What is the definition of “Trifles”? A thing of little value or importance. “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell is a one-act play, filled with mystery was later renamed “Jury of Her Peers. “Trifles” set in the time of the 1900’s before women’s rights. During that period women stay home, have babies and take care of the home. The play shows a few examples of the what trifles are.
The play opens with the scene of a murder. Mr. Wright dead with a rope around his neck. The neighbor came to the house was made aware of the crime and he left and call and sheriff. The sheriff Mr. Peter and the attorney Mr. Henderson are taking account from Mrs. Wright on what happen to her husband; the women Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are talking amongst themselves about small details, broken jam jars, her sewing, the canary and the cage.
These lines are symbolic "Oh -- her fruit," she said, looking to Mrs. Hale for sympathetic understanding. She turned back to the county attorney and explained: "She worried about that when it turned so cold last night. She said the fire would go out and her jars might burst. Mrs. Peters' husband broke into a laugh.” The jar of jam represented Minnie’s relationship with her husband before the
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marriage she was sweet and had fire and then the fire went out and something broke in the marriage. Minnie had been working on a piece of the quilt.
Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters found the pieces, one patch the sewing was different. Mrs. Hale noticed note it appeared her mind had been somewhere else while completing the block. The stitching showed her emotional state, as upset or worrying about something. While Mrs. Hale was looking for the pieces for the quilt they found bird cage, where is the bird? The thought was maybe a cat got the bird. The bird found in a box with here sewing things, dead. The neck had been wrung. The symbolism of the bird, Minnie was a great singer, and canaries known for singing. The cage was a symbol of how she felt in her marriage. Trapped, in a cage no escaping. How the bird died is very important. Mrs. Wright husband had a rope around his
neck. The line “Mr. Hales said “women are used to worrying over trifles.” Glaspell (pg.264) I believe the title “Trifles” because the woman and their close attention to detail. A change of the title to “Jury of Her Peeps” because in both the sheriff investigating and the information the women were her jury and the found the evidence for the murder.
Mrs. Wright, however, justified killing her husband due to Mr. Wright trapping her inside the house and how Mrs. Wright job is only to be domestic wife. When Mrs. Hale (farmer’s wife) and Mrs. Peters (sheriff’s wife) discovered a dead bird with her neck bruised all over, they start to put the pieces to the puzzle together and ...
In A Jury of Peers by Susan Glaspell, the story revolves around the sudden death of John Wright. There are five characters that participate in the investigation of this tragedy. Their job is to find a clue to the motive that will link Mrs. Wright, the primary suspect, to the murder. Ironically, the ladies, whose duties did not include solving the mystery, were the ones who found the clue to the motive. Even more ironic, Mrs. Hale, whose presence is solely in favor of keeping the sheriff s wife company, could be contributed the most to her secret discovery. In this short story, Mrs. Hale s character plays a significant role to Mrs. Wright s nemesis in that she has slight feelings of accountability and also her discovery of the clue to the motive.
“Trifles” written by Susan Glaspell explores the oppressive nature of an enduring patriarchal hierarchy within farm life throughout the 1900’s coinciding with the extensive psychological damage solitude and isolation imposed on the soul of, Mrs. Wright.
The central theme in “A Jury of Her Peers” is the place of women in society and especially the isolation this results in. We see this through the character, Minnie Foster and her isolation from love, happiness, companionship and from society as a whole. Not only does the story describe this isolation but it allows the reader to feel the impact of this isolation and recognize the tragedy of the situation.
Glaspell, Susan. "Trifles." Plays by Susan Glaspell. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, Inc., 1920. Reprinted in Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama. X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia Eds. New York: Harper Collins Publisher, 1995.
In Susan Glaspell’s “A Jury of Her Peers”, female characters face inequality in a society dominated by the opinions of their husbands. The women struggle to decide where their loyalty rests and the fate of a fellow woman. Aided by memories and their own lifestyles the women realize their ties to a woman held for murder, Minnie Foster Wright. Through a sympathetic connection these women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters have greater loyalty to a fellow woman than to their husbands and even the law; this greater loyalty ultimately shows the inequality between genders.
