Harrison Kuykendall
Instructor Mrs. Debbie Conner
English 102
19 September 2022
Trifles: Justifying the Murder of John Wright
Trifles is a one act play written by Susan Glaspell, in which the aftermath of John Wright’s
murder by strangulation is being investigated. Right out of the gate, it’s made clear that Minnie Wright,
John’s wife, is the one that committed the murder seemingly out of the blue. With a gleeful smile on
her face as the primary victim, Ms. Hale, walks through the door, it’s almost obvious that the cold
blooded murderer was indeed Minnie Wright. However, there is more to the situation that what first
meets the eye. So why did Minnie murder John? Why was Minnie acting so gleeful about the situation?
Who is truly the victim in this situation?
The play starts with Mr. Hale explaining to law enforcement exactly what he saw when he
walked into Mr. Wright’s house. He claimed that Minnie was sitting there pleating her apron, and that
she seemed to look “queer”, as if she “she didn’t know what she was going to do next”, as Mr. Hale
describes. As if it wasn’t clear enough, the story goes to explain that Mrs. Wright admits that John
Wright is dead. Her being the only one in the house, it makes it completely obvious that she is the
murderer. However, as the story goes on Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters go on to discuss that this behavior
was not at all normal for Minnie, and was almost completely out of the ordinary. Paired with the fact
that she was acting so happy-go-lucky, it almost seems as if she had lost her mind. So why was Minnie
acting the way that she was?
Neither of the women claim to have truly known John, but around town he was widely
considered to be a good, hardworking man. There was no clear reason at first as to why Minnie would
have murdered John unless she simply lost her mind. However, as the story goes on, the women open a
box to find a dead bird. While at first thinking it just died of natural causes, it is seen that the bird was in
fact strangled to death. They concluded that she had liked the bird because it was found in a nice
looking custom box in which she was going to bury it in. Mrs. Hale almost immediately concludes that it
was John who killed the bird. She says, “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird – a thing that sand. She used
to sing. He killed that, too.” She then goes on to claim that she knows John Wright would be the kind of
man who would kill the bird. Mrs. Wright loved that bird, loved hearing it sing to her, and John Wright is
clearly took that away from her simply because it annoyed him. This behavior can only be described in
one way; it was abuse. John Wright had clearly shown abusive behavior towards Minnie, and this drove
her over the edge. That’s why she seemed so gleeful when Mr. Hale arrived. While it may be obvious
that Minnie killed John Wright, it’s also clear that it wasn’t without reason. So who here is in the right?
On paper, Minnie is clearly in the wrong in this situation. She murdered someone, which is
obviously against the law. However, by how the events in this story pan out, it becomes clear that this
likely wasn’t the first instance of abuse from John Wright. Mrs. Hale says, “I knew John Wright”, after
Mrs. Peters tries to shrug off the possibility that John Wright was the one that killed the bird. Minnie
had apparently been in the church choir and loved to sing before John Wright forced her to stop. With
such passion from Minnie, it wouldn’t have been an easy task to make her give up singing. This indicates
heavy signs of domestic abuse, and as Mrs. Hale puts it, “That was a crime! That was a crime! Who’s
going to punish that?” John Wright robbed Minnie of her passion, and then to top it off he robbed
Minnie of her bird, which seemed to be the one thing keeping her happy. After he murdered the bird,
Minnie lost her mind and murdered him. So Minnie may have murdered John Wright, but John Wright
was NOT the victim here. He truly had it coming, and Minnie is fully the one deserving of sympathy.
So in conclusion, although it’s clear that Minnie’s actions were illegal, they were not done
without a valid reason. While other things could have been done besides murder, John Wright had
tested Minnie’s patience for too long, and he paid the ultimate price. It’s now clear that this was not a
cold blooded murder, and Minnie clearly needed help. While this was the worst way it could have
ended, Minnie is the victim in this story and is the one rewarded with the readers’ sympathy.