Write a One Act play script
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AboutTrifles.docxAbout Trifles—Mister Haraldson—ENC 1102 Final Exam—Spring 2020—page 5
The “trifles” tell the story.
The title of the play is Trifles. What is a “trifle”? Susan Glaspell chose that word as the title of her play for one reason: the play is about “trifles.” If you want to understand the play, you had better look up the definition for “trifles.”
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A key part of the play happens on page three (of the copy I’ve attached):
Mrs. Peters (the sheriff’s wife) said to no one in particular, “Oh, her fruit; it did freeze.” Then she said to the county prosecutor: “She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire'd go out and her jars would break.”
The sheriff (Mrs. Peter’s husband) makes fun of all women—but his wife and Minnie Wright in particular—for worrying about “trifles”: “Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves.”
Then the county prosecutor said, “I guess before we're through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about.”
Then Mr. Hale said, “Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.”
In Glaspell’s play, women worry “over trifles.” Men make fun of them for it. For most of the play, the women agree with the men: that they (the women) are silly and stupid for worrying “over trifles” and that only the men can worry about more important things.
But the “trifles” tell the story.
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Another key thing to remember: a huge part of any play is the part in italics. This tells you everything that is not actually spoken: when and where everything happens. Most of all, the italics tell you the character’s thoughts and actions.
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Minnie Wright murdered her husband, John Wright. Glaspell did not come right out and say so when she wrote the play Trifles. However, the entire play is based on that fact: Minnie Wright murdered her husband.
The way that Glaspell had Minnie Wright murder her husband seems particularly violent and cruel. When Glaspell was writing the play about 105 years ago, she must have thought, “How should I say Minnie Wright murdered John Wright?” Glaspell could have written that Minnie murdered her husband with a gun or a blow to the head: quick, painless, no suffering. But no: Glaspell had Minnie Wright murder John Wright by sneaking up to him in the middle of the night while he was asleep, slipping a rope around his neck, and choking the life out of him. That’s a slow, terrifying, painful death: up close, face-to-face, very personal. Minnie Wright had direct control of her husband’s life and death with her arms and hands; the tighter she pulled the rope, the more John Wright died. Perhaps most of all, John Wright would have awakened and seen that, of all people, his own wife—whom he loved, and whom he believed lived him—was slowly, surely, and very deliberately choking the life out of him. As Glaspell wrote Trifles, John Wright’s last minutes on this earth likely were filled with suffering, terror, and the terrible pain and heartbreak of being murdered by the woman he loved: the woman whom he had trusted; the woman whom he thought loved him.
If you read about Glaspell’s life, you’ll know she was a political radical. If you watched the movie Reds, you’ll know what Glaspell and her friends—who also were political radicals—believed about women’s rights and about relationships between men and women. You’ll know that Glaspell and her friends held these beliefs very strongly. It might even seem to you that Glaspell hated the character John Wright, whom she had created for her play. I think that Glaspell created John Wright to represent everything she despised about the people of Iowa, and maybe all Americans: their beliefs, values, and culture. In Glaspell’s mind, John Wright deserved to die, but he did not deserve a quick, painless death. He deserved a terrifying, heartbreaking death. Glaspell wanted John Wright to suffer.
Let’s start with that. What kind of a man was John Wright? Did he “deserve” to die a horrible death? We only know what Glaspell wrote about him in the play. The first clue is on the first page, when the neighbor, Mr. Hale, is describing the reasons he stopped by the Wright’s house in the first place: to ask John Wright if he’d “go in with me on a party telephone.”
(What’s a “party telephone”? Remember, this play takes place 120 years ago, out in the country in Iowa. The telephone was still a new invention. Many people didn’t have one yet, especially people who lived out in the country. When people did get telephone service, it was just a telephone wire that connected to all the houses. The technology was brand new for the time, but by our standards, it was very crude. People could pick up the telephone and listen to other people’s conversations. That’s why it’s called a “party line.”)
