In Susan Glaspell's Trifles, how does Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale's startling discovery qualify as an epiphany compared to the earlier rocking chair moment?
In Trifles, Mrs. Hale almost sits in the chair that Mrs. Wright is sitting in when her visitor realizes that her husband has been murdered; later, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale discover the dead songbird and have the epiphany that Mrs. Wright did kill her husband.
An epiphany is defined as "a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something" and "an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure." Not everything we understand is illuminating or reveals the meaning of something; some things are just obvious comprehension—like looking outside and seeing that it's snowing.
The difference between the realization Mrs. Hale has when she almost sits in the rocking chair and the epiphany she has when she realizes that Mrs. Wright killed John is the same difference between realizing you were about to eat a cookie and realizing the cookie is poisoned. One is noticing something...
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obvious occurring around you; it's not understanding the meaning of something. The other is understanding what something means in a way that sheds new light on a situation.
In other words, finding the songbird is an illuminating discovery that leads to a major realization that changes the women's understanding of the situation. Realizing it's the same chair doesn't have the same impact on their understanding.
References
An epiphany is generally defined
as a sudden understanding of "the reality or essential meaning of something";
the understanding is particularly brought on by mundane
experiences (Random House Dictionary). We can see the exact
same definition of epiphany being employed in Susan Glaspell's
one-act play Trifles.
We can particularly see the characters begin to reach a state of
epiphany by the time they discover the broken bird
cage. Their discovery of the bird cage hidden in the cupboard, along
with the subsequent discovery that the cage's door has been pulled off by the
hinge, leads to a discussion of many important and revealing points. First,
they discuss how Mr. Wright was a "hard man" with a
difficult temper. Second, they discuss how Mrs.
Wright was a lot like a bird herself, "real sweet and
pretty, but kind of timid and--fluttery"; plus, she even sang and was
isolated in her house just like a bird is isolated in its
cage. It's these two ideas they put together to reach their epiphany, an
epiphany about what Mrs. Wright's emotional state must have been like.
Next, they find the dead bird with a broken neck wrapped in
silk in Mrs. Wright's sewing basket, as if wrapped in a burial shroud. It's at
this moment that they reach their final epiphany. We are never
told exactly what conclusions they reach, but since the bird had its neck rung,
it's likely they have deduced that Mr. Wright with his violent
temper killed the bird and Mrs. Wright killed him out of revenge and because
she felt trapped and isolated all these years, just like a caged bird.
Hence, as we can see, the word epiphany means the exact same thing in
the play as it usually means. The two characters use mundane
evidence, such as a broken bird cage and dead bird, to reach
an epiphany about what Mrs. Wright must have been going through living
in isolation with her cold, hard husband.
In Trifles, how does the startling discovery contrast with the rocking chair moment as an epiphany?
When Hale visits with Mrs. Wright, she is in her rocking chair pleating her apron. Hale says she was acting weird. Hale asks to see John and she calmly says that he can not because John is dead. She is composed and even tells Hale how John died. However, she does not admit to doing it herself. She claims to have slept through the moments while John was being killed. Hale, like his male counterparts, does not pick up any clues in determining what happened or how and if in fact Mrs. Wright killed her husband. He only suspects. She does give him subtle clues: an abrupt laugh, a scared look, and general odd behavior. But he can not put together these "trifling" gestures. So, at that point, neither Hale nor the sheriff has any "aha" moments that would qualify as an epiphany. This is the point. The men in the story don't pay attention to minute details (trifles), so they don't come to any clear, accurate conclusion.
On the other hand, the women do pay attention. The County Attorney dismisses Mrs. Hale's comment that it was an unhappy marriage. When she suggests that John was a difficult man to live with, the attorney puts that discussion off for a later time. The two women notice the only significant evidence in terms of Mrs. Wright's state of mind. Mrs. Hale notices the haphazard sewing. But the real epiphany comes with the discovery of the dead bird. They conclude that Mr. Wright killed the bird. They further conclude that Mrs. Wright killed him out of revenge. It wasn't just the bird's death. They are implying that Mr. Wright, in his poor treatment of his wife, had symbolically killed her over time. Upon looking at the dead bird, Mrs. Hale says "He killed that, too." This revelation is clearly more insightful than any conclusions that Hale, the sheriff, or the Count Attorney come to in the rocking chair scene or at any other time. They find evidence of emotional or mental anguish whereas the men are looking for physical clues.