Trifles

Susan Glaspell's play Trifles explores male-female relationships through the murder investigation of the character of Mr. Wright. It also talks about the stereotypes that women faced. The play takes place in Wright's country farmhouse as the men of the play, the county attorney, the sheriff, and Mr. Hale, search for evidence as to the identity and, most importantly, the motive of the murderer. The attorney, with the intensions of proving that Mrs. Wright choked the husband to death, was interviewing Mr. Hale on what he saw when he came in to the house. The women, on the other hand, were just there to get some clothing for the wife who was in jail for suspected murder of her husband. However, the clues which would lead them to the answer are never found by the men. Instead it is their female counterparts who discover the evidence needed, but they choose not to tell the men what they found since the man were degrading them the whole time. After searching the house several times, tow of the men choose to stop and they leave while the attorney stays behind to find any sort of clue that could convict Mrs. Wright of the murder. The women withhold all the evidence they find, therefore getting back at them men for all the stereotypical and degrading comments they said. Thus allowing the attorney to attempt to find his own evidence and ending the play. Gaspell's play represents the misjudgment and stereotypes the women faced and how they dealt with those issues.

The men's one-sided view of the women prevents them from finding the key evidence that they need. The male investigators need to find, as Mrs. Peters puts it, "'a motive; something to show anger, or--sudden feeling'" (357). Yet the men never see the uneven sewing on a quilt Minnie Wright was working on before the murder. The quilt is a symbol of Minnie's agitation--her anger. The men, though, laugh at the women's wonderings about the quilt. To them it is of little importance. Likewise, the bird and its cage are easily dismissed. In fact, the men just as easily believe a lie about this bird and cage. When the cage is noticed, its broken door overlooked, the county attorney asks, "Has the bird flown?'" Mrs. Peters replies that the "'cat got it'" (360). There is actually no such cat, but the men do not know that and never question the existence of it. The bird, however, is vital to the case. Mr. Wright killed the bird, Minnie's bird, which may have provoked her to then kill him. In addition, the strangling of Mr. Wright, a form of murder which perplexes all when a gun was handy, is reminiscent of the strangling of that bird. It is another answer to the men's questions, but an answer they never find. The women, on the other hand, take note of all they see. They notice not only the bird, the cage, and the quilt but other things that the men call "trifles," like Minnie's frozen preserves and her request for her apron and shawl. These women are united; it seems, not only as country wives or as neighbors but on the basic level of womanhood. This is apparent from the start of the play. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters "stand close together near the door," emotionally bonded throughout the play and, here, physically, in a way, too. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters also have a kinship to Minnie, just as to each other. They respect her work as a homemaker. Mrs. Hale quickly comes to Minnie's defense when her housekeeping skills are questioned, saying, "'There's a great deal of work to be done on a farm'" (356). The women display their loyal to each other and their sympathy for one another, too. Mrs. Peters can identify with the loneliness and sadness of losing something you love. She understands "'what stillness is,'" and Mrs. Hale knows "'how things can be--for women . . . [they] all go through the same things--it's just a different kind of the same thing'" (360). These women are obviously united, and together they have a common enemy, as it were. But their foes, the men, are not united at all. The county attorney, in particular, is in a rush to find evidence. He hurries Mr. Hale through his story with "'Lets talk about that later . . . tell now just what happened when you got to the house'"