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Katy Feldman
Critical Analysis
Professor Jim Knippling
English 112
Winter 2012
The Bonds of Sisterhood v. Brotherhood
In small farming communities in the early 1900s, it was not uncommon for every
inhabitant to be acquainted with each other. Such is the case in the play Trifles by Susan
Glaspell. The supposed peace of a small farming community has just been interrupted by the
murder of a Mr. John Wright. The one-act play opens with the sheriff, county attorney, and key
witness entering the home of the deceased along with the wives of the sheriff and the witness.
These are the only five characters in the entire play, but the workings of their relationships and
the oppression by the men onto the women create an intricate plot in the well-written crime
investigation. However, it seems unlikely that a sisterhood could form between three characters,
especially since one never even appears onstage within the 11 pages of the play. Mrs. Hale (the
wife of the key witness) and Mrs. Peters (the wife of the sheriff) bond through uncovering how
the ‘trifles’ in Minnie’s life fit together as the evidence to her crime. Meanwhile, a very different
bond is forming between the men as they also attempt, unsuccessfully, to piece together pieces of
the same crime. They, however, overlook the same ‘trifles’ that the women find curious, which
leads to their inability to discover the motive.
From the instant they walk in the door the dynamics of the investigation are greatly
divided between the men and the women. The men view the house as a crime scene, while the
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women see a home; the men overlook every day, mundane things like a quilt as typical, while the
women notice disheveled knotting which is actually a clue to the crime. After they the sewing is
“all over the place” (Glaspell 6), the women even begin to act as investigators wondering, “What
do you suppose she was so nervous about?” (Glaspell 7). They begin to understand early on that
they are finding important clues. Ordinary domestic ‘trifles’ are actually the pieces to the puzzle,
but the men do not see it this way, which is why they are not able to uncover a motive for the
crime. Women, at the time the play was written, were seen only as domestic creatures.
Ironically, though, this is what makes the men incompetent investigators for this particular crime.
They are unfamiliar with the inner workings of running a household, so it can be argued that they
are not even capable of solving this crime because they do not function as women do.
Irony is also presented in the treatment of the women by the men and how parallel this is
with the motive for the crime. The men see these women as unintelligent, which is likely the
reason they are allowed to have any knowledge of the crime scene in the first place.
Unfortunately for the men, their allowing of the women into the home will soon be the reason
they will not ever be able to come up with sufficient evidence for motive. Had the women not
had access to the knowledge, they could have never solved the crime. Then they could not have
chosen to hide the evidence to guarantee a difficult trial against Minnie Wright. They make a
conscious decision, in finding the strangled bird, to hide this piece of evidence. The stage
directions note that “Mrs. Hale slips box under quilt pieces” (Glaspell 8) when the men return to
the kitchen, and Mrs. Hale again hides the truth when the men ask about the cage. She says “we
think the – cat got it” (Glaspell 9) though she and Mrs. Peters have already discussed that Minnie
was afraid of cats. The bonds of sisterhood compel these women to hide this evidence from the
men.
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The murder would have never been committed though, had John Wright not treated his
wife just as the other women’s husbands are treating them. The women are empathetic to
Minnie’s situation as a housewife on the farm, and are therefore better equipped to understand
her logic and reasoning. Being more analytic by nature, the men cannot sympathize with a
woman who feels suppressed by her husband; nor would they be sympathetic anyway because
they are seeking justice for one of their own in the bonds of brotherhood. Mrs. Hale and Mrs.
Peters feel these bonds as they recall more and more of Minnie’s life when she was unmarried as
Minnie Foster, rather than Minnie Wright. They recall that she was “kind of like a bird herself –
real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and – fluttery. How – she – did – change,” (Glaspell 8)
they say. They knew this woman before her husband prohibited her from singing like the bird,
which is why they believe she killed him. After seeing the murdered bird and mangled cage, the
women understand that John took the life from the sweet animal, just as he had done to his wife.
The women understand how she must have felt, and commit a similar act of treason against their
own husbands by hiding the evidence and choosing to side with one in their sisterhood.
Glaspell uses the irony of the small community and the characters that are acquaintances,
but not close friends, to form unlikely bonds against the opposing genders. While the men are
seeking justice and analyzing every possible clue, they overlook the domestic trifles that the
women focus on. This is ultimately the reason they cannot produce a motive for the murder, and
the reason they will not be able to present a good case against Minnie Wright. The women
understand Minnie’s situation and are better able to see the real clues to the murder. These
differences between women and men strengthen the bonds between the three women of the
sisterhood against the men of the brotherhood.