Trifles By Susan Glaspell Essay

“Trifles” is a one-act play produced by author Susan Glaspell and first performed in Massachusetts in 1916. It addresses matters of family murder and is loosely connected to the murder of John Hossack which was reported by journalist Susan Glaspell (Susan 1). The play has seven characters that include the county attorney (George Henderson), a local sheriff (Henry Peters), neighbor of the Wrights (Lewis Hale), and wife of sheriff (Mrs. Peters). Other main characters are Mrs. Hale (the wife to Lewis Hale and neighbor to Wrights), John Wright (the murdered man and the farm owner), and his wife, Mrs. Minnie Wright, who also doubles as the murder suspect. The play starts with the men entering into Wright’s farmhouse, and an attorney (Henderson) orders the men to recount their visits to the farm and give information on what killed Wright. Hale recounts how he met Mrs. Wright who was behaving strangely and when he further moved upstairs into the house, he found Mr. Wright dead, hanged on a rope. Mrs. Wright claimed that Mr. Wright was strangled by unknown people while she was asleep (Glaspell 762). “Trifles” has been classified as a feminist drama where the other two women Mrs. Peters …show more content…
Hale regrets why she never come “once in a while” to visit her. The loneliness experienced by Mrs. Wright was not noticeable to the outside world, and this hid the fact that Minnie was unhappy with her husband, and she could create any cause of her husband’s death. The two friends noticed that she was changed although they did not see any “signs” of change or possible intention to harm or kill her husband. Her solitude life also concealed the fact that she was emotionally tortured and this could downplay her hand in the crime. There is the cold weather that freezes and breaks Minnie’s preserve jars. When the surrounding society was not attached to Minnie, they could not create a strong case against her based on her previous