Preview

Trifles By Susan Glaspell

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
654 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Trifles By Susan Glaspell
In the play "Trifles" written by Susan Glaspell, George Henderson (County Attorney), Henry Peters (Sheriff), Lewis Hale (A neighboring farmer) ,Mrs Peters and Mrs Hall Gather in the kitchen of John wright and Minnie wright's abandoned home to investigate the murder of John Wright. The house is a mess as it is described as There was unfinished business everywhere you look. Dirty dishes and a loaf of bread are setting out in the open. The scene looks like someone was in a hurry. Mrs. Wright was taken to prison because she was thought to be guilty of the murder. Mrs Peters and Mrs Hall are at the with their husbands to collect a few things that Mrs. Wright might want while she is in jail, and the men are there to investigate the actual murder and determine who …show more content…
Wright sitting in a rocker. When he asks to speak with her husband, Mrs. Wright says that he cannot speak with Mr. Hale because he is dead. Mr. Hale Does not believe Mrs wright and goes upstairs and investigates and finds that Mr Wright is actually dead and he has been hanged. George Henderson( the court attorney) then leads the men upstairs so he can search the scene of the crime. Ms Peters and Ms Hall stay downstairs and while searching for things to bring to Mrs wright they end up finding a dead bird that seemed to be strangled in a bird cage. They begin to think that Mrs wright did kill her husband since the bird was killed in the same fashion as her husband. Henry Peters (Sheriff) and Lewis Hale (A neighboring farmer) finish up investigating upstairs while the court attorney stays to try to find more evidence. The women hide the dead bird so it is not used as evidence. The Men eventually come to the conclusion that the wife killed her husband, but without any evidence she may be let off the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    While Mrs. Wright is helped by her friends to confiscate the weapon she used to kill her husband, Mary is bold enough to cook the frozen leg of lamb she had used to hit her husband at the back of his head. She further invites the Noonan, the police, and his friend “to eat the dinner she had fixed for her husband”. As Peters and Hale are searching for evidence at the Wright’s house, Mrs. Peters supposes that Mrs. Wright “slipped a rope around his neck that choked the life out of him.” The investigators in both stories are certain that the crime was committed by a person from inside the house, but they lacked the necessary information to link the…

    • 585 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Brandon Esssay Life

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages

    One significant reason for Mrs. Wright’s behavior was her relationship with Mr. Wright. Their relationship wasn’t good at all. Mr. Wright was seen as a good man, but he was known to neglect his wife. Mr. Wright showed no interest in anything that pleased Mrs. Wright, and he wouldn’t allow her to sing in the choir. Mr. Wright oppressed Mrs. Wright by not allowing her to leave the house or have any interaction with the outside world. The dead canary was also symbolic of how Mr. Wright wanted to kill anything that gave Mrs. Wright pleasure. The bird represented Mrs. Wright’s personality, and how sweet she was as an individual before she was married to Mr. Wright. The dead canary is the motive for why Mrs. Wright killed her husband. When Mr. Wright killed the bird, he killed her along with it. Mr. Wright’s cruel attitude and control over Minnie Foster caused her to change as a person. Her lively attitude had eventually decreased tremendously due to the ways she was treated by her husband. Clearly, Mrs. Wright’s relationship with Mr. Wright had caused her to behave abnormally.…

    • 836 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters clearly did not have respect for the law. They both kept the evidence that Mrs. Wright killed her husband a secret. These two women put themselves in Mrs. Wright shoes. They understood why Mrs. Wright killed her husband. They both knew that if their husband had treated them the way Mr. Wright treated Mrs. Wright that they would have probably done the same thing. They also snuck Mrs. Wright things in prison that they were aware she was not suppose to have. “Mrs. Peters is governed by this dogma, until she remembers the silence in her own house after the death of one of her children. This memory produces a powerful bond between her and Minnie 's experience of isolation and loneliness, so powerful, indeed, that Mrs. Peters herself attempts to hide the box with the dead canary in it—fully aware that this action goes against everything society and her husband expect her to do, not only on legal grounds but also because, as a wife, Mrs. Peters is not supposed to act against her husband” (Brown 2011 ). These two women were not close to Mrs.Wright but illegally hid evidence in this case in her favor.…

