Trifles

"Trifles" is a play about a murder. Mr. Wright was found dead, his wife is being held on suspicion and the local law enforcement is trying to gather evidence for a motive. Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife, and Mrs. Hale, a neighbor of the Wrights, have joined the men at the Wright farmhouse. As the men go about their business, the women are left alone in the kitchen. Eventually, they begin to turn up evidence for a motive. They find erratic stitching in a quilt, indicating Mrs. Wright's mental distress. Finally, they find Mrs. Wright's canary, dead from a broken neck. The women quickly realize that Mrs. Wright wrung the neck of her husband just as he had wrung the neck of her only friend and joy. Mrs. Peters empathizes with Mrs. Wright's anger and loneliness. Mrs. Hale understands how much Mrs. Wright's life had changed for the worse. She also feels guilty for not having visited. These factors combine to lead the women to conceal from the law the evidence of the motive.

I liked this play because it made me question what I would have done if I had been in such a position. After finding the dead bird, the women discuss the unbearable loneliness which ensues from the death of a child, as well as the atrocity of seeing a beloved pet murdered by a mean-spirited boy. I'd like to think that if I'd been in Mrs. Wright's position, I wouldn't have killed my husband. I honestly don't think I'd have the stomach for it. I probably would have stolen anything of any value and just left. However, had I been in the position of the women who found the evidence, I think I probably would have done just as they did.