Trifles Essay, Research Paper

Susan Glaspells & # 8217 ; s Trifles is a small treasure of a drama. In one short act, the dramatist presents the

audience with a complex human play go forthing us with a stalking inquiry. Did an abused Cornhusker state

farm married woman slaying her hubby? Through the clever usage of hints and the implying duologue of the

two chief characters, this slaying enigma unfolds into a psychological chef-d’oeuvre of tremendous

proportions. Written in 1916, the drama trades with the subject of the functions of adult females in society. This was a

clip before adult females had the right to vote or sit on juries. Shortly after composing the drama, Glaspell wrote it

as a short narrative entitled A Jury of Her Peers.

The scene is set in the cold, glooming kitchen of a Nebraska farmhouse. The room is rather mussy

with marks of incomplete work everyplace ; common pots, a soiled manus towel, and staff of life left unfastened on

the tabular array. The first characters to come in the phase are two middle-aged work forces, the county sheriff, Henry

Peters, and Lewis Hale, a local husbandman. They are followed by a younger adult male, George Henderson, the

county lawyer. Then, the chief characters arrive on phase, the sheriff & # 8217 ; s married woman and the husbandman & # 8217 ; s married woman, Mrs.

Peters and Mrs. Hale.

The work forces have arrived to look into the slaying of the proprietor of the house, John Wright. The

adult females have come to garner some apparels and personal properties for Minnie ( Foster ) Wright, who now

is in the county gaol on charges that she killed her hubby. The work forces are all caught up in the so called

& # 8220 ; of import & # 8221 ; probe of the instance, minimizing the adult females & # 8217 ; s concerns as being mere & # 8220 ; trifles & # 8221 ; , when

really the adult females are the 1s bring outing the hints which could work out the instance and uncover the

liquidator.

The & # 8220 ; trifles & # 8221 ; uncovered by the two adult females are fascinating to state the least. They tell the audience a

great trade about the place life and mental province of Mrs. Wright. The house didn & # 8217 ; Ts have a telephone

because when Mr. Hale asked if Mr. Wright would desire to fall in him in paying for a party line, Wright & # 8217 ; s

answer was & # 8220 ; folks talk excessively much anyhow and all he wanted was peace and quiet. & # 8221 ; When Mr. Hale found

Mrs. Wright, she was sitting in her rocking chair & # 8220 ; looking fagot, as if she didn & # 8217 ; t cognize what she was

traveling to make next. & # 8221 ;

Hale so went upstairs and discovered Wright’s organic structure lying in bed, a rope tied

around his cervix. Wright had been strangled.

The pieces of grounds found in the kitchen by the adult females paint a image of a despairing adult female

who had suffered mental and possibly physical maltreatment at the custodies of her cruel hubby for 30 old ages.

Jars of cherries that Mrs. Wright had preserved were found broken and the adult females assume it is because

of the cold. A roller towel was found dirty, soiled pots under the sink, and a loaf of staff of life on the tabular array was

left to travel stale. Mrs. Hale doesn & # 8217 ; t believe Minnie Wright did it because Minnie is still concerned about

the family things. She wondered how a individual could be strangled without waking up or rousing

person in bed with him. The adult females find a comforter that Mrs. Wright had been working on and the last

stitches are uneven and Mrs. Hale pulls them out. Mrs. Peters finds a birdcage with a broken door flexible joint

that looked as if person had been unsmooth with it. They find the dead bird wrapped up in silk in a box in

Mrs. Wright & # 8217 ; s run uping basket, it & # 8217 ; s make out broken. The flood tide of the drama is when the work forces return and Mrs.

Hale hides the bird in her coat pocket and Mrs. Peters keeps the secret.

The supporter of the drama is likely Mrs. Hale. She knew Minnie Foster Wright as a happy,

beautiful, talented immature miss before the old ages of labor and maltreatment by John Wright had turned her into a sad,

lonely and possibly, battered adult female. Mrs. Hale was sympathetic because she besides was a farm married woman but

at least, she had her kids to maintain her company. Mrs. Hale felt guilty that she hadn & # 8217 ; t taken the clip to

visit Minnie Wright but she excused herself stating that their was so much work to make on the farm and

the Wright topographic point ne’er looked cheerful.

The drama was filled with symbols, particularly the broken coop and the dead bird, which could hold

represented Minnie Wright herself, a adult female whose gusto for life had been squeezed out of her by her

autocrat of a hubby. There was suspense as the adult females hide the grounds, possibly salvaging Mrs. Wright & # 8217 ; s

life. This leads to a moral quandary. Did the adult females have the right to hide the grounds? Were they

making it merely for Minnie Wright or for all adult females who could ne’er hold a jury of their equals?