Trifles

Grace Whittemore 2/8/13 There are a lot of murders that have happened in the world, some of them have been solved and the murderer discovered, while others have been left abandoned, with no suspects in mind. The play, Trifles, by Susan Glaspell, portrays just one of those murders; the suspect not obvious to the reader at first, but in the end, the play is considered solved to some and unsolved by others. There are several detectives involved in this case, some more unconventional than others.

This play tells the reader that the small things are important by how women become trifles, trifles become evidence and trifles contribute to the conclusion of the play. In this era, the women in the play are thought of as unimportant and are looked down upon, thus considered trifles. As the men go around the house looking for clues, they overlook the simplest of clues. The county attorney says, “Dirty towels! Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies? ” (805), making the women look like trifles. Without good housekeeping, a woman is “useless”.

The men also look around the house expecting clues to jump out at them, not finding them within the small things. After looking around a crime scene, a quilt may not seem like a worthy clue, and, in fact, a mere trifle, “They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it! ” (808) Little do the men realize that the final decision that Mrs. Wright made about the quilt reflected her most recent decision. The men show, yet again, that they see the women as trifles and what they do as small, and insignificant by saying, “Oh, I guess they’re not very dangerous things the ladies have picked out” (812).

The men hardly observe what the women had picked out to take to Mrs. Wright, who is in prison. If they had, they might have realized what had happened to Mr. Wright, like the observative women did. If the men had not seen the women as trifles, they might have solved the case and convicted the real murderer. Throughout this play, items that seem like rather small and insignificant trifles soon become the evidence that would convict Mrs. Wright. The women begin to wander around the kitchen while the men are in the room where the crime was committed.

While they are in there, the women remember Mrs. Wright mentioning something about her cherries, right as she was being brought to the prison. In the kitchen, they find the last jar of cherries, “I think there’s some here that’s all right, Mrs. Peters. Yes—here; this is cherries, too” (806). They also found a large stain on the wall; it resembled blood, but was really a broken jar of cherries. After the small realization of something that had gone wrong in the kitchen, the women traveled into the room that had Mrs. Wright’s quilting basket. The women, without a second thought, opened Mrs.

Wright’s sewing basket. Within, there were quilting pieces, “She was piecing a quilt” (807). By moving those quilting pieces, the women find a box in Mrs. Wright’s sewing bag. Thinking it was just sewing scissors and needles, the women opened the box. Within the box, they find a bird. The pieces were clicking together, the cherries and in a cabinet in the kitchen was a bird cage, “It’s the bird” (810). The realization of how significant these objects are was just sinking in. The small clues around the house may be overlooked by men, but the women found many of those clues.

The clues seen throughout this play, even though they are small, contribute greatly to what happens at the end of the story. After seeing the quilting pieces, the women look to see what type of work Mrs. Wright was doing on the quilt. They also wondered if Mrs. Wright was going to quilt it or knot it, “It’s log cabin pattern. Pretty, isn’t it? I wonder if she was goin’ to quilt it or just knot it? ” (807). That statement itself ties into the play, as you see at the end of the play. Before, when they were in the kitchen, they had looked around to see why Mrs. Wright let it get so dirty.

In a cabinet, they found a birdcage, “Why, here’s a birdcage. Did she have a bird, Mrs. Hale? ” (808). The women never thought someone as quiet as Mrs. Wright would have a bird. That is why they are surprised later when they find the dead bird under her quilting pieces. With all this evidence, the women should feel obliged to tell the men about what they found. They might have too, if they hadn’t treated the women so poorly. The women had to decide what to do, save a poor trapped woman or serve justice. Their decision reflected on what they had discovered, “We call it—knot it, Mr.

Henderson” (812). That final statement also could have told the men what had happened to Mr. Wright; if they had been listening and finding all of the possible clues, no matter how trifle. Since the play Trifles does involve women and how they are underestimated by men, the title truly is a tie in with the play, how trifles are considered to all. Even without reading the play, you can assume that trifles play an important role in it. With the women considered trifles, trifles becoming evidence and the trifles contributing to the conclusion of the play, Trifles, should not be underestimated.