Susan Glaspell’s one act play Trifles epitomizes the differences between men and women. The time period--set in the early twentieth century’s plight of women prior to gaining the vote and more independence from men--exacerbates these differences.
The drama’s subject is murder. John Wright has been murdered in his bed by a rope tightened around his neck. His wife Minnie has been placed in jail accused of killing her husband. The crime was discovered by a neighbor Mr. Hale.
The other characters include the county attorney, the Sheriff, Mrs. Peters, and the neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Hale.
Thematically, the name of the play provides the author’s emphasis on gender differences. Men thought that women only concerned themselves with trivialities, which included housecleaning, sewing, mending, cooking, canning, quilting, and taking care of the children. Of course, the women’s lives also included subservience to men and their needs.
Early in the play,...
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the men begin to show their chauvinistic attitude toward Minnie Wright, the accused, by commenting on the mess in the kitchen. From the few things out of place, the county attorney decides that she is a poor housekeeper.
The men exhibit their belief that women are incapable of thinking about anything but unimportant things. It is obvious that the men believe that women do not have the logic or reasoning ability to decipher the hints that might lead to the solving of the crime.
Oddly, the men do a poor job of investigating the crime. They spend their time looking at the rope, deciding from where the rope came, and discussing the murder in general. Their actions are inept from the time the murder was reported.
The women in the play are treated with insensitivity. The men condescendingly comment on what women are used to thinking about:
Hale: Well, women are used to thinking about trifles.
County Attorney: And yet, for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies?
Choosing to use tactics that reflect their conventional approach to life, they treat the women and even Minnie Wright with no sensitivity. When the County Attorney hears the women discussing Minnie Wright’s quilt, he sardonically comments on one of the discussion of the quilt. He does not realize that there is more to the quilt discussion than the knotting or quilting it to finish it. The bird cage sits there with the obvious door twisted off the hinges, and the County Attorney asks about a cat. He misses the entire scenario of the missing bird, the anger involved, and fails to ask the appropriate questions to understand what happened to John Wright.
What qualities do these men share?
Unprofessionalism, insensitivity, chauvinism, sarcasm, poor judgment, condescension
As the group leaves the house to return to the jail, the women have decided not to share their knowledge of the motive for the crime. Minnie Wright would never get a fair trial based on the attitudes of the men in the play.
The County Attorney, still making fun of the women, ends the play with the comment:
(Facetiously) Well, Henry, at least we found out that she was not going to quilt it. She was going to –what is you call it, ladies?
Too bad, the men did not pay more attention to what the women found in their investigation.
What traits do the sheriff, county attorney, neighbor, and John Wright share in Trifles?
The binding factor that make the sheriff, the county attorney, John Hale (the neighbor), and John Wright a seemingly-united front is the fact that they are true products of their time: a historical period in the early 20th century where conflicting views about women and their rights permeated society. This is the reason why none of them are able to see the evident clues that point to the series of events that let Minnie Wright to snap and kill her abusive husband. All men are equally blind to reality due to their narrow-minded views.
The sheriff is a character whose superiority in terms of his job as the protector of the people is topped by his superiority of character. He has made up his mind that Minnie Wright is guilty, rather than conceding the fact that one is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Moreover, he (as the sheriff) should be the first one to look around and note how the state of the house told millions of clues.
Similarly the county attorney, who is the lead investigator, is oblivious to the clues and, out of all the characters, is the one who condescends the women the most. He is the one who asks the patronizing questions that unnerve Mrs. Hale so much
And yet, for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies? [The women do not unbend. He goes to the sink, takes a dipperful of water from the pail and pouring it into a basin, washes his hands. Starts to wipe them on the roller-towel, turns it for a cleaner place.]
Dirty towels! [Kicks his foot against the pans under the sink.]
Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?
John Hale, who is in the house as a witness, seems quite disgusted by the actions of Minnie and he is equally insistent in the woman's guilt. He also is patronizing and, like the county attorney, he is blindsided by the few things he sees laying around. It is Mr. Hale who says the phrase that lends its name to the play:
Well, women are used to worrying over trifles
Then there is the character of John Wright: the murdered man. All that we know from him is what Mrs. Hale tells us from what she could gather. In her small comments, she tells us that John Wright had a temper, that because of him Minnie began to turn depressive, nervous, and scared. It is Mrs. Hale who assesses correctly that the disparate stitching in the quilt that Minnie was trying to make said tons about her state of mind. She also connected the three main items,; the empty bird cage, the chaotic state of the house, and the dead bird, to John Wrights rage. Therefore, John Wright undoubtedly followed the same pattern of patronizing behavior against women that bind all the men in the play, with the exception of John Wright obviously because he is dead.