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

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).
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Susan Glaspell's Trifles
1167 Words | 3 Pages
Susan Glaspell's Trifles explores the classical male stereotype of women by declaring that women frequently worry about matters of little, or no importance. This stereotype makes the assumption that only males are concerned with important issues, issues that females would never discuss or confront. The characters spend the entirety of the play searching for clues to solve a murder case. Ironically, the female characters, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, uncover crucial evidence and solve the murder case, not the male characters. The men in the play, the Sheriff, County Attorney, and Hale, search the scene of the crime for evidence on their own, and mock the women's discussions. The women's interest in the quilt, broken bird cage door, and dead canary, all of which are assumed to be unimportant or trifling objects, is what consequentially leads to their solving of the crime. The women are able to discover who the killer is by paying attention to detail, and prove that the items which the men consider insignificant are important after all.
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A Comparison of Feminism in Trifles and A Jury of Her Peers
1103 Words | 3 Pages
Mr. Hale found his neighbor, John Wright, strangled upstairs in the Wrights’ house with Minnie Wright, John’s wife, sitting calmly downstairs. With John Wright dead and his wife in jail, Mr. Hale, the sheriff, their wives, and the county attorney all crowded into the Wright’s house to try to find clues about the murder. While the men go upstairs, they leave the women downstairs “.worrying over trifles.” (“A Jury of Her Peers” 264) Unbeknownst to the men, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find clue after clue that would convict Minnie Wright of the murder. Instead of telling the men about the clues, the women hide the clues and the men have no idea what the women have found.
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A Comparison of Mrs. Hale and Mr. Wright in Trifles, by Susan Glaspell
1069 Words | 3 Pages
In the play Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell, a small number of people are at the Wright house trying to figure out why and how Mr. Wright was murdered. Mrs. Wright is already the suspect, and all that is needed for the case is evidence for a motive. The jury needs something to show anger or sudden feeling so that they can convict her for murder. The men, Mr. Henderson, Mr. Peters, and Mr. Hale are there to find the evidence. The women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, are there to pick up a select few items for Mrs. Wright. While the men are going about business and looking for evidence to build a case against Mrs. Wright, the women are looking over what Mrs. Wright left behind and intuitively trying to understand what happened. They are also trying to fathom why Mrs. Wright would be compelled to perform such an act of violence. As the story goes on, it constructs each of the characters in slightly different means. Susan Glaspell presents Mr. Wright and Mrs. Hale as having contrasting and comparable characteristics. While Mrs. Hale and Mr. Wright differ in terms of emotions, they are similar in their cleanliness and are well respected by others.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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...
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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...
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Justice In Susan Glaspell's Trifles
972 Words | 2 Pages
In the play Trifles, Susan Glaspell brings together three women through a crime investigation in the late nineteenth century. Glaspell uses symbolism, contrast of sexes, and well-constructed characters to show that justice for all is equally important to finding the truth. Perhaps the most prevalent literary device in the Trifles is the rich symbolism. Each of the women in the play are equally important, but come together to become more powerful. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters directly bond, while Mrs. Wright indirectly contributes from jail by leaving them small clues.
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Susan Glaspell's Trifles

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