Symbolism
Dramatic Irony
- The broken bird cage symbolizes her broken marriage and she is finally free.
- The bird and how it died symbolizes Mrs. Wright killing Mr. Wright because they both died in similar ways.
- The women are finding clues throughout the play that can lead to the conviction of Mrs. Wright while the men remain oblivious about the clues.
" It was an awful thing was done in this house that night, Mrs Hale. Killing a man while he slept, slipping a rope around his neck that choked the life out of him."
"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. "
Social Commentary
- Susan Glaspell criticizes how men treated women in the early 1900s.
- The men treated women as inferior and thought they should only do house work.
"Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?"
Trifles
- The women were looking for items to help with the quilt which the men considered insignificant. The women ended up solving the murder
"My, it's a good thing the men couldn't hear us. Wouldn't they just laugh! Getting all stirred up over a little thing like a—dead canary. As if that could have anything to do with—with—wouldn't they laugh!"
Isolation
- Mrs. Wright was isolated from the rest of the world when she was married to Mr. Wright.
" I think maybe that's why she kept so much to herself. She didn't even belong to the Ladies Aid...She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir. "
Focus
The gender differences are very prominent through the repetition of the trifles and the idea of isolation.
Background
- "Trifles" was written in the early 1900s when women didn't have many rights.
- They were denied many rights and were expected to do all the housework.
Summary
- The sheriff, county attorney and Mr. Hale show up at Mrs. Wright's house with Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters who are the wives of the men in the story.
- The men go upstairs and find Mr. Wright strangled to death by a rope.
- The women are told to stay downstairs and to gather things up that Mrs. Wright might need while she is in the jail cell.
- The men constantly make fun of the women for worrying about "female things".
- While gathering items they find a dead canary and broken bird cage and come to the realization that Mrs. Wright killed her husband.
- The women decide to hide their discovery from the men which could convict Mrs. Wright of murder.
Trifles
By, Susan Glaspell