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Trifles By Susan Glaspell Research Paper

559 Words3 Pages

n the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, she uses many symbols to indicate why Mrs. Wright killed her husband John Wright. While Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale were gathering items to give to Mrs. Wright who was being held in jail, they discovered that Mrs. Wright had a bird that they found dead in a pretty sewing box wrapped in a piece of silk. Mrs. Peters says to Mrs. Hale, “Why, here's a bird-cage. Did she have a bird, Mrs. Hale?... Why, look at this door. It’s broke. One hinge is pulled apart” (Glaspell, 2013, p.1057). The women say that they couldn’t see something like a cheery bird in such a sad household. They think that a cat must have killed the bird or that the bird died of an illness, but instead they find it dead in a box. It looked as if someone was rough with the bird and strangled it. …show more content…

Wright was going to bury it since it was wrapped in silk in the sewing box. Therefore, Mrs. Wright must have cared an awful lot about the bird. After both of the women realized that the bird was violently strangled, they start to compare their own experiences with a dead animal and their feelings. Mrs. Peters whispers to Mrs. Hale, “When I was a girl-my kitten-there was a boy [who] took a hatchet, and right before my eyes-and before I could get there-(covers her face an instant.) If they hadn’t held me back I would have (catches herself, looks upstairs where steps are heard, falters weakly)-hurt him (Glaspell, 2013, p.1060). Mrs. Peters cat and Mrs. Wright's bird show the same significance in the care for those animals. Mrs. Peters admits that she would have hurt the boy just like Mrs. Wright did to her husband. Both of the women now understand that this was Mrs. Wright's breaking point. “Their perspective impels them imaginatively to relieve her entire married life rather than simply to research one violent moment” (Holstein, 2003,

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