Susan Glaspells’s Trifles is a little gem of a play. In one short act, the playwright presents the audience with a complex human drama leaving us with a haunting question. Did an abused Nebraska farm wife murder her husband? Through the clever use of clues and the incriminating dialogue of thetwo main characters, this murder mystery unfolds into a psychological masterpiece of enormous proportions. Written in 1916, the play deals with the theme of the roles of women in society. This was a time before women had the right to vote or sit on juries. Shortly after writing the play, Glaspell wrote it as a short story entitled A Jury of Her Peers. The scene is set in the cold, gloomy kitchen of a Nebraska farmhouse. The room is quite messy with signs of uncompleted work everywhere; unwashed pots, a dirty hand towel, and bread left open on the table. The first characters to enter the stage are two middle-aged men, the county sheriff, Henry Peters, and Lewis Hale, a local farmer. They are followed by a younger man, George Henderson, the county attorney. Then, the main characters arrive on stage, the sheriff's wife and the farmer’s wife, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale. The men have arrived to investigate the murder of the owner of the house, John Wright. The women have come to gather some clothes and personal belongings for Minnie (Foster) Wright, who nowis in the county jail on charges that she killed her husband. The men are all caught up in the so called “important” investigation of the case, belittling the women’s concerns as being mere “trifles”, when actually the women are the ones uncovering the clues which could solve the case and reveal the murderer. The “trifles” uncovered by the two women are intriguing to say the least. They tell the audience agreat deal about the home life and mental state of Mrs. Wright. The house didn’t have a telephone b...