    • 729 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    HENDERSON (starts to think again): How can there be no sign of anyone breaking in the Wright’s house or any evidence of a motive that caused Mrs. Wright to commit this murder to her own husband . . . if it was her. MR. HENDERSON (turned looking at the women): Mrs. Gale and Mrs. Peters now, I know you two must know maybe what may have caused Mrs. Wright to commit this crime? MRS.…

    • 618 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The women also find that Mrs. Wright was making a quilt. The stitches were all normal up to a certain point, then are “all over the place” (1073). The women also discover an empty bird cage in the cupboard. The door of the cage is broken, as if someone had been “rough” with it. While looking through the quilting material, they find a pretty box containing the dead bird. They speculate that Mrs. Wright was…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    trifles bird symbolism

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages

    When the women are looking around downstairs they come across a bird cage in the cupboard. Mrs Hale observes the door is broken off and someone must have been "rough with it," suggesting the motive for the crime. When Mrs. Hale looks inside Mrs. Wrights sewing box hoping to find scissors she finds a box and inside is the dead bird wrapped in silk. The birds neck looked as if it had been strangled. The women recall that when Minne Foster was younger she was lively, wore pretty clothes and sung in the choir, they said "I heard she used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir." The bird represented Minnie before she was married to Mr. Wright. Mrs. Hale says, "She-come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself-real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and-fluttery. How- she- did- change." Minne and the bird were both caged, the bird was in stuck in an actual cage and Minne was stuck in the house all the time. Mr. Wright changed Mrs. Wright, he took all those good things away, he was controlling he didn’t allow her to see her friends or leave the house, he even stopped her from singing. The bird was her motive…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    (Glaspell 4) Hesitantly explaining the seeings of the crime scene, Mrs.Hale joins Mrs.Peters, Mr.Peters, Mr.Hale, and Minnie to investigate the crime. The people that Mrs.Hale joined criticizes the Wrights’ home and sees it as dirty and unkempt, but with Mrs.Hale being a farm wife as well, she understands why the house looks the way it does. “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm,” says Mrs.Hale defensively. (Glaspell 6) With Mrs.Peters, the sheriff’s wife, not being familiar with Minnie Foster, Martha repeatedly points out how uncheerful the home is. “But i dont think a place would be any the cheerfuller for John Wright’s bein’ in it,” says Mrs.Hale. This quote emphasizes that Martha knows Mr.Wright and recognizes it is impossible for an individual to be happy if living with him. Outside that home people see him as a good man, but personally he is the opposite of well-behaved. As the others observe the house critically, Martha does so sympathetically. Trying to help Mrs.Peters create a connection with Minnie Foster, Mrs.Hale gives a brief description of the young Minnie Foster…

    • 939 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wright, formerly Minnie Foster, used to sing before she married. After her marriage, she got a bird that sings. Mr. Wright, having already “killed” one form of singing, proceeds to do so with yet another form, the bird (paragraph 244). The bird is a reflection of Mrs. Wright’s pre-marriage personality, and when killed, it is essentially killing Minnie Foster again. The two women become sympathetic toward Mrs. Wright, backing up the desire to withhold the evidence of the dead bird. Meanwhile, the men are searching for evidence of motive, in order to convict Mrs. Wright. While the women are gathering belongings to take to Mrs. Wright, they discover an unfinished quilt that has some stitching that is out of place; Mrs. Hale decides that it would make Mrs. Wright happy if she fixed the stitching for her. The women also discover that Mr. Wright was murdered in the same fashion that the bird was killed. Mrs. Petersrecalls when her kitten was killed right in front of her, and remembers that she had wanted to “hurt” the person responsible, however, she was being held back. At that, she understands the emotions controlling Mrs. Wright and becomes more sympathetic to…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wright as a victim at various points through the story by depicting the male gender as belittling and irreverent. Portraying these qualities through the characters of Mr. Hale, Mr. Peters, and the county attorney, Glaspell displays how men were often dismissive of women during the time period of this story. This is demonstrated in the text when Mr. Hale makes the comment “But would the women know a clue if they did come upon it?” (10). The attitude that the men show towards the women is a perfect example of how it was typical for a man to belittle the female gender during the time frame of the story. Ironically, it turns out that the women are the only ones who discover any clues for solving the case. Glaspell also presents the idea that women’s work was unappreciated by the male gender. While inspecting the dirty kitchen of the Wright’s home Mr. Henderson states “Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?” (9). Being completely oblivious to what Mrs. Wright might have been dealing with at the time, Mr. Henderson makes a disrespectful comment that demonstrates the men’s insensitivity. This attitude that the men convey can be seen as a reflection of the way males treated women during this time period and also prompts the further analysis of the marriage between Mrs. Wright and Mr.…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    A Jury of Her Peers

