Susan Glaspells’s Trifles is a little gem of a enjoy. In one short act, the playwright gives the
audience with a complex individual drama leaving us having a haunting question. Did an abused Nebraska
farm building wife tough her partner? Through the clever use of signs and the incriminating dialogue of the
two main characters, this murder mystery unfolds in a psychological masterpiece of enormous
amounts. Written in 1916, the play works with the concept of the the functions of women in society. This was a
time ahead of women got the right to have your vote or take a seat on juries. Shortly after writing the play, Glaspell wrote it
as a short story entitled A Jury of Her Colleagues.
The scene is placed in the frosty, gloomy home of a Nebraska farmhouse. The area is quite messy
with signs of uncompleted work just about everywhere, unwashed cooking pots, a dirty hand towel, and breads left open on
the stand. The first characters to the stage are two middle-aged men, the state sheriff, Holly
Peters, and Lewis Hale, an area farmer. They are followed by a younger man, George Henderson, the
county legal professional. Then, the key characters arrive on stage, the sheriffs better half and the farmer’s wife, Mrs.
The boys have came to investigate the murder with the owner of the home, John Wright. The
women have come to gather a lot of clothes and personal belongings pertaining to Minnie (Foster) Wright, whom now
with the county imprisonment on expenses that your woman killed her husband. The boys are all involved in the so called
“important investigation of the watch case, belittling the women’s problems as being pure “trifles, the moment
in fact the women are definitely the ones uncovering the clues which could fix the case and reveal the
The “trifles exposed by the two women will be intriguing for any woman. They inform the audience a
great deal regarding the home existence and state of mind of Mrs. Wright. The house didn’t include a telephone
mainly because when Mister. Hale asked if Mister. Wright would want to join him in spending money on a party series, Wright’s
reply was “folks speak too much in any case and all this individual wanted was peace and quiet. When Mr. Hale found
Mrs. Wright, she was sitting in her rocking couch “looking singular, as if the lady didn’t really know what she was
going to do next. Hale after that went 2nd floor and learned Wright’s physique lying while having sex, a rope tied
about his neck of the guitar. Wright have been strangled.
The pieces of evidence found in the kitchen by the women paint a photo of a desperate woman
who had suffered mental and perhaps physical maltreatment at the hands of her cruel partner for 30 years.
Containers of cherries that Mrs. Wright had preserved were found busted and the women assume for the reason that
of the cold. A roller hand towel was discovered dirty, filthy pots beneath the sink, and a loaf of breads on the table was
remaining to go dull. Mrs. Good doesn’t think Minnie Wright did it mainly because Minnie remains concerned about
the household things. She wondered how a person could be strangled without waking up or wakening
someone while having sex with him. The women look for a quilt that Mrs. Wright had been taking care of and the last
stitches happen to be uneven and Mrs. Blooming pulls these people out. Mrs. Peters finds a birdcage with a cracked door joint
that appeared as if somebody had been rough with it. They discover the lifeless bird concerned about silk in a box in
Mrs. Wright’s regular sewing basket, it can neck damaged. The climaxing of the perform is if the men go back and Mrs.
Blooming hides the bird in her coat pocket and Mrs. Peters keeps the secret.
The protagonist of the play is probably Mrs. Hale. The lady knew Minnie Foster Wright as a happy
beautiful, accomplished young young lady before the many years of toil and abuse by John Wright had converted her in a sad
unhappy and perhaps, battered woman. Mrs. Hale was sympathetic mainly because she also was a farm better half but
at least, she acquired her kids to keep her company. Mrs. Hale sensed guilty that she had not taken you a chance to
go to Minnie Wright but your woman excused their self saying that their very own was so much work to complete on the farm building and
the Wright place never looked cheerful.
The play was stuffed with symbols, especially the broken parrot cage and the lifeless bird, which could have
represented Minnie Wright herself, a woman whose zest for life had been squashed out of her by her
tyrant of your husband. There is suspense while the women cover the evidence, maybe saving Mrs. Wright’s
life. This may lead to a moral dilemma. Do the women have the right to hide the evidence? Were they
doing it simply for Minnie Wright or for a lot of women who could never have a jury with their peers?
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