Critical Essay on Trifles by Susan Glaspell

Introduction

Trifles is a play with a unified plot whereby the events follow each other in a sequence from the beginning to the end of the play. The play takes place in one day. However, there are verbal flashbacks that tell the audience about what had happened. The event of this day had been led by the murder of John Wright by being strangled with a rope in his bed. The wife has been arrested, and George Henderson who is the county attorney and Henry Peters a local sheriff has come to investigate the matter with the aim of ensuring that Mrs Minnie Wright is convicted and sentenced for killing the husband. They have been accompanied by the Lewis Hale who is a neighbour and their wives who have come to get some items that Mrs Minnie could require while in jail.

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The Theme of Antagonism in Families

The play establishes its theme on the relationship between men and women in marriage. The setting of the play plays a huge role in explaining the theme in the play even before the characters start talking. The messy kitchen clearly shows this at the beginning of the play; there is unfinished bread, and the table generally looks untidy. This indicates that married life in this society was messy. It is no wonder that as Peters and George go up with hale leaving their wives behind indicating that they do not value their thoughts about the investigation. The theme comes clearer as the play continues when it turns out that indeed Mr Wright was cruel to the wife and that could have been the reason that led to the wife killing him.

Foreshadowing

The title of the play is a foreshadow of what would happen later in the play. Trifle has a meaning of a thing of little importance. This comes out in the play with the cage being considered to have little importance by Mr Peters and Mr George who are in charge of the investigation. This cage holds a very important role in the investigation that would help to convict Mrs Wright for killing the husband. The fact that women can solve this case, yet they are considered to be of no importance, has also been foreshadowed by the title of the play.

The Element of Irony

Mr Hale, the sheriff, and the County Attorney are introduced as the play start and have come purposely to investigate the murder of Mr Wright. They have been accompanied by Mrs Peters and Mrs Hale who have come to collect Mrs Wright belongings. It turns out to be ironical that the investigators come out with nothing at the end of the play yet they had been trained on how to conduct the investigation effectively, and their wives who had no idea about investigations and how they are conducted finds out exactly what had happened. This is even more ironical putting into considerations that it is like these two women had been pushed away from the matter and considered to helpless on the matter at hand.

It is ironical to learn from Mr Hale that Mr John Wright had called him to install telephone, an object that would have made the wife get in touch with the rest and would not remain isolated or 'caged' again. But he was late because he came to install it when Mr Wright was no more, if he could have come earlier he would have prevented this somehow.

Use of Symbolism

The element of symbolism has also been well used in this play. The women while in the kitchen they discover a cage and a dead bird that had been killed the same way that Mr Wright had been killed. The bird and the cage were symbolizing the lives of women and how they were isolated and even oppressed by their husbands. The men were treating women like just a bird by controlling them to the extent that they could even hurt them. This could have been the cause of Mrs Wright killing the husband after killing the only thing that gave her company.

Evaluation and Recommendation of the Play

This play stands out among many other plays written. This is because the plot is simple to follow and anyone can understand it. There is no complexity on the plot because things are following each other in a chronological order only having verbal flashbacks to inform the audience about what had previously happened. The character especially the two women; Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters are likeable because of the contribution they have made in pulling the audience towards them instead of their husbands as a result of the 'cage discovery.' If I were to rate this play, I would give it nine stars out of ten because it has made use of literary elements effectively. This play can be watched by anyone but is more suitable for those in marriage because it has a lot of lessons on how to respect each other and the repercussion that would follow when one part oppress the other.