Trifles by Susan Glaspell

Trifles

Susan Glaspell’s play, Trifles, is about a woman who murders her husband because   he is the one to blame for her cold and lonely life.   The title itself is really used to give emphasis to the meaning of the play. Within the plot there lies an undertone of discrimination towards women, which I think tends to generate a more sympathetic feeling for Mrs. Wright.   Making it feel as though she is seen more of a victim then a cold blooded murderer.
There are many little things throughout the play that goes to prove that Mrs. Wright murdered her husband, and the ironic part of it all is that it’s the sheriff and the county attorney’s wives Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters who solve the case.   Although these women never point out all the “little things”, as the men like to call it, because they feel sad for Mrs. Wright and wish that they would have taken more time for her and gone and visited with her.
The men don’t realize that the little things are pieces of a puzzle and if they would put them all together they would see the bigger picture.   One example is how the women pay attention to the fruit preserves.   Mrs. Peters says she would worry about her preserves being in the cold without a fire started because the jars would break.   The sheriff just shrugs it off and Mr. Hale says that woman are use to worrying over trifles giving us a foreshadow of what lies ahead.   Unfortunately for them, if they would have paid attention they would realize that if Mrs. Wright was not preoccupied with something else, she would have started a fire to keep them from freezing.   Another little detail is that Mrs. Wright did not wake up, even if someone was a sound sleeper they would still have felt someone struggling, fighting for air and fighting for their life.   A third thing is the piece of the quilt, the wives were wondering if she was going to quilt it or knot it because a section was so messy.   The men at this point don’t understand why these women are so concerned with a...