Trifles Play Review

Trifles Play Review

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Trifles Play Review

Plot and setting

TheTriffles play begins as the County attorney visits Mr. Hale visits Mr. Wright’s house only to find Minnie the wife to Mr. Wright behaving suspiciously. It is out of this sudden behaviour that arouses Mr. Hale’s curiosity into conducting a self-induced inquiry of the house to find out the reason for Mrs. Wright strange behaviour.  Mr. Hale’s curiosity leads him to a dead man strangled with a rope who turns to be Mr. Wright in the upstairs who Mrs. Wright says when asked that her husband was killed by an unknown person while she was in her sleep.  After this discovery, Mr. Wright delve into investigations to find out who the killer was together with his friend Mr. Peter where they dug for possible evidence that would shed light to knowing the murderer (Glaspell, 2003).

The two men pay more attention to places like a bedroom where they think traditionally men spend most of their time. They do not find any evidence to link Mrs. Wright or someone else Mr. Wright’s murder since they ignored some places like the kitchen which could give them some leading evidence. However, the two men’s wives while at the chicken find a dead canary-bird killed in the same way that Mr. Wright was killed. On discovering the bird, the women have reasonable belief that it is Minnie who killed her husband but they do not reveal it, Mr. Peters and Hale, even as the play ends.

The Trifles takes place in the early 19^th century in America because at around the time that the universal suffrage right did not apply to women in America as evident in the play (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008). The play’s expectations were and are meant to reveal the loneliness that women go through while at the same time show the oppression they through at the hands of men. It is also expected to encourage into coming together when a need arises to support one of their own especially in protecting themselves. This is shown in the play where the women withhold information that could have seen Mrs Wright be found guilty.

The play advances the theme of analyzing the human psychology as well as the societal roles of men and women. Psychologically, the play reveals that men are lonely beings with no sense of communism in them. This is seen where women jointly agree to withhold the incriminating information against Minnie as men do not concern themselves with sharing any information with them. The theme of justice is also being portrayed where the women through hiding the evidence stand in the way of Minnie’s guilt.

The play uses imagery of a caged bird to represent how women are treated in that times society.  Martha tells that Minnie used to sing before her marriage but immediately after the marriage, she stopped. This symbolizes the sense of oppression women were under in marriages.

References

Glaspell, S.  Trifles.(2003)  Responding to Literature (4^th Ed.).  Stanford, Judith A. New York:  McGraw Hill, p. 455-67.

Shmoop Editorial Team. (2008, November 11). Trifles Narrator Point of View. Retrieved October 5, 2017, from https://www.shmoop.com/trifles/narrator-point-of-view.html (accessed on October 5, 2017)