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Woman's Work

Trifles, The Character Development of Minnie Foster

Minnie's Quiltwork

"“We all go through the same things—it’s all just a different kind of the same thing.”

Interpretation of an imagined body of work, Minnie’s quilts

Click slides at right

Town Square

Town Square

“She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir.”

Her life was just beginning as a young woman. At this point she was herself - Minnie Foster. Considered lively and pretty, she had the regard of her peers, and her whole life spread out before her. As part of the community, she might have joined other women her age in piecing a “Town Square” quilt.

Double Wedding Ring

Double Wedding Ring

“But 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…”

As a young woman, she meets what she likely considered her “Mr. Right”, and they marry. We don’t hear any accounts of their courtship, or any sweeping romantic timeline of events. This was a marriage without much affection, by the approximation of Mrs. Hale.

Nevertheless, Minnie Foster likely met her new life as Mrs. Wright with some anticipation. The young woman may have had reservations, but she was considered sweet tempered by her peers, and would have not yet had real reason to doubt her connubial happiness. Waiting for her wedding day, she might have worked on a quilt as a symbol of their commitment to one another, a double wedding ring quilt.

Bird of Paradise

Bird of Paradise

“...she was kind of like a bird herself—real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and—fluttery. How—she—did—change.”

This might have been something she worked on, as the reality of her life began to change her. Her personality starts to bend under her Husband’s hardness of bearing. Mrs. Wright is no longer simply reserved, but being shaped into a timorous shadow of herself.

Lone Star

Lone Star

“I've not seen much of her of late years. I've not been in this house—it's more than a year.”

“Wright was close. I think maybe that's why she kept so much to herself.”

“I dunno what it is, but it's a lonesome place and always was. I wish I had come over to see Minnie Foster sometimes.”

The isolation at the hand of her husband might have been reflected in the piecing of a lonestar quilt. Kept away from other women who might have provided even a little emotional support or solidarity, the loneliness of it would have been acutely felt.

Down the Garden Path

Down the Garden Path

“She'll feel awful bad after all her hard work in the hot weather.”

“If I was you, I wouldn't tell her her fruit was gone. Tell her it ain't. Tell her it's all right.”

Working hard for herself through the hot summer, she picked and preserved cherries. This might have been a moment where after all these years, she had begun to regain some personal worth and was thinking and hoping for a better tomorrow. Preserving is something done with thoughts for the future; maybe this was a future she imagined was hers alone. As she hoped for something to change in her life, she might have sat down to a make a “Down the garden path” quilt, thinking of a little garden all her own.

Red Work

Red Work

“But, Mrs Peters—look at it! It's neck! Look at its neck! It's all—other side to.”

“Wright wouldn’t like the bird...If there'd been years and years of nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful—still, after the bird was still”

The authorities were looking for a sudden burst of anger, but overlooked the years of built up fear and animosity. The canary would have been her only daily contact with another living thing. The singing little bird might have recalled her back to days where she was part of something, singing with the choir.

Her husband silenced her voice then, and in his inability to allow anything sweet, stole the life from the bird, just as he had her. The canary was nearly decomposed in its little red coffin, so we don’t know how long it was that Minnie had to think about where her life had gone. While she planned an escape of sorts, she might have sat down to something that took more concentration, embroidering a bird on a redwork quilt.

Log Cabin

Log Cabin

“Well, Henry, at least we found out that she was not going to quilt it. She was going to—what is it you call it, ladies?

MRS HALE: (her hand against her pocket) We call it—knot it”

As the phrase goes, “Give ‘em enough rope, and they’ll hang themselves”. Mr. Foster corrupted the sweet nature of his wife with his severity, and killed any joy she might have had. After years at the hands of this type of abuse, Mr. Foster was given enough rope to facilitate his own hanging, which was literally with his own rope.

Minnie was nervous as she pieced together the last quilt of her married life, a log cabin quilt. What should have been a home built together with a life partner, their own Log Cabin, turned into a prison of sorts. If she were charged for the murder of her husband, she would either be sentenced to just another jail cell, or very well hang along with her husband. While this might have been a daunting thought, even more so would be the thoughts of regaining personal liberty, thoughts of becoming Minnie Foster again. Sitting in the aftermath of the death of her husband waiting for the authorities to come, she might have tried to finish out her Log Cabin quilt - knotting it at the edges.

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