The play “Trifles” written by Susan Glaspell majorly mirrors the relationship between husbands and wives, and their attitudes towards resolving daily hassles. The men were looking for the “effects” while the women were concerned with “causes”. Mr. and Mrs. Hale were the closest friend of the family of Mr. Wright John and aware of the strain in their marriage. Mr. Hale’s superficial effort to salvage the situation caused more harm than the deep emotional insight of Mrs. Hale who tried to save her friend. Mr. Hale’s testimony showed how close he was to the family.
Hale and Peters say that the death of her bird would have been her motive if she actually was her husband’s murderer, but the author utilizes the bird and its broken cage to be a comparison to Mrs. Wright’s life. The bird is Mrs. Wright. It was locked up in a cage as was Mrs. Wright when her husband was alive. He wasn’t a very “cheerful” man, therefore, people didn’t come to visit them. Over the twenty year time period of their marriage she became lonely, which resulted in her buying a bird and the drastic change in personality.
Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters chose to hide the evidence because they see part of themselves in Mrs. Wright and do not want to condemn her. This leads to the women’s motivation to hide the evidence. Mrs. Wright has been lonely and unhappy for many years going through emotional abuse, and the killing of her bird: the one living thing that cared for her may prove
Mrs. Hale regrets not being a better friend and is beginning to feel some culpability for the murder of Mr. Wright. We see dramatic irony in the fact that Mrs. Hale speaks of her lack of reaching out to Mrs. Wright with friendship played a role in the actions of Mrs. Wright and if she had what that friendship would have meant to Mrs. Wright. At the same time, Mrs. Peters inadvertently adds fuel to the flames of Mrs. Hale’s guilt by pointing out that Mrs. Wright did not even have children to occupy her days like Mrs. Hale did. Feeling even worse, the author uses imagery to show how desolate this farm really is. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters both realize now that what they have learned about Mrs. Wright (by being in her home) her life and marriage have been far worse than they could have
Found at the screen of the crime was a small bird, the bird had been strangled. The bird was Mrs. Wright only company in the house, therefore her husband killed the creature. The investigation points to Mrs. Wright becoming upset and anger with her husband after the death leading to the crime committed. Minnie Wright wanted her husband to feel not only the pain of murdered bird, but also herself. Minnie waited until the mid of night and tied the rope around her husband’s neck and strangled him just like he did to the bird.
Wright can be the victim that made her commit the murder is because of the loss of her pet canary. Getting back to the birdcage, Mrs. Wright could relate to the bird trapped in the cage because it was similar her living conduction of being stuck inside the house. “One can say that Mrs. Wright is like a bird herself, “sweet and pretty, but kind and timid and fluttery.” Being caged up and defenseless like the canary, Mrs. Wright becomes enraged enough to kill Mr. Wright (Zaidman).” Mr. Wright probably strangled the bird to death for the fact that Mrs. Wright was singing with the bird keeping her from working and making too much noise. In one reported study, abused women stated that their male partner had threatened to hurt and kill one or more of their pets, about 57% was reported that the man did harm or killed the animal(s) (Forell 56). The death of the canary shows a significant motive for why Mrs. Wright committed the killing of her husband because she can see herself in the bird and when Mr. Wright took the bird's life, a part of Mrs. Wright life was also taken away.
In addition, her choice of killing was to the neck with a rope as is similar to the way Mr. Wright killed her pet bird by wrecking its neck. Figuratively in this story, the bird is Mrs. Wright therefore, her killing the bird meant that she was close or already had killed Mrs. Wright’s true personality. The thought of this is what made Mrs. Wright rage vigorous from her cage as the thought of the constant oppression and the murder of her pet that influence her to reach for the rope. This scene is what drove Mrs. Wright to insanity as the constant nagging of abusive behavior and isolation is what made her leave her cage and remove the problem that was impeding her escape to
He swung his bag over his shoulder and walked away”(pg.34). This demonstrates when Wyatt didn’t want to have anything to do with anyone else but the Hollywood killer. Then the two became friends after having to be lab partners. Eventually the two became interested in the Hollywood killer. After this the two would spend a lot of time together and became very
In Susan Glaspell's play “Trifles,” there is a difference between the men and women’s way of perceiving evidence to Mr. Wright’s murder case. The men spend most of their time searching for solid evidence upstairs where Mr. Wright's murder takes place. However, the women spend most of their time in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen. Instead of seeking tangible evidence, they inspect the condition of the items and acknowledge how they have been muddled around. Different perspectives lead to a variety of discoveries such as the women’s way of perceiving evidence.
In this way, Tom is able to maintain composure and convince Daisy to stay with him. On the other hand, Wilson becomes completely distraught and is unable to think rationally upon discovery of his wife’s affair. This can be seen by Nick’s description of Wilson that “he had discovered that Myrtle had some sort of life apart from him in another world, and the shock had made him physically sick”(67). It is clear that knowledge of Myrtle’s affair has imposed a tremendous amount of stress on Wilson, so much to the point that he became sick. Additionally, George makes some poor choices as a result of this stress, including locking up Myrtle in the room and threatening to force her to move west.