Symbols in Susan Glaspell's Trifles

837 Words2 Pages

Symbols in Susan Glaspell's Trifles In the play titled Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, Minnie Foster Wright is being accused of murdering her husband, John. In this production, Mrs. Wright is consistently referenced, and although she is not witnessed, she is very recognizable. There are important symbols in this play that signifies Mrs. Wright and her existence as it once was and as it currently exists to be. Particularly the canary, this symbolizes Mrs. Wright's long forgotten past. Additionally, the birdcage, this symbolizes her life as it currently exists. Certainly the quilt is a symbol, which is an important clue on how Mr. Wright was killed. In addition, the rocking chair, this symbolizes her life as it has diminished throughout the duration of her most recently survived years. Lastly, but not least, the containers of cherry preserves that seem to be a symbol of the warmth and compassion that she has yet to discover in her life. Every one of these symbolizes and characterizes Mrs. Wright?s character and her existence in the play. The canary and the birdcage are symbolic to Mrs. Wright?s life in the way that the bird represents her, and the cage represents her life and the way she was made to live. Mrs. Hale compares the canary that she and Mrs. Peters discover to Mrs. Wright, when Mrs. Hale refers to Mrs. Wright as ?kind of like a bird herself?real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and?fluttery.? Minnie Foster was a distinctly different woman than Minnie Foster ...

Show More
Related

  • Glasswells Trifle

    1080 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Susan Glaspell’s Trifles, Mrs. Wright has been arrested for the murder of her husband. The author describes her as a hard working house wife. She would spend hours in the hot summer making fruit preserves. Minnie Foster uses to be lively and social before she married John Wright. She would sing in a choir like a beautiful bird. From this perspective, readers will surely believe she is innocent. There is no way a sweet lady like her could have committed such a hideous crime, or could she? Although she had a normal personality, Mrs. Wright possesses a dark side. The killing of her husband is not an act of revenge for the death of her bird, but surely an act of a psychopath.

    Read More

  • Circumstantial Evidence In Trifles By Susan Glaspell

    471 Words  | 1 Pages

    Susan Glaspell’s 1916 play, Trifles was about an abusive relationship between a husband and wife, John and Minnie Wright. Minnie finally breaks down and kills her husband because he took away from her the only thing that brought joy to her miserable life, her canary.

    Read More

  • Who Is Minnie'sympathize In A Jury Of Her Peers

    1414 Words  | 3 Pages

    Her canary becomes the thread that she holds onto her sanity with; in fact, the two women discuss how Minnie relates to the bird in many ways, they are both “…real sweet and pretty”, but also “kind of timid and—fluttery.” One could even say that Minnie depends on the bird as a friend, her only friend; therefore, when the man that causes her all this pain destroys the only light in her life by strangling her bird, Minnie perhaps hits her breaking

    Read More

  • Trifles by Susan Glaspell

    679 Words  | 2 Pages

    The definition of “trifles” is something that does not have much value or importance. In the play “Trifles”, Susan Glaspell illustrates the differences between men and women by the details that they notice and the things that each person considers to be important or necessary. In the play, Mrs. Wright is the main suspect for her husband’s murder. Mr. Henderson, Mr. Peters, and Mr. Hale are the three men in the play that are searching the entire house for physical evidence to prove Mrs. Wright as guilty. The two other women in the play are Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale and their behaviors are completely opposite from the men’s. Since the women are more focused on the small details of Mrs. Wright’s everyday life, they are able to find the most important piece of evidence that the men would never find on their own. By observing the key behaviors of the men and women and their roles, Glaspell illustrates the real meaning and attitude of “trifles” within the play.

    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

  • Minnie's Quilt In Trifles By Susan Glaspell

    531 Words  | 2 Pages

    and Mrs. Hale. Minnie was once a cheerful soul who sang in the choir. Now she had become a lonely farmer’s wife, who had been found in a somewhat cationic stated seemingly unbothered by the death of her husband. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find her quilting pieces and notice where her once perfect craftsmanship seemed to be rushed and poor quality. Then the ladies find the dented birdcage and begin discussing what may have happened, as Minnie was spotted happily carrying the canary through town. At this moment, a key piece of evidence is located by the ladies. The box containing the dead canary is found. Inside the box, the ladies find the canary has had its neck wrenched. At this point, Mrs. Hale recounts her memory of John Wright. She states John was a hard man while Minnie was a cheerful timid soul like a canary. Based on hearsay, Mrs. Wright was extremely lonely with no children. The house has been very silent except for the timid canary chirping. John kills the canary and this triggers Minnie to

    Read More

  • Quilt In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    566 Words  | 2 Pages

    As Lewis Hale stated, “ ‘Well, women are used to worrying about Trifles’ ” (918). Unbenounced to Lewis Hale, uncovering the mystery of John Wright's death was a matter of paying attention to the smallest details. Susan Glaspell’s one act play Trifles was written in 1916 during women’s suffrage. While the two women Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters wait in the kitchen for the men to investigate, they discover many pieces of evidence and a motive that could have lead to the death of John Wright. These subtle clues include, a quilt with sloppy stitching, a broken bird cage, and a strangled canary.

