I have
never read “Trifles” before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love that Glaspell
gives just enough information to leave some of the story to mystery. The women
say so much at times during their conversation without really saying anything at
all. The gender roles in the play are very interesting. As previously noted,
the men are blundering idiots, but the women are the voice of reason. From the
start of the play the men begin looking in the wrong direction: “Nothing here
but kitchen things” (1970). The women find clues in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen and Mrs.
Wright would have spent most of her day in the kitchen, but the sheriff and
county attorney decide to look in the barn. Why do you think that Mr. Hale and
Mr. Henderson would have found the barn a more appropriate place to search?
Mrs. Wright and Mr. Wright are
interesting characters and they are not even in the play. I think Mr. and Mrs.
Wright can also be analyzed based on gender roles. I believe Mrs. Wright was
controlled, isolated, and maybe even beaten by Mr. Wright. He took the last bit
of happiness she had in life (the bird) and so she killed him. In doing so,
Mrs. Wright displays strength and power over Mr. Wright. Is this wrong? How
much can someone take before they fight back?
It seems clear that Mrs. Wright was abused by her husband psychologically, which can be as damaging or worse than physical abuse. Like you, I think it likely that she was also being physically abused and isolated. Might she have interpreted the killing of the canary as a precursor to her own murder? Did she murder her husband in self-defense? How can we know?
ReplyDeleteI believe the men went to the barn for evidence because this is where most of the weapons or evidence would be likely to be found. Being that a woman is the suspect of the murder the men probably thought she put the rope back in the barn. Maybe they thought she needed more than just a rope to kill a man. This raises many questions that unfortunately we may never get the answers to.
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