Trifles 489the patriarchal order and thus declare their rights as
individuals and women.
In our so-called enlightened time, we occasion-
ally overlook the truth that, even today, inequalities
between men and women exist—be they employ-
ment opportunities or the question of equal pay.
When Trifles was written, the woman as the “angel
in the house” was an idea as popular as it had been
in the late 19th century. However, it would be wrong
to assume that Trifles has no significance beyond the
1920s. What the drama depicts, most of all, is a psy-
chological study of power structures in a patriarchy
where men and women are on opposing sides and
what can happen if the angel in the house is married
to a devil.
Elke Brown
iSolation in Trifles
In her play Trifles, Susan Glaspell alerts us to the
harsh life of the midwestern farmer’s wife. Through
the sheer vastness of the land, people in a farming
community live relatively far apart, but spatial isola-
tion does not necessarily lead to murder. Minnie
Wright’s case illustrates that it is her social and
emotional isolation from the community that drive
her to her desperate act.
Certainly, the logistical and geographical condi-
tions of a farming community preclude proximity.
Yet communal activities exist: Mrs. Hale laments the
fact that Minnie stopped singing in the church choir
and being a member of the Ladies Aid. She assumes
that Minnie felt she could not attend anymore
because she could not contribute enough. Thus, her
financial circumstances preclude Minnie from per-
ceiving herself as being on equal social footing with
the other women. She feels uncomfortable in their
company and gives up on joint projects.
While it is not clear from the play whether John
Wright had anything to do with Minnie’s decision
to stop any of these activities, Mrs. Hale’s descrip-
tion of him makes it seem very likely that he did.
According to her, Wright was a harsh man, who
liked to have his quiet and disapproved of conver-
sation and singing. For that reason, he wrung the
canary’s neck. Likewise, he killed his wife’s creative
and musical spirit, turning a happy, cheerful Minnie
Foster into a lonely, desperate Minnie Wright.
This lack of cheerfulness in the Wright house-
hold isolated Minnie only further. While all farmers’
wives lead a busy life with everything there is to do
around a farm and to keep up a household, Mrs.
Hale admits that this had not been the reason why
she stopped visiting her neighbor Minnie. Indeed, it
was the lack of cheerfulness, the tangible coldness
of the place that kept her away. Now that Minnie is
in jail and John Wright dead, Mrs. Hale feels guilty
about not coming more often, thinking that, if Min-
nie had had one thing to look forward to—the visit
of a friend—she might not have killed her husband.
Minnie’s loneliness and isolation are symbolized
in the quilt that she had been working on. Ironically,
it is this quilt that “speaks” to Mrs. Hale and Mrs.
Peters in Minnie’s stead. The quilt she had been
working on is a log cabin pattern and, as the women
explain to the men, Minnie was going to knot it. The
first clue about Minnie’s real state of mind lies in the
fact that parts of the quilt have been sewn together
haphazardly—Mrs. Hale at once sets to correcting
the stitches, probably fully aware of the fact that she
is destroying evidence. Apparently, Minnie was too
distracted and preoccupied after her husband killed
the canary to pay attention to her sewing.
Traditionally, quilting is a communal activity.
That Minnie was working on this quilt by herself is
another indication of her isolated state. Yet, quilting
provided her with a creative outlet that would also
produce something useful. It would, thus, have been
an acceptable activity to her husband. The fact that
Minnie was going to knot the quilt—a method of
joining the layers of a quilt—illustrates the fact that
her emphasis was on getting the job done quickly
rather than producing a fine piece of art, certainly
reflective of John Wright’s attitude toward house-
hold items.
Furthermore, the quilt is a log cabin pattern. In
this pattern, each square begins with a small middle
square around which rectangular strips are sewn
until the block is complete. The quilt and its overall
pattern are revealed only when all the blocks are
joined. The single block contributes to the pattern
but has no significance on its own. Minnie’s position
equals that of the innermost, smallest square that,
although the center of the block, is the tiniest and
least remarkable one.