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Marylee Pendleton
P. Waters
English 1102
19 November 2013
Trifles
The play Trifles was written in the nineteenth century by Susan Glaspell (Maillakais). The
time period is extremely important because the nineteenth century is when “women’s suffrage”
took place, and it is very apparent in the play. Being a female writer during this time period was
not just uncommon, but almost unheard of because women usually did not have a real paying
job. Glaspell was very brave, even so brave that she wrote about how the women were treated
during this time period, which many women were too scared to even talk about. “Glaspell wrote
at a time when the boundaries between the private and public spheres were beginning to break
down” (Crocker).
In the first scene, it is told that John Wright was found dead in his home, and the only person
present at the house was his wife. This automatically made her a person of interest, so she was
sent straight to the police station for questioning. The play does not really get started until Mrs.
Peters, the sheriff’s wife, and Mrs. Hale, a longtime friend of Mrs. Wright, enter the Wright’s
home. Right when the women enter, the men tease them for their interest in Mrs. Wright’s
preserves. This was an example of how little men thought of women’s duties (Baire).
When the Sheriff and Mr. Hale go upstairs to investigate the Wright’s bedroom, the women
are left alone to determine whether Mrs. Wright was going to quilt or knot her square of fabric,
which the men thought was a “trifle” matter. According to Dictionary.com, a trifle is “a matter,
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affair, or circumstance of trivial importance or significance”. That is exactly how women were
treated during the nineteenth century. Not only were their duties, like sewing and cooking,
looked at as “trifle matters” but the women, themselves, were viewed at trifles by the men. In
reality, women’s duties were very important because the men would be starved and unclothed
without the women by their sides.
The women eventually find a birdcage in a cupboard while looking around Mr. and Mrs.
Wright’s house for a piece of paper and string. This puzzled them because there was no bird.
Also, the door of the cage was broken, one hinge was pulled apart. While looking for some
thread, Mrs. Hale finds a small decorative box. She opens it to find something wrapped in silk,
the canary bird, dead. The most interesting thing about it was that the bird’s neck was strangled,
which was the same way that Mr. Wright was found in his room. This immediately raises
concern (Glaspell 1864 - 66).
It is revealed through context clues that Mr. Wright must have strangled the bird because he
likes peace and quiet. This really upset his wife because the bird was the only thing she had, and
like Mrs. Hale said, “She was kind of like a bird herself—real sweet and pretty” (Glaspell 1865).
The murder of the bird brought Mrs. Wright to the edge, so she murdered her husband the same
way that he murdered her favorite thing, the bird. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters decided to keep the
evidence to themselves. They can relate with Mrs. Wright because they, too, know how it feels to
be rejected by their husbands.
The men never did find true evidence that Mrs. Wright is the one who murdered her husband,
but they still believe that she is guilty of the crime (Krentzman). This has to do with the fact that
in their eyes, men do not treat women poorly, they treat them the way they deserve. Which
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means that in their eyes Mr. Wright did not do anything wrong, and were killed for no good
reason. The men will never understand the murder in a similar way as the women do. The
women have real evidence that Mrs. Wright killed her own husband. However, they do not feel
that her crime was entirely wrong. The women know how it feels to be alone, neglected and
unimportant.
The women know that murdering someone is not okay. They also know that the women of
this time never get to feel superior, and by keeping the evidence from the men, they have a little
bit of superiority over them. Just the placement of the characters is symbolic because the entire
play, the women are standing beside each other, and the men are beside each other. The two
genders never mix. I feel that is because the men feel superior and the women know that they
need stick by each other and stand together (Pollaro). If something is symbolic then a person,
place, or object stands for something beyond itself, like the character’s placement or blocking in
the play (Lorcher).
Here is a quote from the play that shows what the women of the nineteenth century had to go
through. “Suddenly MRS. PETERS throws back the quilt pieces and tries to put the box in the
bag she is wearing. It is too big. She opens box, starts to take bird out, cannot touch it, goes to
pieces, stands there helpless. Sound of a knob turning in the other room. MRS. HALE snatches
the box and puts it in the pocket of her big coat.” (Glaspell 1868). That quote is a major turning
point in the play because it shows Mrs. Peters finally giving in even though she is “married to the
law”. It shows that the women are no longer going to let the men be in charge of everything, and
it was their turn.
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To me, the theme of the play is that small matters can mean big things. The men overlooked
the small things like the preserves and the little piece of fabric. To them, things like cooking and
sewing are just nonsense. If they did not overlook the “trifles”, then they would have solved the
murder. Also, if they treated the women like equals and realized that all the hard work they do
really is useful, then they would not have hidden the evidence from the men. It is very evident
through Glaspell’s writing that she too was affected by the women’s rights movement during this
century. The men need to treat their wives right, unless they want to end up like Mr. Wright.
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Works Cited
Baire, Dawn. The Use of Symbols in Trifles. LIT205A, 2008. Web. 17 Nov.2013.
Crocker, Lisa. “Studies in Liminality: A Review of Critical Commentary on Glaspell’s Trifles”.
American Literature Research and Analysis Website. N.p., 30 July 1996. Web. 02 Dec.
2013.
Glaspell, Susan. “Trifles”. Literature Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama 6th Edition. Ed.
Robert DiYanni. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2008. 1858 - 68. Print.
Krentzman, Adam. The Treatment of Women in Trifles. LIT205A, Web. 01 Dec. 2013.
Lorcher, Trent. “Literature Lesson Plan: Teaching Symbolism”. Bright Hub Education. iVillage,
11 Jun. 2012. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Maillakais, Mikes. “A Woman’s Place: Literary Background for Glaspell’s Trifles”. American
Literature Research and Analysis Website. N.p., 30 July 1996. Web. 17 Nov. 2013.
Pollaro, Cindy. “Major Images Found in Glaspell’s Trifles”. American Literature Research and
Analysis Website. N.p., 30 July 1996. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
“Trifles”. Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc., 2013. Web. 01 Dec. 2013.