Trifles By Susan Glaspell Research Paper

In Susan Glaspell’s 1916 play, Trifles, apparent evidence points to Minnie Wright as the murderer of John Wright. Signs include the fact that Minnie slept undisturbed while someone strangled John to death with a rope. Moreover, that Minnie was emotionless regarding John’s death. In addition, through the omission of Mrs. Hale, John and Minnie Wright rarely had visitors, due to the Wright’s rather depressing and lonely farmhouse (Glaspell, 1916).

Finally, the canary and John’s death are similar in strangulation and neck injury, including the fact that a gun was somewhere within the Wright residence, but was not utilized to murder John (Glaspell, 1916). In addition, Minnie holds an emotionally fueled motive for the death of John due to

isolation, hard-heartedness, and from John robbing Minnie of her merriment. Overall, because of Minnie’s emotional abuse and neglect, Minnie is the prime suspect for and is John Wright’s murderer.

As a potential prosecutor, in this case, the evidence is plentiful to support Minnie Wright’s voluntary manslaughter, but not for premeditated, first degree murder.

The provided hearsay evidence, that would corroborate with testimonial evidence includes that prior to marriage, Minnie Wright, formerly known as Minnie Foster, characters described Minnie as the lively (Glaspell, 1916). In addition, prior to her marriage, Minnie wore pretty clothing, and to have enjoyed singing in the choir (Glaspell, 1916). Overall, Minnie’s life prior to marriage appeared joyful, happy, and

promising.

Following her marriage, Minnie moved into the old farmhouse with a rather gloomy kitchen, with her husband, John Wright. Considered a dutiful man and hard man, John Wright paid little attention to Minnie’s opinions and wished for nothing but peace and quiet, which forbade Minnie from singing (Glaspell, 1916). In contrast, Minnie used to be a lively and joyful lady but fell into an unhappy and forlorn life when she married John. Furthermore, as the Wright’s resided within their old farmhouse, visitors were scarce and Minnie’s summer work yielded only trifles, which only women worried about (Glaspell, 1916). As a result, Minnie is the perfect candidate as that of a domestic violence victim with ongoing internal, emotional trauma.

Key pieces of circumstantial evidence, other than the aforementioned stage drawn for the living conditions associated with Minnie Wright, is Minnie’s canary and her fear once Minnie laughed.

Minnie, who worked and jarred her own cherries the following summer, purchased a canary, which was sold cheap last year (Glaspell, 1916). Because Minnie enjoyed singing, the canary brought Minnie joy.
John, who wished for nothing but peace and quiet, was unaccepting of the singing. Therefore, when Minnie initially laughed when confronted by Mr. Hale about John’s whereabouts, Minnie suddenly turned scared. This displayed action shows a defensive and apprehensive gesture by Minnie in that Minnie displays fear from making too much noise as verbal and/or emotional abuse likely followed.

Then, following Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter’s discovery of Minnie’s quilt pieces, the stitching supports evidence that Minnie was started by something or at least nervous over unknown circumstances. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters then discovered a birdcage with its door ripped out and no bird inside (Glaspell, 1916). Shortly thereafter, the two women discovered a dead canary inside a pretty box, believed to have held Minnie’s scissors. The box, now representing a beautiful coffin for Minnie’s canary, held the dead canary whose neck was snapped, just like

John’s.

Therefore, due to the emotional anguish, years of separation, and the removal of the one thing that brought Minnie happiness, Minnie motive was clear. Minnie retaliated and inflicted the same pain and suffering to John, resulting in his death. Such actions were the blatant and a probable result of years of isolation and domestic abuse, thus resulting in the voluntary manslaughter of John Wright. Overall, the means of persuasion utilized to build this case is pathos (Three Means of Persuasion: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos Explained, 2016). Therefore, as the audience (jury) engaged in an emotionally connected with the aforementioned emotionally motivated environment, the story invokes sympathy and compassion for Minnie’s overall victimization.

References:
Glaspell, S. (1916). Trifles. In Kirszner, L. G, & Mandell, S. R. (2017). Portable Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. 9th Ed. Boston: Cengage Learning
Three Means of Persuasion: Logos, Pathos, and Ethos Explained [PDF] (2016, September 02). Retrieved from www.betheluniversityonline.net