Trifles
1. Setting
The play Trifles takes place during a cold weather in the early 20th century .It takes place in a deserted farmhouse in the American Midwest. Glaspell in this play utilizes simple but effective setting elements to generate suspense in a bid to understand or resolve the mysterious murder that has happened on Minnie Wright farm. The choice of place, time and weather does a good job in attaining a mood characteristic to the mystery surrounding the murder. An important emotion evoked by the setting is disgust and disturbance. Moreover, the choice of characters plays an equally important role in evoking this emotion. Suspense, disgust and psychological disturbance are fuehrer fostered by the questionable behavior of Minnie Wright, as she is less concerned.
2. Characters
George Henderson- He is a court attorney who has been called to investigate the murder of another character John Wright and who will most probably also serve as the prosecution attorney if the case proceeds to trial. Henderson is young and very professional. He is however very dismissive of the interest of the women in the play when it comes to small details in domesticity. He ridicules Mrs. Wright for her supposed lack of home making skills.
Sherriff Henry Peters-He is a middle aged sheriff who is also the husband of Mrs. Peters. He arrives at John Wright’s house to examine the crime scene. He also teases the women because of their interest in Mrs. Wright’s quilt.
Lewis Hale-He is a neighboring farmer who enters the farmhouse of the Wright’s to enquire from John whether he can get hold of a telephone only to find him dead with his wife acting in a bizarre manner. He states that “Women are used to worrying about trifles”.
John Wright-He is a local farmer who was a good and dutiful man. However, he was also very hard and often neglected his wife’s well being and happiness. He did not pay attention to any of her opinions and forbid her from singing. The play actually centers on his murder.
Minnie Wright-She was born Minnie Foster and was formerly a very happy and lively girl who even snag in a local choir. However after marrying John Wright, her life became extremely forlorn and unhappy. Although she does not actually make an appearance in the play, she is suspected of her husband’s murder.
The protagonists in the play are the women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. On the other hand, the antagonists are the men altogether.
3. The Plot
The plot of play revolves around the residence of the deceased John Wright and his wife Minnie Wright. It has been set to bring out the emotional attachment of the play to the different scenes and the main event of investigating John’s murder. It is able to bring about the suspense and disgust surrounding John Wright’s death.
The first scene is in the kitchen where we are introduced to the main characters of the play. We meet the very disgusting and unconcerned Minnie Wright who is the main suspect. We also meet the investigating team including the arrogant County Attorney, the Sherriff and his wife and the neighbors. The kitchen does not provide any substantial information that would otherwise be helpful to the team of investigators. The women in the scene are left in the kitchen while the other team moves upstairs to the crime scene where John’s body was found. It is in the Wright’s bedroom.
During this scene, the audience is taken through an imagination of the events of the previous day when the crime occurred. Mr. Hale’s narration of the events gives a clue to the audience on the main suspect involved in the crime. It turns out to be Mrs. Wright. Hale recalls an narrates how Mrs. Wright casually disclosed to him the news of her husband’s death. He checks into the couples’ bedroom and confirms that the man as deed. He narrates of how he thought of removing the rope on John’s neck but to decide otherwise later. He decided then to make a telephone call to inform the authorities and as he was heading to do it, he meets the strange people arriving at the Wright’s residence including a doctor.
The men confirm that indeed John was dead and a rope was still hanging around his neck. They go downstairs again and inquire from Mrs. Wright how the rope ended on John’s neck to which she responds in the affirmative. She even cannot explain how the husband could have been murdered while she was next to him by implying that she is a sound sleeper. While this conversation is going on, the Attorney notices some mess in a shelf and uses it to verbally demean the women in the room. This scene brings to the fore how the two women stand to defend against demeanor for women when they move closer together Mrs. Hale defends Mrs. Wright amidst criticism about her housekeeping skills of the arrogant Attorney.