The Hales and the Wrights didn’t have telephones yet. Mr. Hale wanted to get a telephone for his house and connect it to a party line. He wanted to know if John Wright wanted to get a telephone at his house and connect it to the party line, too. Mr. Hale was riding to the Wright’s house in his horse-drawn wagon. He was talking to Harry. (Harry is a farmhand who worked for the Hales. He does not actually appear in the play.) Mr. Hale said, “I thought maybe if I went to the house and talked about it [getting a telephone] before his [John Wright’s] wife, though I said to Harry that I didn't know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John.” Mr. Hale knew that John Wright didn’t want a telephone, but he knew Minnie Wright wanted one. Mr. Hale thought that if he talked to John in front of Minnie about getting a telephone, then John would might the telephone because his wife was watching. Then again, Mr. Hale also knew that John didn’t care about what his wife (Minnie) wanted. John Wright wanted peace and quiet. He thought people talked too much anyway. He didn’t want to listen to his wife talking on any telephone. He wanted his wife to shut up.
The play has more information about John Wright. On one side, he was a good man. He didn’t drink, smoke or gamble. He worked hard and paid his bills. He didn’t beat his wife or cheat on his wife. He made good money.
However, later on in the play, Mrs. Hale said, “I don't think a place'd be any cheerfuller for John Wright's being in it.” In other words, John Wright was not the kind of man who cheered up a room. Further on in the play, Mrs. Hale said, “he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him—[Shivers.] Like a raw wind that gets to the bone.”
So John Wright was also selfish, antisocial, and cheap. I might ask, “do you think John Wright deserve to die?” However, I think the better question is, “did Glaspell think he deserved to die?”
Glaspell seems to say that Minnie Wright gets away with murdering her husband. Does Glaspell believe that Minnie Wright deserves to get away with murdering her husband?
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I cannot explain in writing everything about the play that I would explain in class. You must read the play carefully to answer the following questions. (These questions are not your final exam!) The play has the answers to all these questions.
What kind of man was John Wright?
Did he deserve to die?
Did Glaspell believe John Wright deserved to die?
What kind of woman was Minnie Wright?
What was her life like before she got married to John Wright?
What was her life like after she got married?
Did Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters believe Minnie Wright murdered her husband at the beginning of the play? What about at the end of the play?
If Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters believe Minnie Wright murdered her husband, do they believe Mrs. Wright should get away with it?
Does Glaspell think Minnie Wright should get away with murdering her husband?
BIG QUESTION: Did Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters commit crimes? Did they lie to the sheriff and the prosecutor? Did they tamper with evidence? Did they conceal evidence?
Are Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters also criminals at the end of the play?
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Minnie Wright is briefly in the short movie, A Jury of Her Peers. The movie actually starts the day after the murder and then jumps to two days after the murder.
However, the play starts two days after the murder. Minnie write does not appear in the play. She’s in town, being held in jail. Mrs. Peters, Mrs. Hale, the sheriff (Mr. Peters), Mr. Hale, and the county prosecutor have come out to the Wright’s house. The women have come to gather some things for Mrs. Wright. The men have come to investigate the scene of the crime so they can figure out what happened.
The women notice “trifles,” and the “trifles” tell the story. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale combine (1) the “trifles” with (2) their own experiences as farmer’s wives, and (3) with what they know about John and Minnie Wright. They figure out what happened.
Read the play. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale find what the men are looking for. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale solve the crime. But what do they do then?
What are the men looking for? That’s obvious. They’re looking for clues to solve the crime. They have lots of clues about what happened, but they have a problem. The person accused of the murder is a woman. On top of that, the person she is accused of murdering is her husband. People just would not believe that a woman could do something so terrible: murder her husband. On page 12, the county prosecutor says to the sheriff: “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.”
It’s harder to convict a woman for murder than it is to convict a man for murder. Even if the all the evidence makes it clear that Mrs. Wright murdered her husband, a jury won’t convict her because she’s a woman. So, the men need something more: some kind of solid evidence that tells the story: not just what happened, but why. The county prosecutor, who’s the lawyer who will try the case against Minnie Wright, needs to give the jury a reason why she killed her husband. He needs solid evidence: something to show the jury, to prove the story.
The “trifles” tell the story the men are looking for. It’s right in front of their faces, but they don’t notice because they’re men, and men don’t notice “trifles.” Only women pay attention to “trifles” because women are silly and stupid. But the “trifles” tell the story.
One more question: is Glaspell making fun of these people and their beliefs? Is she making fun of the women for what they believe about themselves and the men? Is Glaspell making even more fun of the men, for what they believe about themselves and the women?
Is Trifles kind of a “dark comedy”?
