“Trifles” is a story about a murder. However, Susan Glaspell wrote it in such a way that bypasses the regular expectations of a murder mystery tale. The play focuses on “…the moral, social and psychological aspects of the assumptions and perceptions of the men and women who search for the murderer’s motive.” (Meyer 1368). Throughout the dialogue and events that take place throughout their inspection of the victim’s household, gender roles are revealed to be imperative.
Gender roles within a story can reveal extensive truths about reality. Some stories are more blatantly focused on the interactions between men and women than others are. “Trifles” is often referred to as a feminist play; therefore, gender roles are bound to be crucial in understanding the depth of these characters, and in what takes place in this cold house, surrounded by this cold tragedy and mystery. Immediately, as the story begins, the characters are introduced along with the setting. The first thing to be noticed is how they are introduced. The women are addressed by their “Mrs.” title, emphasizing their married status. The men are identified by their job titles. This brings into play home vs. the law, in a sense. (Holstein 282). The women are homemakers. They are here to collect personal belongings for the main suspect, the murdered victim’s wife, Mrs. Wright. Their perspective is that of coming into a home. Sitting in a kitchen, going through drawers, observing the bread on the counter and the broken glasses of fruit in the cupboards due to the cold. The men, however, are here with a purpose. This is a crime scene. They are efficient and technical, thorough and concentrated on the facts of what took place, and looking for the evidence to solve the case. Because of their initial approaches to this scene, their findings are vastly different. The men are looking for signs of forced entry, and discovering that the rope used to strangle the victim does belong to the Wrights, etc.
As the story progresses and tensions continue to rise, it is clear that the men and women separate themselves in their thoughts and perspectives. The men point out how silly it is that the women concern themselves with such things as fruit; ironically, these “trifles” are what solve the case. The reader is able to see a definite connection between the present female characters, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, and the suspected murderer, Mrs. Wright. It takes a physical stance, as both women come closer together in defense of the men’s ridicule of the disordered kitchen. (Glaspell 1371 ). They both understand the difficulties of what needs to be done to keep the house in order. There is an inherent defense that arises within them; they are able to relate to what it would be like if they were taken swiftly from home, and to have men searching and criticizing the state of their household. The County Attorney even says, “Ah, loyal to your sex, I see.” (Glaspell 1371). As the men move on to the upstairs, and continue their search for evidence and for a sign of any motive, the women are left to their own thoughts and theories. They take a much more personal position. They find her clothes to bring her; they save the last surviving jar of fruit, and decide to not tell her that the rest of them broke. To let her think that all is well. They notice a quilt, and decide in the end to bring that to her as well. As they observe the house, and even approach the topic of Mrs. Wright’s innocence, Mrs. Hale, who is in fact her neighbor, begins to feel sorrow and regret that she wasn’t there for Mrs. Wright. “I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be – for women. I tell you it’s queer, Mrs. Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things – it’s all just a different kind of the same thing.” (Glaspell 1376).
As the women search for patches and tools to bring to Mrs. Wright for her quilt, they make the discovery that unravels their previous uncertainty. The empty bird cage, and eventually the bird as well. Strangled, just like John Wright. Now the question echoes across each remaining page: Why do they remain silent? Is it just because they too are women, or is it something deeper? I believe it is the fact that they are seeing themselves, as girls and as women, in the tragedy of Mrs. Wright’s life. Mrs. Peters, as the wife of the Sheriff, knows the law and lives in the midst of it. But she too chooses to be silent, covering up their discovery. Mrs. Hale knows the Wrights to a better extent then Mrs. Peters does; she knows John Wright to be a harsh man. They recognize the emptiness that must have dwelled here, with no children, and with the daily tasks taking their toll on her mind. Although small, the bird was her escape into the past, to a time when music could be heard, when she herself was a girl and loved to sing and be lovely. As Mrs. Hale says, he killed that in her. That girlishness was smothered, and in turn he did the same to her last song, to her canary.
“Trifles” is the story about a murder. The murder of a heart and soul, the murder of music, and the murder of the man that took it all away. The interactions and different perspectives of the men and women throughout this play are crucial to the discovery of the real motive, and to the end result of the story. As the story progresses, the men see a crime scene, and the women see a home. They get a glimpse of the life of Mrs. Wright, and into the tragedy that drove her to kill her husband. The women keep silent, holding the canary in their pocket, the trifle that solves the case. Women have a lower status, especially in this Midwest farming town and story. So their silence is not unusual, and it allows them to get away with the knowledge of the truth. The men and women in this story have their own way of looking at each detail, and in the end, the answers lie deeper than what the men’s eyes are trained to see.
Sources:
Clarkson Holstein, Suzy. “Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell’s Trifles.” The MidwestQuarterly 44 (2003): 282-290.
Glaspell, Susan. “Trifles”. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008: 1368-1377.
Meyer, Michael. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008: 1368.
