The Significant Trifles - Term Paper Example

The three latter characters represent the men in their perceptions and treatment of women during this period and perhaps separately represent also the different characteristics of men towards each other.
Mrs. Hale is the female neighbor of the main character, the wife of Mr. Hale who helps the audience have a glimpse of what could have been happening between the Wright couple. Mrs. Peters on the other hand is the sheriff’s wife who went to the house purposefully to take some of the things Mrs. Wright requested to have, and who was accompanied by the other woman and who then helped in the revelation of the rest of the story through their conversations and their discoveries. Mr. Wright is the husband who was murdered and has brought the other characters to the setting of the story. Minnie Foster Wright is the main character who is also the culprit in the murder of her husband,, though did not actively participate in the play had the most important role which was ingeniously presented as the investigation unfolded. Mrs. Wright perhaps represents women in a world where gender discrimination is just too much to face, with a difficult husband who could be rough and not outlets like family or friends. Pity could be felt for her being psychologically abused in her own home but if she indeed deserves pity, then readers should have bigger hearts because there are a lot of such kinds around the world.
During the investigation, there was no sign of violence inside the house that could have shown the couple to have fought rather things were normally in place as expected in a farmhouse. Mrs. Wright might have been rightly suspected of the murder because of this reason but the little details the investigators have been looking for were found by the two women who then made their conclusions about the conflict that had caused the end of Mr. Wright. During the exchange of words between Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, they found a quilt Mrs. Wright had been working on which was neatly sewn but was discovered by Mrs. Hale to have some parts which were not sewn well and made her wonder what could have been bothering her. Trying to look for a piece of paper and string, Mrs. Peters finds a bird cage that looked like ‘someone had been rough with it’, showing someone might have forced it open. They wondered where the bird could have gone and argued that a cat cannot possibly be a culprit for its absence because Mrs. Wright has always been afraid of cats. Mrs. Hale then reveals that the house has always been gloomy so she chose to stay away from Minnie Foster, adding to the inner conflict that has been going on in the heart and mind of the main character, leaving her to feel abandoned amid the loneliness she had been in with her husband always away and without children to be with. Although Mr. Wright had always been out of the house, he is known to be a hard man so whatever time he could have spent in the house might have been a dreadful experience for the wife. There may have been no evidence of physical conflict but the birdcage between the couple but what could have been more depressing was the psychological impact Mr. Wright’s treatment could have placed on his wife. Finally, while Mrs. Hale looks for a pair of scissors, she finds the dead canary they have been wondering about, dead, with its head wrung. They did the math and understood why Mrs. Wright could have done the same thing to her husband, considering all the things they have been discussing earlier. She resolved her problem by getting rid of her husband as he has gotten rid of her pet.

Upon the discovery of the canary, another conflict has set on both women, who now face the dilemma of deciding what to do with what they found out. They resolved to keep the canary away from the investigators, keep their silence, and pretend they do not know who killed Mr. Wright. The story is a tragedy that speaks of the end of life, bringing his wife into question for the murder. Nevertheless, it also spells out irony considering the title “Trifles” which has been referred to in the story by the men as the concerns of women like household chores and other unimportant things like quilting. Unknown to them, the trifles they have been referring to are the very evidence they needed to prove the guilt of Mrs. Wright. As the story strongly suggests, what is garbage to some might just be pure gold to others. Read More