Susan Glaspell's Trifles

American playwright, Susan Glaspell, is known for creating many different works during her seventy-two-year lifetime. One of her most renowned works is Trifles. Trifles is a play set in the early nineteen hundreds about the death of Mr. Wright. During this time, technology was not commonly used when conducting an investigation. The first person to fall suspect in a murder trial is the wife, Mrs. Wright. The play takes the reader along the investigation of Mrs. Wright’s house, the crime scene, and gives the reader information that allows the reader to infer that she is guilty. In Trifles, Susan Glaspell uses symbolism and setting to reveal the internal conflicts of Mrs. Wright.

Every killer must have a motive. One motive for Mrs. Wright is symbolized by the bird cage mentioned in these lines, “Why, look at this door. It's broke. One hinge is pulled apart” (Glaspell 144). The cage that Mrs. Wright kept her bird in is broken. This broken cage symbolizes her broken marriage to Mr. Wright. The bird also symbolizes Mrs. Wrights previous happiness. Minnie Foster was a happy woman who liked to dress vibrantly and sing. These qualities of Minnie foster are very similar to the qualities of the canary she had. The bird, to Mrs. Wright, was very special and represented a happier time. The bird is also one of the few things Mrs. Wright had that made noise. It can be inferred that the loss of her bird was very troubling and even angered her. These conflicting feelings are what became her motive. In Glaspell’s Trifles, setting reveals the internal conflicts of Mrs. Wright. The house the play is set in is described very negatively, “I've never liked this place. Maybe because it's down in a hollow and you don't see the road. I dunno what it is, but it's a lonesome place and always was” (Glaspell 144). These lines allow the reader to create a