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Running head: TRIFLES

TRIFLES 3

Part 1. Terms for Drama

1. Exposition: part where we first meet the characters, learn what happened before the curtain rose, and find out what is happening now

2. Foreshadowing: a hint of what is to come

3. Dramatic question: the question that creates suspense in the viewer, the question we want answered; there may be more than one

4. Climax: the moment, usually late in a play, when tension reaches its greatest height

5. Conclusion or denouement: the play’s outcome

6. Rising action: part of the story in which events are moving toward a climax

7. Falling action: the subsequent events after the climax

8. Unities: unity of action, unity of time, unity of place; a single series of interrelated actions that take place within a twenty four hours in a single location

9. Stage business: any nonverbal action that engages the attention of an audience

10. Symbols: objects that suggest larger meanings

11. Irony: the use of words to convey a meaning that is opposite of its literal meaning

12. Dramatic irony: irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play

Trifles activity: Theater Critics

For this discussion board, I want you to pretend that we have just watched the debut of this show by the Provincetown Players on August 8, 1916, and we are impressed with how well Glaspell included all the elements of a good drama in such a short play. Write a positive review.  Of course, we are not actually seeing it, just imagining its production based on its script, but work with me here!

To give your posts more variety, please focus on one of these aspects of theater: plot, character, stage business, symbols, and irony. Use your elements to help you argue that this is a perfect play. You will need to explain how your particular element is working in the play and use quotes to make your point. For example, if you have character, examine each character and say why he or she is necessary to the play, using a quote for each. You should also use the terms for character we studied in the fiction unit: flat, round, dynamic, static, foil. If you have plot, show how all the plot terms listed (1-7) above are part of this play.

A play is as good as the features used to intrigue readers. The irony is an imperative feature showing an incongruity between facts that are expected and the events that really happen. Irony ensures that the audience makes a pause to think about the central idea being discussed. Irony makes a play entertaining by involving the audience in deciding the emphasis to an idea. Trifles use irony to deliver its central idea.

The irony is evident in the title 'trifles.' A trifle is a situation or objects with insignificant importance. However, the title revolves around crucial details surrounding the death of John Wright. Death is a mystery discussed reappearing in every act within the play. It is, therefore, ironic for the County Attorney to refer to conversations between Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters as trifles. These conversations end up being instrumental in solving the mystery. The irony is used in the play to depict ignorance of important details. The society holds certain assumptions and suppositions concerning women. The audience knows how women were pivotal in solving the death mystery, yet characters are oblivious of their contributions. The County Attorney misses vital information about a dead bird from the Sheriff's wife by simply assuming that she is "married to the law (Glaspell, 1924)." Throughout the play, men overlook important details dismissing them as obsolete. An example is seen when the men go upstairs to look for evidence. They assume the kitchen in their search, yet it is where important evidence is present. Glaspell effectively draws the audience into realizing women's central role in society (Glaspell, 1924). The author ironically twists events to present women as heroes, yet male characters are still cocooned in assumptions and lowered expectations towards women.

References Glaspell, S. (1924). Trifles: A Play in One Act. Boston: Walter H.

Part 2. For this discussion board, we are going to apply the concept of Trifles to Death of a Salesman. In Trifles, the real clues are “trifles,” small details the women notice and the men overlook. One of our jobs when reading literature is to look for “trifles” in the stories, plays, and poems, the small details that contain great meaning.  Often times trifles repeat, like the bird, the broken jars of fruit, the quilt, and thus gain meaning (trifles=motifs!).

Your task for this DB is to be amateur detectives (like Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters) and notice motifs in Act 1 of Death of a Salesman that are already repeating and building meaning. Here are some of the possibilities, but feel free to come up with your own ideas:

Stockings

Flute / music

Cigarettes

Eyes

Money—all actions driven by it, appliances, bills, cars—expenses

Smashed-up cars, cars in general

Contrasting characters of sons

Focus on the future

Cheese

Sports

Adonises—physical appearance

Lying/cheating/stealing

Cards

Liked but not well-liked

Contradictions

Apartment buildings of the city vs. ranch/frontier

 

Choose a motif and then show where it appears in Act 1 and how it begins to gain symbolic resonance from its repetition. Then end your initial post with a theme you see developing. Be sure to state your theme as a complete sentence. 

Part 3. Trifles/Motifs activity cont'd.

Either continue with your original motif, giving all the instances you can find of it in Act 2 and showing how the theme you first generated has been supported or has changed in some way,

or

if you were inspired by another person's motif, build on his/her ideas (following the same instructions as above, showing examples from Act 2 and how they affect the theme). 

Be sure to credit that student by name and engage with him/her in the replies.