488 Glaspell, susan
and find clues that might aid them in solving the
crime. In their search, they concentrate on the bed-
room, where the body was found, and the entrance
ways to the house to see if an intruder might have
killed John Wright.
On the other hand, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale,
while packing some things together for the incarcer-
ated Minnie, find evidence among Minnie’s things
that not only prove Minnie’s guilt, but also bear wit-
ness to her lonely and isolated life with a husband
who did not care much about her. Minnie’s quilt, a
nice and carefully done piece for the most part, was
sewn together haphazardly in other places—a sign to
the women that told them of Minnie’s distress and
preoccupation. Furthermore, Mrs. Hale and Mrs.
Peters stumble over the body of a dead canary. They
conclude that it must have been John Wright who
had wrung its neck, and Minnie put it away lovingly
in a box because the bird had been the only thing to
ever bring some joy into her life. Full of sympathy
and understanding for Minnie, the women conceal
the evidence from the returning men who consider
the kitchen as too unimportant to contain anything
of value for their investigation.
Elke Brown
Gender in Trifles
Gender is probably the central theme of Trifles.
Indeed, it pervades all other aspects and themes of
the play, such as isolation and justice.
In Trifles, we are confronted with very clear
gender definitions: Men and women have their own
spheres, and they each follow their own ethical and
moral standards. In the setting of the play, men stand
for the rational, objective, professional world. Thus,
the men’s idea of justice follows the interpretation of
the law without much consideration of emotional or
psychological circumstances. For example, the attor-
ney is looking for a suspect, but he does not stop to
consider the question of motive for John Wright’s
murder. Consequently, in his complete dismissal of
the female sphere, he fails to recognize clues as such.
This male arrogance, born of century-old feelings of
superiority over women, precludes any success in his
investigation.
The same kind of arrogance also led to John
Wright’s death. Admittedly, being a man who loves
his quiet and dislikes singing may just be a personal-
ity issue. However, nothing gave Wright the right to
dominate and terrorize his wife, Minnie. According
to Mrs. Hale, the Wrights’ neighbor, Wright was
a harsh man, and his moods and possible violence
caused Minnie’s spirit to be subdued. Finally, when
Wright killed Minnie’s canary in an outburst of rage,
he also destroyed the last bit of beauty that had been
in her life. This act seals his fate: Without anything
to care for other than a husband who does not seem
to care much for her, Minnie strangles her husband.
The clues that might explain her motive are all
found in and around the kitchen—traditionally, the
very symbol of the woman’s place. In fact, Mrs. Hale
and Mrs. Peters are the ones who find these clues
and interpret them correctly. As women, they know
about life as a farmer’s wife. They share the experi-
ence of living a fairly isolated life of hard work. Even
if their marriages are happier than Minnie’s was, life
in this midwestern community for women is similar
enough to draw the correct conclusions about Min-
nie’s motive.
While women and men clearly have different
attitudes and their spheres seem separate enough,
they are not entirely separate from each other. The
play clearly demonstrates how, whenever a relation-
ship exists between men and women, the women
are supposed to convert to the male point of view.
When the attorney addresses Mrs. Peters, he fully
expects her to act in the spirit of her husband’s
official orders. As a sheriff ’s wife, she is married
not only to Mr. Peters, the person, but also to his
profession. Hence, her idea of justice is supposed to
be submission to the official (male) interpretation
of the law.
Mrs. Peters is governed by this dogma, until she
remembers the silence in her own house after the
death of one of her children. This memory produces
a powerful bond between her and Minnie’s experi-
ence of isolation and loneliness, so powerful, indeed,
that Mrs. Peters herself attempts to hide the box
with the dead canary in it—fully aware that this
action goes against everything society and her hus-
band expect her to do, not only on legal grounds but
also because, as a wife, Mrs. Peters is not supposed
to act against her husband. Both Mrs. Peters and
Mrs. Hale consciously defy the laws laid down by