As the main suspect, Mrs. Wright is taken to jail as investigations proceed. The pr3eceding events further lead the audience into a position to disclose the possible events that led to John’s death. The women are collecting clothes to take to Mrs. Wright in the jail as they give a clue that suggests John Wright could have been oppressing his wife. We also realize that Mrs. Wright had been previously married to Foster. Further, the women discover a dead bird in a box as they were searching for a pair of scissors with a rope tied on its neck. The women try to hide the box with the bird as the Attorney and another man approach the room. The Attorney who happens to have seen the estranged bird asks the women whether they think Minnie Wright was would have to knot it or ‘quilt it’ in reference to the rope on the birds neck. The response from the women that she would Minnie Wright was going to knot it imply that they knew she was responsible of the husband’s death and that of the bird too. The plot ends as the men leave Wright’s residence and the women deep in discussion about the events.
4. Stage directions
Stage directions as employed by Glaspell assist in cultivating a good understanding of the play. For instance, there are characters who appear nowhere in the play but the stage direction s make their presence and as such their contribution felt throughout the play. Both Mr. and Mrs. Wright do not appear in the play but their presence is largely felt. This is a style uniquely used by Glaspell. In other examples, Glaspell uses stage directions to foster emotions. (“Mrs. Hale glances in a covert way at Mrs. Peters.”)(“Pulling herself back.”) This is an expressive direction, not a physical one. Incorporating stage directions into the play is something that reinforces a good understanding of the play.
5. Symbolism
Symbolism as a style is largely employed in the play – Trifles. As used in the play the Birdcage is used to symbolize Mrs. Wright’s unhappy house and life. As Mrs. Wright notes, before she married her husband she uses to sing. However, now that she is married she cannot do anything that brings happiness to her. The birdcage in this context symbolizes oppression.
The dead canary is used to symbolize the characteristics and personality of Mrs. Wright. For instance, there is a point where Mrs. .Hales says, “She was kind of like a bird herself-- real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and fluttery.”In addition, bird canary represented another reason for Mrs. Wright to murder her husband.
Trifles are a dessert classically consisting of spongy-caked soaked in rum, sherry or toppled with layers of jelly or jam. As such as used in the play, “trifles”, is used in the development of the theme-women oppression. This means that women roles are only confined to the kitchen.
On the other hand as used in the play, the noose is used to symbolize death. The noose is used to symbolize the death of Mr. Wright’s death. There are chances that Mrs. Wright took her husband’s life. As used in the play, noose is used to symbolize a break from an oppressive marriage.
6. Themes
The most obvious theme in Trifles is the difference between men and women. In the play, Glaspell questions the society’s preoccupation with gender roles and why the role of women is undervalued even in marriage. The two genders are differentiated by the responsibilities or roles that they play in the community, their communication methods, their physicality and their observation powers. Generally, Trifles refers to things of little value and importance. The men accuse the women of worrying over small or minor things. However, it is these “small things or details” that the women use to solve the details of Mr. Right’s murder. While the men are busy looking for external smoking gun clues and evidence, they do not recognize that the information about Mrs. Right’s motives for killing her husband actually lies around her domestic atmosphere.
7. Genre
Most of the “Trifles” story is told in a dialogue format because it is a play. There is a huge difference when reading a drama and a short story. A drama on its part involves an action crisis or conflict and its atmosphere is to a large part designed to be acted on stage by actors in front of an audience. On the other part, a short story has relatively few characters and its main aim is to craft unity or create a certain mood. In reading drama, the perspective of the characters is brought to the reader firsthand and the reader can even form mental pictures of the characters of their characters and their actions. However, watching a drama being acted live on stage is way more exciting than reading it because one is bale to not only form mental images of the characters but to also watch them live and performing.
8. Final thoughts
This play brings about the frustrations that women go through as a result of oppression by their husbands. It brings about the ignorance of men towards women feelings and emotions and how it may end up disintegrating a family. It shows how these frustrations build overtime and the victims feel justified to do anything to eliminate their victimizer without feeling guilty. During investigations, the Attorney demeans women and it a statement of how women have been ranked low in the society. The play is all about the plight of women and depicts what responsibilities men should take in the family apart from being the providers to the family.
Works cited
Ozieblo, Bárbara. Susan Glaspell: A Critical Biography. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000. Print.
Kennedy, X J, and Dana Gioia. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing. Boston: Pearson, 2013. Print.
