Trifles by Susan Glaspell

Question.

2. What clues lead the women to conclude that Minnie Wright killed her husband?

   The first four clues are the ruined preserves fruits, the left out load of bread, the nervously sewn quilt, and the half clean or messy table. These clues indicates the uneasy or unsecured feeling had by Mrs.Wright or Minnie that confronted with marriage problem and the reality that she had killed her husband. It is because she was once a happy and a joyful person that fancy the freedom that contributed her on singing.

   However the main evidence is the broken bird cage and the bird. It’s symbolize the life that Mrs.Wright have and what she really wants. It is noted that Mr.Wright was a kind of person that do not fancy thing that sings and brought joy to his life hence show the connection between him and the bird cage and the bird that he is the one who destroyed it. Killing the bird is like killing half on Mrs.Wright inner self and that’s what triggered her to kill her husband.

3. How do the men differ from the women? from each other?

   Trifles show the mind sense of a man and make fun of it. This is because man always assumed that women didn't have the power, guts, brain to do something. The man serve as an antagonist in the story. The make fun of everything the women discovered but couldn't even get a clue of what was happening in the house unlike the woman who solve the mystery by only sitting in the kitchen.

   In this kind of case, female has the advantages because it is in sense of emotion that surrounded the murder. They can relate every detail they discovered with the case and know that Mrs.Wright has something wrong with her feelings and soul that they uncovered. We can see from the character Mrs.Peter that told her part of story when she lost her child and relate it with the condition of Mrs.Wright that had her bird killed. It is clearly showed that the real investigator in Trifles are the women, not the man.

4. What do the men discover? Why do they conclude "Nothing here but kitchen things"?

   The men discovery is only base on the statement and sight of Mrs.Wright's neighbour that is Mr.Hale the told what he experience and that’s was not much of a help to the guys. But, they did discovered something that is the clothes that were sow by Mrs.Wright that was “knot” instead of “quilt” that give a clue on how the murder was carried out but was misguidedly interpreted the clue that they have found. It is also discovered by the women and nicely noticed the evidence.

   “Nothing here but kitchen things” show that the man in Trifles are being sexist toward the woman and look down on what they can do. “Kitchen” symbolize woman and the statement may look as if the man are degrading the women and put their opinion and capabilities behind man. This ego and misjudging thing is the weakness that the man didn't overcome and this maybe the reason that they didn't find the evidence in the first place and with one discovery they still wrongly interpreted it.