English
Trifles notes 1
ENG 102: English Composition II
Lecture Notes #1:
Trifles, by Susan Glaspell (1916)
Pages 771-784
Setting
Glaspell wrote this play in 1916, so that is likely the time frame. The play takes place in an “abandoned farmhouse” that is “down in a hollow and you don’t see the road” (780). The atmosphere of loneliness and isolation is an important backdrop for the play. The exact location isn’t indicated, but the Sheriff is reporting details of Mr. Wright’s murder to the County Attorney, who has just returned from business in Omaha, which is in Nebraska.
Themes
1. Relationship between genders, particularly men’s attitude towards women
Whenever the men speak of “the ladies” (775), they do so in a condescending, patronizing way. Mr. Hale: “. . . women are used to worrying over trifles” (775).
County Attorney expresses disdain for Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping, while Mrs. Hale defends it (775).
County Attorney dismisses Mrs. Hale’s suggestion that the house was not a “cheerful place” (776) because of John Wright’s presence, not because of Mrs. Wright’s housekeeping.
“The men laugh” (778) at women’s discussion/speculation about Mrs. Wright’s sewing plans.
2. Appearances vs. reality: not knowing what people are going through in the privacy of their homes
Mrs. Peters tries to convince Mrs. Hale not to “reproach [herself]” (780) for not having come to visit Mrs. Wright more often.
3. Justice: legal vs. moral injustice
The men seek justice for Mrs. Wright’s alleged crime, but Mrs. Hale questions the injustice of how Mrs. Wright was treated throughout her marriage: “That was a crime! That was a crime! Who's going to punish that?” (782)
4. Plight of women
Glaspell calls attention to the shared experience of women at this time and the desperation to which it can drive them.
Mrs. Hale: “I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be—for women. I tell you, it's queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things—it's all just a different kind of the same thing” (782).
Character development
Mrs. Hale is defensive and protective of Mrs. Wright from the outset while Mrs. Peters is uncertain about her innocence. She initially believes, “. . . the law is the law” (778), the men have “important things on their minds” (778) with this case, and she tells Mrs. Hale, who fixes Mrs. Wright’s uneven sewing, “I don’t think we ought to touch things” (779).
The turning point for Mrs. Peters is the discovery of the dead bird, the realization that Mr. Wright must have killed it, and the recollection of her own childhood trauma. A boy had taken a hatchet to her kitten right in front of her, and she wanted to “hurt him” (781). Mrs. Peters also empathizes with Mrs. Wright’s childlessness as her own baby died when he was two (782), and she never had other children.
Mrs. Peters finally conspires with Mrs. Hale to hide potential evidence implicating Mrs. Wright (i.e., the dead bird), declaring that although she is Sheriff Peters’ wife, she is “Not” exactly “married to the law” (783).
Symbols
1. Emphasis on cold in Wright house
House is literally cold as fire has gone out.
Mrs. Wright’s jars of fruit preserves have broken due to the cold, leaving a sticky mess.
Mrs. Hale recalls Mr. Wright as being a cold, hard man: “Just to pass the time of day with him— [Shivers.] Like a raw wind that gets to the bone” (780).
Lack of children in Wright marriage suggests cold relationship.
2. Title of play: Trifles are trivial, unimportant, insignificant things.
3. The rocking chair: Mrs. Wright’s absence from the scene, yet her continued role in the play. The rocking chair is a reminder of her detached response to husband’s murder.
4. Sewing: Men dismiss sewing as one of the domestic activities women are preoccupied with, but it serves an important function in the play.
Mrs. Wright’s sewing basket contained a quilt she had been “piecing” (778); Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters “piece together” the mystery of Mr. Wright’s murder. (See attached image of what a quilt looks like.)
Uneven sewing on the block of the quilt that Mrs. Wright had been working on suggests her nervousness. (Mrs. Hale “fixes” it.)
