Triffles By Susan Glaspell week 13

Trifles

 By

Susan Glaspell

This play takes place in the home of John Wright and his wife. It is soon to be found that John is dead. He was found hanging by a rope in his bedroom. The setting is very cold and suspicious of his wife. The atmosphere of the opening scene is that of a woman who seems shocked and scared. She does not answer the Sheriff when he comes into her home about her husband. The sheriff asks to see her husband John. She tells him that he cannot see him. He wanders why. And the widow of John answers that John is dead. The atmosphere changes throughout the play from suspicion to concern for Mrs. Wright, some might even say that the women felt sorry for her or even responsible for what happened. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are standing close together by the door while Mr. Hale explains what happened to the county attorney. Where the women are standing indicates that they may not get along to well with the men. Minnie Foster who was the wife of John Well’s used to be involved in the choir and loved to sing. Minnie also used to take pride in the way she looked and was happy and social. Minnie’s marriage became a suffocating life for her . She no longer got to sing or cared how she looked. Minnie was very busy with the farm she lived on and took no time for herself. John Wright was crushing the life out of his wife and was causing her to really have no life at all. He stripped her of all she loved and caused her a lot of pain. I think that Minnie killed him because she could not take any more of his abuse. I believe that when he broke the canaries neck that was the final straw, she had reached her breaking point. The men fail to see the clues that the women find because they think that everything that the women do is stupid. I believe that what was meant by the line we call it it knot it was reffering to the rope around John’s neck it probably had been tied with the same sort of knot that was used in Minnies stitching.