Susan Glaspell's play, Trifles, explores the fact that women pay attention to the little things that may lead to the solving of a bigger problem. Why are women so into the little things? The attention to detail seems to be the starting point to solving the bigger problem. Think of the little things as pieces of a puzzle. When the small pieces come together you see the bigger picture. In the play Trifles the men seem to think the women only worry about the little things, or trifles. What the men do not realize is that the women are actually solving the murder by worrying, or trifling, over the small details. To really understand this aspect we have to look at the play itself. The first example of the attention to detail is the fruit preserves. In lines seventy-eight to seventy-nine Mrs. Peters says, "She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire'd go out and her jars would break." To which the Sheriff replies, "Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worrin' about her preserves." In line eighty-three Mr. Hale says, "Well, women are use to worrying over trifles." If Mrs. Wright had not been preoccupied, she could have started a fire to keep the preserves from freezing. Another example of trifling is noticing that Mrs. Wright did not awake while her husband was being strangled to death. Unless the Wrights slept in separate beds, Mrs. Wright should have felt the struggle between her husband and the murderer.
When Mr. Wright killed the bird it took that beauty away from her. This prompted her to go insane and kill her husband. Not only was the bird dead, but, her clothes were no longer decent and the furniture was faded. With no other source of beauty Minnie turns to quilting.
Hale becomes more taken over by her feelings of regret. She constantly defends Mrs. Wright saying “…I’d hate to have men comin’ into my kitchen…snoopin’ round and criticizin’” (8). Mrs. Hale’s regret causes her to become empathetic as well as defensive. She finishes Mrs. Wright’s cleaning, curious as to what caused her halt, and begins to gather things to be taken to her. While searching for scissors, Mrs. Hale discovers Mrs. Wright’s bird in a box with its neck wrung. Though her curiosity gradually leads to the assumption that Mrs. Wright is guilty, she continuously backs the innocence of Mrs. Wright until she has no other option but to hide “…the box under the quilt pieces in the basket…” (15) to ease or possibly prevent Mrs. Wright’s
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.
In the short story “A Jury of Her Peers” and the play “Trifles” the same story is use, but both the stories have different points of views. But not are only the points of views different but the way the entire story is set up. In “A Jury of Her Peers” , a short story, the author Susan Glaspell goes into great detail about the events leading up to the the meeting at the house. While in the play “Trifles” Susan Glaspell doesn’t give any background knowledge she just throws into the story. While both “ A Jury of Her Peers” and “Trifles” are both similar in plot but different in points of view and amount of content.
In the story “A jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell the main character who the story is turning around is Minnie Wright who is accused of killing her husband when he was sleeping. Mrs. Peters the sheriff’s wife and Martha Hale an old friend of Minnie are the supporter characters of the story that joined their husbands to visit Minnie. The Story is develops around how Mrs. Peters and Martha Hale are trying to find proves about if Minnie killed her husband, which are a dead bird in the box, the dirty and poor clothes of Minnie, and the disordered house of Minnie.
Trifles is a play revolving around a murder. In Trifles, there are details, just not as many as there are in “A Jury of Her Peers.” The details in Trifles are lacking, not because Susan Glaspell did not put details in it, but because the details are in the stage directions and the stuff the narrator says. However, the small lack of details is compensated for by the level of suspense the play builds. Throughout the entire play, the reader is left on edge wondering if [insert name here] murdered her husband, only to find out in the end that she did. Plays generally build suspense, but not because it is a play. The suspense is built by the interaction between the characters and watching the plot unfold. Another thing that differs Trifles from “A Jury of Her Peers” is the formatting of the play. The play is formatted like plays typically are. All the background is at the beginning, followed by dialogue, and mixed with
Throughout the centuries, women have risen to become equals. While women now have rights and the ability to survive without the aid of men, the women in the early 20th century were not as fortunate. Susan Glaspell is famous for her plays and stories that showcase the sexism towards women of the 1900s. “A Jury of Her Peers” and “Trifles” both display and explore the struggles women endured as inferiors to men, while also depicting the traditional gender stereotypes and differences. Understanding that women have had to fight their whole lives to prove they are not inferior to men is a powerful part of history. In order to appreciate women and their journey to equality, it is important to understand how they were spoken
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