is very significant (750). This correlation times closely with Mr. Wright’s time of death, and could indicate as a stressor, which the women can pick up on. Since the men laugh at their seemingly trivial observation, they are close to solving the crime on their

    Read More

  • Expretation Of Mrs. Wright's A Jury Of Her Peers

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “ A Jury of Her Peers”, when the county sheriff and attorney go to the Wright house to investigate a murder. They search for clues to incriminate Mrs. Wright but find nothing. They discover Mr. Wright strangled in his bedroom and saw Mrs. Wright completely unaffected. Although Mrs. Wright claims to have been asleep while the murder occurred, the women conclude she choked her husband, Mr. Wright, as evidenced by the broken bird cage, the strangled canary, and the errant quilt patch.

    Read More

  • Literary Review: "Trifles"

    959 Words  | 2 Pages

    The news of a murder brings in Mr. Henderson, the county attorney, and Mr. Peters, the sheriff. Mr. Hale, a neighboring farmer, reveals what he witnessed. Mrs. Wright, the deceased’s wife, was rocking nervously in her chair and mentioned her dead husband lying upstairs. Mr. Hale then called in the sheriff who called in the county attorney. As they begin looking for evidence, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale relocate into the kitchen to gather things to bring to Mrs. Wright to jail. The women start talking about the unhappy life Mrs. Wright seemed to have lived and the unpleasantness that was ushered into the air. Upon finding a broken cage, they grow curious but assume nothing. When they look into a sewing box for more things for Mrs. Wright, they find the dead bird that was strangled. Fearing the worst, the bird was then hidden by the women as the men returned and decide that Mrs. Wright would rather knot than quilt the quilt she was making.

    Read More

  • Silent Justice in a Different Key: Suzy Clarkson Holstein´s Trifles

    615 Words  | 2 Pages

    I. Article Summary: Suzy Clarkson Holstein's article, “Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell's 'Trifles'” evaluates the play Trifles and how the difference between the men in the play mirror how a woman's perspective is very different from a man's. Trifles is about two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, who show up at a house with their husbands and the county attorney to investigate a murder. The entire time the men are looking for evidence to implicate the accused wife, Minnie Wright, of killing her husband. Meanwhile, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are there to gather up some items to bring Minnie Wright in jail. While doing so, the women uncover evidence that would prove the wife is culpable but decide to hide it from the men in the last moments of the play. Trifles is evaluated on how the women are able to come up with the evidence unlike the men because they didn't approach it like a crime scene but rather a home, “By contrast, the women arrive at a home. Although neither they or the men realize it, they too are conducting an investigation” (Holstein 283). Holstein also notes they are able to find evidence because they use their own life experiences to relate to the accused murderer, Minnie Wright as shown here; “But the women do not simply remember and sympathize with Minnie. They identify with her, quite literally” (285). Holstein finishes the article by noting the women decide to hide the evidence because of the solidarity they feel towards Minnie Wright; “From Mrs. Hale's perspective, people are linked together through fragile, sometimes imperceptible strands. The tiny trifles of life –a neighbor's visit, a bird's song, the sewing of a quilt –have profound reverberations” (287).

    Read More

  • Justice In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    972 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mrs. Hale’s keen wit and patience contributes to her embodiment of The Fate sister Clotho the Spinner, which is even more evident in her correcting of Minnie Wright’s improper stitching (Russell). Mrs. Peters begins the process of investigation deeply devoted to keeping the law. She doesn’t want any disruption in the house, saying, “I don’t think we ought to touch things” (Glaspell p. 666) when Mrs. Hale began searching for clues. Upon finding the dead canary, Mrs. Peters view on the situation changes drastically, and she decides with Mrs. Hale to hide the tiny dead bird from the men. They both figure that if the dead canary was discovered, Mrs. Wright would be thought to be a mad woman, though it was likely Mr. Wright who killed it.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of A Jury Of Her Peers

    786 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the story “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell, Mr. Lewis Hale arrived at the Wright house to find that his neighbor, John Wright, had been strangled in his sleep. Hale asked John’s wife, Millie Wright, a few questions about what had happened. Suspiciously, Mrs. Wright’s dry answers didn’t add up. Now the sheriff, the county attorney, Mr. and Mrs. Hale, and Mrs. Peters the sheriff’s wife, are investigating the house. Although Mrs. Wright claims to be asleep during her husband’s murder, the women conclude that she strangled her husband as evidenced by the broken bird cage, the slaughtered canary, and the errant quilt patch.

