Analysis of "trifles"

Analysis of the play Trifles

The title of the play, "Trifles," is an important indication of the dynamic conflict that provides the tension of a serious situation. A man has been murdered by his wife, but the men of the town who are in charge of investigating the crime are unable to solve the murder mystery through logic and standard criminal justice procedures. Instead two women who visit the home where the crime occurred are able to read a series of clues that the men cannot see because all of the clues are embedded in domestic items that are specific to women.

The characters go to the Wright's home the day after the murder. The antagonist Mr. Hale, Mr. Peters and Mr. Henderson are there to focus on the investigation. The dual protagonists are Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters who are there to collect things that Mrs. Wright requested. The women unlike the men treat the house like home, instead of a crime scene. The behavior of the characters gives us a perspective on the roles of men and women at the time. These roles are what lead to the conflict in the play, self-important men and the women they expect to wait on them.

The first conflict takes place before the play begins which is the war between Minnie Wright and John Wright. The play is set in the kitchen, a housewife's main domain and responsibility. Traditionally it is a woman's duty to keep it clean, but Mrs. Wrights kitchen is unkempt an act of defiance against her role as a wife. Mrs. Wrights by killing her husband frees herself from the one person who held her to her housewife persona.

The other conflict forms when the men walk through the Wright's home letting the women to trail after them. During the investigation, the men support one another's assumption of what is significant, while the women observe noticing important clues that the men dismiss as trifle. The women find the quilt and noticed the sewing pattern. The alteration in the sewing represents a change in Mrs. Wright's character. At first the stitching are normal but, then they become erratic hinting on nervousness. The women wonder if Mrs. Wright planned to quilt or knot the patches together. The sheriff laughs at the women and their inquiry, yet it alludes to the decision of Mrs. Wright tying a knot around her husband's neck. Identifying with Mrs. Wright the women withhold judgment and instead try to focus on what might have motivated her. The women finally find the motive in the dead canary. Now the women struggle with the decision which leads to the dramatic question: Will the women reveal what they discovered?

The women acknowledge that John Wright not only killed Mrs. Wright's canary, but her very spirit. Mrs. Wright understands her husband's action as a symbolic strangling of herself. It is not just because he kills the bird, but because she herself is a caged bird and he strangles her by preventing