490 Glaspell, susan
This position is supported by Minnie’s sleeping
arrangements. As she tells the sheriff, she did not
notice John Wright’s death because she was lying
on the inside of the bed. Thus, she was boxed in
by walls and her husband. To break free, she had to
break one or the other.
Trifles shows us that, while spatial conditions can
contribute to isolation, they are not the deciding fac-
tor. In fact, Minnie’s unbearable isolation was caused
by her husband’s complete lack of understanding or
tolerance of her personality. These gender relations,
the complete dominance of the patriarchal authority
that does not leave Minnie any space to be herself
in a place and time that does not allow for divorce
without making Minnie a complete outcast, force
her to the desperate final act of killing her husband.
Elke Brown
JuStice in Trifles
Although we like to think of justice as a completely
objective, impartial force, Trifles nicely demonstrates
that this is not the case. In fact, we are confronted
with various interpretations of what justice entails.
At first glance, there appears to be only the kind
of justice illustrated by its official representatives,
namely Sheriff Peters and the county attorney.
These two represent the law and have to make
sure that the investigation of the crime scene, John
Wright’s house, follows due procedure. They are
there to secure evidence and discourage any tamper-
ing with the crime scene.
However, as the play progresses, the simple,
clear-cut definition of justice becomes increasingly
complicated. It soon becomes evident that there
is a distinction between insiders and outsiders of
the community. The county attorney, as outsider,
demands the following of protocol. He knew neither
John nor Minnie Wright or anything about their
history, and he cuts off the others every time they
begin to explain the nature of their neighbors’ rela-
tionships. What he is looking for is hard, tangible
evidence; he is not interested in any psychological
implications.
The people who knew the Wrights, however,
place some importance on their knowledge of the
couple. Repeatedly, they attempt to inform the
county attorney of little facts that reveal the fabric
of the community. While both the men and women
try to interest the attorney in the Wrights as people
and not just as murder victim and suspect, it is the
women who have the clearest insight into their rela-
tionship. Although they are constantly dismissed by
the lawyer, they ironically uncover all the evidence
that points to Minnie as her husband’s murderer.
In the exchange between Mrs. Hale and Mrs.
Peters, the complicated nature of justice becomes
evident. Mrs. Hale has known Minnie for a long
time but stopped visiting her because the joyless
atmosphere in the Wright house made her feel
uncomfortable. Now she feels guilty for having
abandoned Minnie and partially responsible for
Wright’s murder. Her idea of justice is guided by
the knowledge of what life is like for a farmer’s wife
and her acquaintance with the Wrights. Knowing
that John Wright was a hard man who did not
allow for singing or even much talking around him,
she senses that he destroyed Minnie’s happy spirit.
After their marriage, Minnie stopped attending any
social functions and did not sing anymore, although
she had always enjoyed being in the church choir.
When Mrs. Hale finds the canary with its broken
neck, she immediately realizes that this bird symbol-
izes Minnie’s spirit broken by her husband just as he
broke the canary’s neck. Mrs. Hale understands that
the bird provided Minnie with song and joy in her
lonely, childless marriage. Mrs. Hale surmises that,
after Wright killed the bird, his wife’s despair over
the loss of the one thing that brightened her life
drove her to strangle her husband with a rope. Mrs.
Hale questions the institution of justice as it is pur-
sued by its officials; to her, Minnie’s crime—though
gruesome—is justified and the people who should
be on trial are John Wright and her as a representa-
tive of the community that abandoned Minnie.
On the other hand, Mrs. Peters at first tries to
share the official stance of her husband and attempts
to keep any personal knowledge from interfering
with the investigation. However, as a fellow woman
and insider of the community, she is well aware
of the harshness and isolation of the midwestern
farmer’s wife. She eventually completely connects
with Minnie’s plight when Mrs. Hale tells her
about the oppressing stillness of the house. Having
lost a child and reflecting on how quiet it got after