Trifles Symbolism

The play Trifles was written by Susan Glaspell in 1916 to be a one act play. The play was adapted from a real life murder trial that Glaspell covered as a journalist in Iowa. The story reveals a woman driven to murder by an unfriendly husband and their lifeless marriage.The title of the play, Trifles, is meant to highlight the idea that men consider the roles of women to be inconsequential or trivial. The men in the story symbolize authority and society’s attitude towards women. The play is an insight into the lives of poverty stricken rural women and the role that women face in society. Glaspell shows us the elusive nature of truth and uses symbolism to argue for equality between the sexes. The play begins in Minnie Wright’s kitchen. Mrs.
Wright finds herself in jail while the death of her husband is being investigated. The story begins with the local Sheriff and his wife, the County Attorney, and the Wright’s neighbors; the Hale’s, arriving at the Wright’s house. As the investigation unfolds the author uses dialogue to emphasize the roles men and women play in society. The author uses the back and forth to point out the roles men think women are responsible for,
COUNTY ATTORNEY: Dirty towels! (kicks his foot against the pans under the sink) Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?
MRS. HALE: Those towels get dirty awful quick. Men's hands aren't always as clean as they might be. COUNTY ATTORNEY: Ah, loyal to your sex, I see. (33-37)
To the County Attorney the only way to judge Mrs. Wright is by the tidiness of her home. Mrs. Hale tries to come to her defense, but the author shows that men aren’t willing to have this debate and would rather dismiss the arguments women make as frivolous. The author believes women are criticized for placing too much focus on trivial things. The men came to search for clues and saw the women as nothing more than a distraction from their task. Despite pointing out relevant clues the women are still isolated to their subordinate role of collecting Mrs. Wright’s belongings. Where the men saw a bad housewife the women saw evidence of a woman driven to madness.
MRS. HALE: She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir. But that—oh, that was thirty years ago. (158)
Mrs. Wright was once a happy person until her husband locked her away to a life of isolation.
Glaspell uses symbols to represent the common experiences of mistreatment that women face.
The discovery of the bird cage seems to absolve Mrs. Wright of any guilt in the eyes of the women of the play. To the women the broken bird cage symbolizes the Wright’s broken marriage. The women know the life of the bird and their marriage was snuffed out by Mr. Wright. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters work together to hide the evidence from the Sheriff and County Attorney to secure Mrs. Wright’s freedom. When Mrs. Peters shares the story of the boy killing her kitten with a hatchet she is expressing the mutually shared female experience of being hurt by men Mrs. Peters understands the risk they are taking because her husband is the Sheriff.
COUNTY SHERIFF: For that matter, a sheriff’s wife is married to the law. Ever think of it that way, Mrs. Peters?
. Glaspell’s use of symbols helped convey the loss of freedom that women experience.
The play Trifles offered insight into the mood of society at a time where the social status of women was viewed as being beneath that of men. The women in the play were courageous in their actions to stand against the loss of the freedom of many women. This play helped inspire many others to bravely fight for
equality.