I know what stillness is.

2. Consider the lecture on Trifles, and this question particularly: “What constitutes a crime and under what circumstances? That is, what’s the crime at hand . . . The legal crime, or the emotional one?

Trifles raises several interesting questions, a major one dealing with the issue of crimes and violence. It is clear that John Wright was at the least mentally abusive towards his wife Minnie, if not so physically. The fact that he killed her canary by breaking its neck points out that he may in fact have been physically abusive, but this is not proven. While Minnie did commit a crime in that she murdered her husband, a legal crime, spousal abuse and domestic violence were not considered legal – or even emotional – crimes at the time of the play’s conception. Glaspell seems to be making a point in this vein. While today women can use an affirmative defense in cases against their husbands or partners, this kind of violence towards women was in many ways status quo in the Midwest during the early 20th century. Unfortunately, there is no way to prove an emotional crime to defend Minnie’s actions against her husband, but that emotional crime was the underlying cause of John Wright’s death.


4. The play relies primarily on symbolism and some foreshadowing to develop the plot. Which elements are symbolic? How do you know?

Glaspell uses several images in Trifles. These symbolic images include the canned fruit, the unfinished quilt, the dead canary, and its broken cage. Probably the most obvious symbolism is the canary. Mrs. Hale recalls Minnie Foster singing in the town choir as a carefree young woman before she became Mrs. Wright. Canaries are known for their song and the correlation of Mr. Wright killing the canary with Mr. Wright killing Minnie’s spirit is an easy one to make. It is also easy to connect the bird’s broken neck with the manner in which Mr. Wright died. This brings up the next symbolic element in the play: the unfinished quilt. Quilts can either be knotted or quilted in order to attach the top, batting, and backing. When Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters note that the quilt was going to be knotted, they are making an allusion to the knot in the noose that killed Mr. Wright. At the first mention of knotting, the women seem to answer the question innocently and with no other connotation. But when the men ask again at the end of the play, Mrs. Hale’s reply carries a much more knowing tone. The women have figured out what happened and their answer is a veiled admission of this fact. Mrs. Wright’s canned fruits froze and burst in their jars when the fire in the kitchen stove went out over night. There are several symbolic elements to be taken from this observation; the first being that the fire went out. Fire is equated with passion and desire, and it can be said that Minnie’s desire to stay in her marriage had been extinguished when her husband killed her canary, her source of light and happiness. And just as the fruit burst, so did Minnie when she strangled her husband. The fact that only one jar remains could symbolize the need the other women feel to protect Minnie, to keep her from completely bursting and losing everything. These images are fairly obvious from a literary standpoint because they are easy to decode, but Glaspell links them to the reader through the title of her play. The men laugh at the wives for being concerned with ‘trifles’, but it is these ‘trivial’ details that uncover the truth that the men are unable to pinpoint.