Trifles by Susan Glaspell Depicts a World

Trifles by Susan Glaspell depicts a world in which women are ignored in society. The play takes place in the Wright home after Mr. Wright has been murdered. Mr. Peters and Mr. Hale come to the scene to investigate the crime that has taken place. The investigators believed that Mrs. Wright is to blame for her husband's death, but they have no idea why should would do that. As the men's wives -- Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale -- wait downstairs they end up solving the crime by paying attention to what their husbands call "trifles" -- trivial things that they believe have no bearing on the crime. Yet these "trifles" are the keys to the murder. The trifles in the play are symbolic of the many ways in which Mrs. Wright was oppressed. The fact that these "trifles" were found in the kitchen, where women were confined to in that society, is also representative of the oppression that women faced. All of the clues to the solving the murder are found in kitchen "trifles."

First of all, the bird is quite symbolic. The dead canary could be a symbol for what exactly Mrs. Wright is capable of (i.e. murder). It could also be representative of Mr. Wright's oppressive hand and how he killed Mrs. Wright's soul if one were to think of the canary as symbolic of Mrs. Wright's spirit. The fact that the bird is in a special box in the house and not buried somewhere shows that Mrs. Wright didn't mind -- or perhaps even wanted -- others finding it. Why did Mrs. Wright keep the dead bird in the box? This could also point to the idea that the bird is symbolic of Mrs. Wright's soul or freedom because she was similar to this bird -- being kept in the house by an oppressive husband. The dead bird, which was probably one very vocal and full of life, was killed -- its true spirit smashed -- just like Mrs. Wright was probably a different person before she married her husband and he killed her spirit. Mrs. Hale says, "She -- come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself -- real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and fluttery" (Myers 938).

The birdcage is another symbolic prop used in "Trifles." The birdcage can be seen as symbolic of the house in which Mrs. Wright was forced to live. She was kept in an oppressive cage in much the same way the canary was.

The messy Mr. Hale and Mr. comment on how dirty Mrs. Wright kept the kitchen, but Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale stick up for Mrs. Wright. After Mrs. Wright killed her husband perhaps she didn't care anymore if the kitchen was messy or not. What did it matter anymore? Perhaps Mrs. Wright saw the point of a clean kitchen pointless when the relationship with her husband was so unclean (i.e. The way he treated her was so wrong that keeping a clean kitchen is just keeping up appearances, but that is all they are -- appearances). The wives protect Mrs. Wright when she is criticized by their husbands and their comment on the fact that men don't always keep their own hands as clean as they should. This is insinuating that Mr. Wright was not blameless in the situation. Perhaps he even deserved it.