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   akannan Teacher
   Middle School

   The climax of the play comes when the women find the body of the bird in the sewing box.  It represents the culmination of all their discussions, such as the reasons for the cage door being opened and the nervous style of stitching on Mrs. Wright's quilt.  Upon finding the body of the bird, the women were able to piece together all their prior discussions and envision the murder and why it happened.  Glaspell's description of their look of realization and subsequent "horror" make this climax.

   I am reminded of "The Usual Suspects," when the Inspector realizes that everything Verbal told him, all those random stories, were phony, and suddenly, it all comes together.  The two moments are similar:  Unimportant, trivial, and almost "trifle" detail leads to something larger and vitally essential.

   Sources:

   http://faculty.smu.edu/jdbradle/trifles_notes.htm

   http://www.scribd.com/doc/7870416/Trifles

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   Posted by akannan on Thursday July 2, 2009 at 9:43 AM