Symbolism Of An Unfinished Quilt In Trifles By Susan Glaspell

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Who decides what is important and what is not? To what extent do people allow others to regulate what they find socially acceptable? The play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell focuses on the concept of significance and how people view it from different perspectives. This play showcases irony though what some of the characters view as trifles. Although both the men and women of this play recognize the irony of an unfinished quilt, the women believe it is symbolic for Mrs. Wright’s complex character, while the men view it as nothing more than a trifle. Paying attention to detail is what allows the audience to form their own opinion on what they believe is significant.
The unfinished quilt in this play is referenced to more than any other “trifle” in this play. This is due to the fact it is an artifact that both men and women find useful. The women in this play relate to the quilt in a maternal sense. This is what makes the women so understanding. Mrs. Hale feels as though she needs to make things right even though it is not her home. She states, “Mrs. Peters, look at this one. Here, this is the one she was working on, and looks at the …show more content…

Wright’s life, but for how she murdered her husband. When the women first noticed the quilt the examined the stitching and realized her nervousness was reflected in the quilt. The quilt being unfinished made the women think she was interrupted. In the play the woman suggested there could be a correlation between how Mrs. Wright’s quilt and possible ways she murdered her husband. Quilting takes a while like strangulation, but knotting is fast just as shooting a person is. Either the women don’t believe she is guilty or even in her guilt they are trying to cover for her. Mrs. Hale ironically leaves the audience in suspense by saying, “We call it-knot it, Mr. Henderson.”(Glaspell 268). This encourages the audience to think deeper about the play and draw their own

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