    Read More

  • Old Mother Savage, Trifles, And Wedding At The Cross

    1895 Words  | 4 Pages

    Wright, in Trifles, has lived a very isolated and lonely existence experiences a loss of self-control at the death of her bird; she then commits a desperate act in the hopes that it will bring her the sense of equilibrium that was taken from her. Glaspell explains, “MRS. HALE [Her own feeling not interrupted] If there’d been years and years of nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful—still, after the bird was still.” (Glaspell) The bird holds great significance in the life of Mrs. Wright, serving a dual purpose as a friend and entertainer. Without the bird she has only the chores of a farm and her husband who is depicted as a cold and hard man. The bird was perhaps the one bright spot in the life of Mrs. Wright who’s care for it is exhibited in the careful handling of its body. When Mr. Wright kills the bird the slight sense of equilibrium that she had in her life is gone, and without the bird Mrs. Wright is forced back into a life of solitude. The thought of returning to her monotonous and lonely existence without the color that the bird had contributed to her life might have been too much for her to consider. In Glaspell’s depiction of Mrs. Wright after the crime, “” Can’t I see John” “No,” she says, kind o’ dull like. “Ain’t he home?” says I. “Yes,” says she, “he’s home.” “Then why can’t I see him? “I asked her, out of patience. “’Cause he’s dead,” says she. “Dead?” says I. She just nodded her head, not getting a bit excited, but rockin’ back and forth.

    Read More

  • The Three Symbols in Trifles by Susan Glaspell

    305 Words  | 1 Pages

    The birdcage represents how Mrs. Wright was trapped in her marriage, and could not escape it. The birdcage door is broken which represents her broken marriage to Mr. Wright. It also represents Mrs. Wright escaping her marriage from Mr. Wright. When the door is open it allows Mrs. Wright to became a free woman. At one point in time the cage door use to have a lock that locked the bird inside the cage. This represents how Mr. Wright kept Mrs. Wright locked up from society. Mr. Wright knew that by keeping Mrs. Wright locked up, she would never be able to tell anyone how he really acted. Mr. Wright was very cruel to his wife.

    Read More

  • Symbols In The Play Trifles

    72 Words  | 1 Pages

    Trifle is a one-act play focusing on two women who discovers murder clues and the conventions of this play is drama. In this play the two women fulfills this conventions thoroughly. Actions of two women completely follows their personalities, but the cations of men seem imposed upon them. There are lot of symbols in this play like Mrs. Wrights bird- it symbolize her spirit, uneven sewn quilt- it symbolizes Mrs.Wright’s mental

    Read More

  • Susan Glaspell's Trifles

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    Susan Glaspell’s one-act play “Trifles” centers around the murder investigation of Mr. Wright (John) in his own home. Minnie Wright is almost assuredly the murderer as when asked by Mr. Hale about his whereabouts she calmly answered that he is dead upstairs with a rope around his neck. Reacting

    Read More

  • Trifles Comparison

    897 Words  | 2 Pages

    Trifles written by Susan Glaspell is about the main character Mrs. Minnie Wright. The play by Glaspell describes Minnie Wright as the one and only main suspect in the murder of her husband. Mrs. Wright has lived nothing but a depressed and unhappy life thanks to her husband Mr. Wright. In the play A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen Mrs. Nora Helmer is portrayed as the happy and perfect “doll-like” wife to her husband, Mr. Torvald. In both Trifles and A Doll's House the central focus is on Mrs. Wright and Nora Helmer in the way each of them handle big issues experienced in their marriages in both similar and different ways.

    Read More

  • Susan Glaspell Symbolism

    411 Words  | 1 Pages

    In your post you stated that the setting is important. I agree with you but I also believe that the symbols used by Glaspell’s are important. The setting and symbols were a crucial aspect to consider because it allowed the reader to have a deeper understanding of the characters and convey the authors theme. Some of the specific aspects of the house that helped the reader to understand the theme and characters were the disorganized kitchen, the cold weather, and Mrs. Wright’s jars of preserves. In the beginning of the play the kitchen was described as “The kitchen in the now abandoned farmhouse of John Wright, a gloomy kitchen, and left without having been put in order--unwashed pans under the sink, a loaf of bread outside the bread-box, a dish-towel on the table” (Lines 1-2). Glaspell’s descriptions of the setting of the unkempt kitchen revealed to the reader how Mrs. Wright felt. For instance, the description tells the reader that Mrs. Wright had rebelled against her duties. In this era women were expected to keep their house nice and clean. However, Mrs. Wright chooses to not comply with her expected womanly duties.

    Read More

  • Symbols In Trifles

    599 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Susan Glaspell play Trifles there is a murder investigation going on. The sheriff and the attorney feel that there is no important evidence in the kitchen where Mrs. Wright spends most of her time. Obviously, the man does not pay any attention to the women's world. The men constantly look over all the trifles that point to the motive of the murder and the evidence of a depressing life Mrs Wright has. Mrs.Hale and Mrs.Peters stays in the kitchen having a conversation. They begin to discover necessary confirmations of Mrs.Wright's guiltiness of murdering her husband, but they come to a conclusion that Mrs.Wright is not accountable for the murder.

    Read More

  • Glaspell Symbolism

    301 Words  | 1 Pages

    Glaspell’s abundant use bird in the play to help the audience to empathize with the women and especially Minnie. The canary is representative of Minnie herself, the symbol recognized and expressed through Mrs. Hale’s character when she states that, “she was kind of like a bird herself-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and-fluttery” (Glaspell pg7). The bird is trapped, forced into bondage to the delight of its owner, dependent upon its caretaker to survival. Same thing happened to Mrs. Wright. Minnie is trapped by Mr. Wright, subjected to his determinations for what she can’t have. He has pulled her excellence Also happiness, and her soul which never going to come back. The bird remains as a symbol till its death. As the bird dies, so

    Read More

More about Symbols in Susan Glaspell's Trifles

Open Document