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Figurative Irony In Trifles By Susan Glaspell

1209 Words5 Pages

Dramas are never just a simple story. Often, many dramas are much deeper than just the words written to make it up. To make the drama interesting and worth the readers' time, the author uses elements of fiction to help deepen its meaning. Elements of fiction are tied into the story but never actually stated which element is being used. To understand the drama to the full extent the reader much think about what is going on and read between the lines. Understanding the irony, imagery, and symbolism that is used in “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell will allow the reader to put more information together other than what is written to fully comprehend the meaning of the story. To first understand the drama ‘Trifles” the reader must know what type of …show more content…

An example of the author using figurative irony with the bird that Mrs. Wright kept. Mrs. Peters states “It’s the bird.” Mrs. Hale “But, Mrs. Peters—look at it! It’s neck! Look at its neck! It’s all—other side to.” Mrs. Peters says “Somebody--wrung—its—neck.” (Abcarian et al. 972). These phases are ironic because what happened to the bird is exactly what happened to Mr. Wirght. Mr. Wirght hated the bird, and it was not hard for the people that knew him to figure that out, Mrs. Hale stated “I wonder how it would seem never to have had any children around. No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird—a bird thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too.” Mrs. Peter’s said, “We don’t know who killed the bird.” Mrs. Hale states “I knew John Wright.” (Abcarian et al. 973). Mrs. Wirght was devastated when the bird died, it was the only thing keeping her happy in her marriage and when John took that from her, she ironically, wrung his …show more content…

Symbolism is used in dramas or stories to help show a hidden meaning in the story that the author wants to explain though the events of the story. For example, in “Trifles” the canary bird symbolizes Mrs. Wright. The canary bird symbolizes Mrs. Wright because it is extremely sweet and pretty like her but soon turned sad, lonely, and quiet because of entrapment. Mrs. Wright’s relationship with her husband started out fine but over time turned into neglect and emotional abuse. According to the scholarly source (Karagoz Gumuscubuk) women’s lives were formed and empowered under the restrictions of a domestic space. Women were forced into the lives of cooking, cleaning, and sewing, while men did the work, brought in money, and belittled women. Mrs. Wright was in a marriage that made her feel trapped and unhappy, but all she really wanted was to feel freedom and be herself

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