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Trifles Symbolism

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Trifles is a play about two deaths, Mr. Wright and Minnie. Minnie’s spirit has been murdered by her husband and in return she murdered him. It is hinted many times that dark things may have happened in this house to Minnie. When Mr. Hale asked about Minnie’s husband wanting to put a phone “she started to laugh” “looked at me—scared”. Getting a phone could give Minnie some freedom the Mr. Wright did not want to give her. Having a phone means Minnie would be free to socialize without Mr. Wright’s guiding hand or to call for help against Mr. Wright. Minnie was afraid of Mr. Hale for a moment, before she remember that her husband was dead, she was afraid of what he would say to her husband about the phone. Mr. Wight was called a “hard man” he had …show more content…

The bird symbolized when Minnie used to be free and the tragedy what happened when she was married. The bird was captured and put in a pretty little cage, much like Minnie however her cage was one of marriage. The bird was Minnie’s youth and innocence. The bird was strangle by Mr. Wright, in turn Minnie strangled him in their marriage bed. He broke her in marriage so she killed him in the very symbol of marriage. The ladies found the broken cage, most likely broken by Mr. Wright in his attempt to harm the bird. The cage represented Minnie’s marriage and how its broken and she is now free form her captor. Although, the price of Minnie’s freedom is the death of Mr. Wright, what other choice did Minnie have. Remain under Mr. Wright’s firm control or have a chance at freedom no matter how fleeting it is. The fellow woman chose to stick to Minnie’s side than let the men know what possiably happened to Minnie. Showing the men these the broken cage and dead bird could easily give the motive they need to have Minnie be hung for murder. Instead, Minnie may stay in prison for the rest of her life. After all what woman could kill her own

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Three women, Minnie Wright, Martha Hale, and Mrs. Peters express sisterhood by hiding of incriminating evidence such as the dead bird while the men fail to prove of her complicity. This essay focuses on themes of sisterhood and gender roles, and the passiveness that manifests in the process of gathering evidence. The theme of Sisterhood. As the plot unfolds to ascertain the murder of John Wright, Mrs. Hale says, “it looked very lonesome this cold morning, it had always been a lonesome place” (Glaspell, 1992), while referring to the house of Minnie Wright.

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Mr. Hale and his son, Harry, went upstairs and found the body in the bed with a rope around his neck. Alarmed, Mr. Hale told Harry to go to call the police through a telephone across the road while he stayed behind at the Wright's’ residence. The police then arrived to the scene of the crime and took Minnie into custody. We are here today to prove that Minnie Wright is guilty of the premeditated murder of her husband, John Wright. We have evidence that proves that Minnie Wright had motivation to kill her

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Mrs. Wright is the main character in Susan Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles. While Mrs. Wright is being held by the police for her husband’s murder, a few men go to investigate her home, and a few women go along to gather some of her things to bring to her in jail. As the ladies collect Mrs. Wright’s possessions, they begin to come across trifles. The trifles include: a messy kitchen, a poorly sewn quilt, and a broken bird cage with a missing bird. The women view these items as important clues, and withhold their findings from the men so that they could help Mrs. Wright out of her troubles.

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The men of the group, much like John in “The Yellow Wallpaper,” consider themselves more capable than the women and refuse to consider Mrs. Wright as anything other than irrational. The men leave the women to their “trifles” on the first floor, where they discover a broken bird cage, and the bird’s body, broken, carefully wrapped in a small, decorative box. They realize that Mr. Wright had wrung the neck of his wife’s beloved bird and broken its cage. Mrs. Wright, once known for her cheerfulness and beautiful singing, she stopped singing when she encountered Mr. Wright. Just like he did with the bird, Mr. Wright choked the life out of his wife until, finally, Mrs. Wright literally choked the life out of her husband.

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The bird is Mrs. Wright. It was locked up in a cage as was Mrs. Wright when her husband was alive. He wasn’t a very “cheerful” man, therefore, people didn’t come to visit them. Over the twenty year time period of their marriage she became lonely, which resulted in her buying a bird and the drastic change in personality. The broken door to the cage represents Mrs. Wright’s freedom from her husband.

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The dead canary and its cage was a pivotal piece of evidence that the women discovered. The dead bird represents the old Mrs. Wright— Minnie Foster and its cage represents how she was

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She sees it as vital information; something that could present them with Mrs. Wright’s state of mind around the time of her death. Mrs. Hale is currently mending the quilt when Mrs. Peters asks where she might “’find a piece of paper, and string.’” This leads Mrs. Peters to discover the empty birdcage inside of the cupboard. Instantly, they both start asking one another questions regarding the cage; they are unable to recall Mrs. Wright ever owning a bird. While talking back and forth, they notice that one of the door’s hinges is broken.

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Throughout “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell a noticeable power struggle between the women and the men occurs. “A Jury of Her Peers” exposes the social injustices that women faced during the turn of the century. In the story Mrs. Wright lashes out against her husband as result of built up anger and societies social pressure. In the essays “from Silent Justice in a Different Key: Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’” by Suzy Clarkson Holstein and “from The Case of the Battered Wife: Susan Glaspell’s Trifles and ‘A Jury of Her Peers’” by Lillian Schanfield embody the theme of social injustices among women. The social gaps between men and women in “A Jury of Her Peers” and “Trifles” helped drive the plot and allowed a unique outcome to be achieved.

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The audience is constantly trying to figure out if Minnie actually killed John, more than if John abused Minnie. Because of this, “Trifles” is distracting and thinking about the murder takes attention away from the theme of abuse, while “POOF!” is directed on the abuse and what to do with her husband’s ashes the whole time. By staying on the topic of abuse and clearly laying it out, the audience can learn about domestic abuse and genuinely understand the meaning behind the

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and I understand?” (Glaspell, 17), which is why they try to hide the evidence at the end. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters know why Minnie killed her husband because they too live in similar households, but the men leading the investigation will not because they are blind to what they do to the women around them. The men continue to throw jabs at the ladies not even knowing the women they are making fun of had just found everything they needed to send Minnie to jail,

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(Ayan) "'Nothing here but kitchen things'" The men are insulting what women do on an everyday basis and saying it is unimportant. They think these little trivial items are of no importance to the investigation but the women who are willing to look deeper into why the crime took place know that everything is significant when trying to look inside Minnie Wright's mind. What men see as trivial women understand the importance of it.

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The women began to pity Mrs. Wright as they knew her before she married to Mr. Wright. The females felt pity, where the men just accessed the situation at hand. After the women examine the empty bird cage they remember the way that Mrs. Wright use to sing and compared her to her former self as Minnie Foster. “Trifles,” introduced the masculinity here from the Sheriff’s side instantly putting his instinct into saying that there was a murder that happened at the farmhouse, was caused by Mrs. Wright without any hesitation. He didn’t look into the sadness, or let the depressing home get to him as much as what his intentions and his well-being come into play before his

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