The question about which sewing method Mrs. Wright was going to use, “quilt it or . . . knot it” (778), ultimately applies to Mrs. Wright’s strangulation of her husband with Mrs. Hale’s last line declaring she was going to “knot it” (783).
5. Mrs. Wright’s maiden name, Minnie Foster: Mrs. Hale’s use of Mrs. Wright’s maiden name suggests how different she was thirty years ago before marrying Mr. Wright: “How—she—did—change” (780).
6. Analogy between Mrs. Wright and the bird: Mrs. Hale says, “. . . she was kind of like a bird herself— real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery” (780). She used to love to sing in the choir. Like a bird, “She used to sing. He killed that, too” (781).
7. The bird-cage, with the broken door (779): If Mrs. Wright is analogous to the bird, the broken cage represents her freedom or liberation from her repressive and likely abusive marriage.
8. The dead bird, with its neck wrung (781): This is the final motive for Mrs. Wright’s murder of her husband, whom she kills in the same way that he killed her bird. She killed him with a rope that “choked the life out of him” (782).
Stage effects
Notice the physical separation of the male and female characters on stage (men upstairs investigating; women downstairs in the kitchen).
The kitchen, which the men regard as the domain of women’s domestic chores, ironically yields the most clues to the murder.
Pay attention to the stage directions, the words in italics describing the characters’ actions, expressions, tone, etc. These are important in helping you to visualize the play.
Other literary techniques/devices
1. Narrative perspective: We know what Mrs. Wright said only through Mr. Hale’s account. While she is arguably the main character, she never actually appears in the play as she is being held in jail.
2. Foreshadowing: Several hints suggest that Mrs. Wright will not be prosecuted for allegedly killing her husband.
Seeing the bird-cage, the County Attorney asks, “Has the bird flown?” (781) Remember that the bird is analogous to Mrs. Wright.
The men fail to find evidence that would convict her of the crime. The County Attorney says, “No, Peters, it's all perfectly clear except a reason for doing it. But you know juries when it comes to women. If there was some definite thing. Something to show—something to make a story about—a thing that would connect up with this strange way of doing it—” (782-783).
3. Dramatic irony: This is a particular type of irony in which the reader/audience is aware of something that some of the characters in the play do not know. (This device can also be used in fiction. For example, in “The Cask of Amontillado,” we knew that Montresor was planning to kill Fortunato, but Fortunato did not.)
In Trifles, the reader/audience knows that the women have found the Mrs. Wright’s dead bird, but the men do not. There are many other examples.
4. Irony: For all their investigating, the men fail to solve the crime, while the women do so intuitively.
Ultimately it is the “trifles” that solve the crime. Mrs. Hale says, “I don’t know as there’s anything so strange, our takin’ up our time with little things while we’re waiting for them to get the evidence” (779).
The women have already figured out what happened and why by “piecing together” clues they find, while the County Attorney futilely states: “Now let’s go up again and go over it piece by piece” (781). The men seek evidence, but do not find it; the women are not looking for evidence, but see it. Their kind of vision is different from that of the men.
On the next page are some images of quilts, such as the one Mrs. Wright was sewing.
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Courthouse Steps (Traditional)
There are many examples of Log Cabin pattern quilts in the Illinois State Museum's collection. Log Cabin Quilts are made of arrangements of a repeated single block pattern. The Log Cabin block consists of light and dark fabric strips that represent the walls of a log cabin. A center patch , often of red cloth, represents the hearth or fire.
The Log Cabin pattern has been popular ever since. One reason is because the foundation piecing technique is easy to do. The log cabin block has a large number of attractive and versatile settings that create different looks. This gallery contains quilts with several variations of the Log Cabin pattern, like Straight Set, Barn Raising, Courthouse Steps, and Light and Dark. You can also design your own setting . This activity requires a flash plugin on your computer, which may be downloaded for free on the Macromedia site .
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Copyright © 2000 Illinois State Museum Society |
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