    Read More

  • A Comparison of Mrs. Hale and Mr. Wright in Trifles, by Susan Glaspell

    1069 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mr. Wright was a cruel, cold, and heartless man. He was also a very unsociable man. He abandoned his wife's contentment and paid very little attention to his wife's opinions. He even prevented her from singing. This is revealed about Mr. Wright during the conversations between Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters when they find the dead bird with a twisted neck in Mrs. Wright's sewing basket. Mrs. Hale points out, "She- come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and-fluttery. How-she-did-change" (Glaspell 1267). Mrs. Wright used to be a very high-s...

    Read More

  • Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    1399 Words  | 3 Pages

    Even if it means that Mrs. Peters is married to the Sheriff and therefor is married to the law, they still decide to hide their new found

    Read More

  • Trifles by Susan Glaspell: Women’s Silent Voices

    1042 Words  | 3 Pages

    Susan Glaspell highlights the settings as theatrical metaphors for male dominated society in the early 20th century. “Trifles” begins with an investigation into the murder of Mr. Wright. The crime scene is taken at his farmhouse where clues are found that reveals Minnie Wright to be a suspect of murder. In the beginning of the play, it clearly embodies the problems of subordination of women. For example, there are two main characters in this play—Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, who are brought along with the sheriff and attorney to find evidence for Mr. Wright’s murder. The men gather and work together at the stove and they talk with each other in familiarity while women “stand close together near the door behind men” (Glaspell 444). Perhaps the location of the women standing behind the men near the door reflects also their secondary or inferior social standing in the eyes of the men. Moreover, it seems that the wo...

    Read More

  • Glaspell's Trifles

    681 Words  | 2 Pages

    The most powerful piece of evidence is that Mrs. Peters argues that the law is the law; she does not necessarily feel sympathy for Mrs. Wright, as Mrs. Hale does, rather the women go to the Wright home without the motive of discovering anything and that they remain open-minded. In doing so they find valuable evidence, and they begin to construct a narrative out of said evidence. Then, because they can empathize with Mrs. Wright’s pain, they decide that they must conceal her crime; in effect, they feel her actions were justified. Clearly, the men would see the law and their place within it differently because of their positions and the ways of knowing and seeing that they have become accustomed

    Read More

  • Critical Analysis Of Trifles

    745 Words  | 2 Pages

    Wright was described as a beautiful women filled with such joy and life until she married John Wright. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale feels sorry for her because her husband treated her so bad. Due to female bonding and sympathy, the two women, becoming detectives, finds the truth and hides it from the men. The play shows you that emotions can play a part in your judgement. Mrs. Peter’s and Mrs. Hale felt sorry that Mrs. Wright had one to keep her company no kids and she was always left alone at home. “yes good; he didn’t drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debt. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters just to pass the time of day with him. Like a raw wind that goes to the bone. I should of think she would have wanted a bird. But what you suppose went with it?” Later on in the play the women find out what happens to the bird. The bird was killed the same way Mrs. Wright husband which leads to the motive of why he was killed. Mrs. Wright was just like the bird beautiful but caged no freedom not being able to live a life of her own. Always stuck in the shadows of her husband being told what to do and

    Read More

  • Trifles Title Analysis

    1511 Words  | 4 Pages

    Susan Glaspell’s Trifles (1916), is a play that accounts for imprisonment and loneliness of women in a patriarchal society. The plot has several instances where women issues are perceived to be mere trifles by their male counterparts. The title is of significant importance in supporting the main theme of the story and developing the plot that leads to the evidence of the mysterious murder. Trifles can be defined as things of less importance; in this story dramatic, verbal and situational irony is used to show how the insignificant trifles lead to a great deal of truth in a crime scene investigation. The title of the story “Trifles” is used ironically to shape the unexpected evidence discovered by women in

    Read More

More about Susan Glaspell's Trifles

Open Document