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages

    “A Jury of Her Peers” chronicles the discovery of and subsequent investigation into John Wright’s murder. The story begins on a cold windy day in Dickson County with Martha Hale, being abruptly called to ride to a crime scene with Lewis Hale, her husband; Sheriff Peters, the county sheriff; and Mrs. Peters, the sheriff’s wife. She rushes out to join them in the buggy and the group sets off. They arrive at the scene of the crime, the Wright’s lonesome-looking house. Immediately Mrs. Hale exhibits feeling of guilt for not visiting her friend Minnie Foster since Foster had married and become Mrs. Wright (the dead man's wife) twenty years prior. Once the whole group is safely inside the house, Mr. Hale is asked to describe, to the county attorney, George Henderson, what he had seen and experienced the day prior. Despite the serious circumstances, he delivers his story in a long-winded and poorly thought-out manner, tendencies he struggles to avoid throughout. The story begins with Mr. Hale venturing to Mr. Wright’s house to convince Wright to get a telephone. Upon entering the house he finds Mrs. Wright in a delirious state and comes to learn that Mr. Wright has allegedly been strangled. The women's curious nature and very peculiar attention to minute details allow them to find evidence of Mrs. Wright's guilt and of her provocations and motives, while the men are unable to procure any evidence. The women find the one usable piece of evidence: the dead bird in the box. It's stated that Minnie used to love to sing and her husband took that away from her. But now finding her bird is dead, it is evident Mrs. Wright killed her husband. The women, finding justification in Mrs. Wright’s actions, go about hiding what they find from the men. In the end, their obstruction of evidence will seemingly prevent a conviction. The story ends here, and does not move into the occurrences after they leave the…

    • 334 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The bird represent the joyful life Mrs. Wright wants and use to have, and for Mr. Wright it represents his cruelty and abuse. The bird sings and provides warmth and joy for Mrs. Wright. The bird is a sign of cheerfulness in a bleary home. Mrs Hale states, "He didn't drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debts. But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him--." She stopped, shivered a little. "Like a raw wind that gets to the bone." Mr. Wright strangles the bird, once again neglecting his wife, trapping his wife in a bleary place, and being cruel and abusive.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Jury Of Her Peers

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Being a farms wife, she is bound to these difficult and repetitive tasks in which little to no reward or recognition is given. This gives her and Mrs.Peters reason to help Mrs. Wright and keep details away from their husbands and the sheriff. They feel bad for Mrs.Wright on the personal level understanding how agonizingly…

    • 574 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A Jury Of Her Peers Essay

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The story opens with Mr. and Mrs. Peters, the Sheriff and his wife- Mrs. Hale, and the county attorney Mr. Henderson traveling to the Wright’s home to investigate Mr. Wright’s death and find evidence connecting Mrs. Wright to the crime. Mr. Peters recounts entering the home and finding a “queer” (1) Mrs. Wright, in her rocking chair crocheting.…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Wright’s abusive behavior. When she married, Mrs. Wright led a quiet life as a Farmers’ wife and had no children. On the other hand, Mrs. Hale recounts Mrs. Wright as “Minnie Foster when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the choir and sang” (1394). The only joy and companionship Mrs. Wright experienced were that of her pet bird. As the women collected Mrs. Wright’s sewing things, they stumbled across a box with her dead bird wrapped in a silk cloth. After looking at each other in horror, Mrs. Peters confirms “Somebody-wrung-its-neck.” (1393). Before Minnie Foster became Mrs. Wright, her life was vibrant and full of life, now the only joy she possessed was killed by her husband and Mrs. Hale insists, “She used to sing. He killed that, too.” (1393). Though Mr. Wright appears to be an upstanding citizen, his heartless killing of Mrs. Wright’s bird intensified her reasoning’s for murdering…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The men disregard and taunt Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters because they were giving careful consideration to the things that the men believed were useless. They couldn’t accept that a woman is able to mastermind such a homicide. Despite the fact that these ladies did not know Mrs. Wright very well, they could…

    • 921 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays