At the beginning of Trifles, Mrs. Peters identifies strongly with the law and with the authority of the male characters. Over the course of the play, she develops a sense of solidarity with Mrs. Hale and finds sympathy with Mrs. Wright, which prevents her from revealing her deductions to her husband, the sheriff. PDF Cite Share Expert Answers
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Her compassion moves to the forefront. Mrs. Peters begins the play by saying the men have to do their duty and mentions that she is not at all cold. But as she and Mrs. Hale explore Minnie's kitchen, Mrs. Peters's feelings start to change.
The Trifles quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Peters or refer to Mrs. Peters. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:).
Then, with profound irony, Mrs. Peters replies to the question about the quilt as Mrs. Wright "was going to--knot it," but she is thinking about the rope knotted around Mr. Wright's neck, a knot she made after her cruel husband killed her canary.
The three men uniformly treat Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale with indulgent condescension, as they make gentle fun of the women for worrying about "trifles." The men do not blame the women for what they perceive as incompetence precisely of the wives' gender.
Peters' feelings of duty to the law and her husband are crushed by her feelings of empathy for the murderess. Though she's still wrestling with herself up to the very end, Mrs. Peters beats Mrs. Hale to the punch and is the first to try and shove the bird in her pocket at the end.
Peters' stance on the law change? Mrs. Peters' begins to sympathize with Mrs. Wright, recalling her own suffering (i.e. the child, the kitten) and thus softening her stance on absolute law.
What experience makes Mrs Peters empathize with Mrs Wright? Her kitten was killed by a bot with a hatchet when she was younger. If no one had stopped her, she would have hurt him. This loss makes her empathize with Mrs Wright.
Mrs. Hale is larger and, ordinarily, more comfortable looking, whereas Mrs. Peters is slight and wiry with “a thin nervous face.” These differences are reflected in the characters of the two women.
At the beginning of the short drama, “Trifles,” Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife, is painted as timid and submissive wife. She willingly submits herself to the responsibilities she has as a wife.
Peters realize from the clues they find that Mrs. Wright (Minnie Foster) has killed her husband but that she was justified in doing so. They conceal the evidence to prevent Mrs. Wright's possible conviction.
Though it is made very clear in the opening scene of this play that Mrs. Wright is in fact guilty of the murder of her husband, the theme of this play is not solely based on the idea of feminism and social hierarchies. It is upon the continuation of reading this play that the true and deeper symbolism is revealed.
The stillness of the house after the bird's death would have been awful, as Mrs. Peters notes. She says that "the law has got to punish crime," but Mrs.
She says “I know what stillness is. The law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale”(Glaspell 167). The difference is she is talking about the crime committed against Minnie, not the murder of John by Minnie.
They are both from different social groups in town. They differ in temperament because Mrs. Peters is kind of nervous and hesitant, while Mrs. Hale is more comfortable and is prone to bend the law.
Hale represents women who are beginning to question their place in society, Mrs. Peters represents women who are afraid to shake things up.
Mrs. Peters shows her loyalty as a law-abiding sheriff's wife by stating, "The law is the law, Mrs. Hale" (page 814) and at one point she was defending the fact that the men were doing their duties when they were parading around the kitchen.
The Trifles quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Peters or refer to Mrs. Peters. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one: ).
The timeline below shows where the character Mrs. Peters appears in Trifles. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
cliches: a stormy night, a shadowy figure, a sinister butler, and a mysterious phone call. Susan Glaspell's Trifles does not fit this mold. Glaspell's mysterious inquiry into the murder of John Wright presents the reader with only one suspect, Mrs. Wright. Even though the court examiner and sheriff cannot find evidence against Mrs. Wright, the reader can plausibly argue the case against the neglected wife. Glaspell's use of descriptive language and subtle hints established the mood, presents the motive
“Trifles” ultimately shows the way women in the past are controlled and degraded by men, thus lessening a woman’s role in society and how feminism helped bring the women together. Women throughout history
Wright was an aggressive and controlling husband. Mrs. Hale states, “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird- a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too” (1012). The canary represents Minnie Foster. Before she married Mr. Wright, she was a joyful girl who sang in the church choir. After her and Mr. Wright get married, she is forced to stop singing and is stripped of her happiness. The broken cage represents Mr. and Mrs. Wright’s controlling marriage. The bird cage is violently broken to represent how Mrs. Wright violently escaped her marriage. The women’s discoveries cause Mrs. Peters to sympathize with Mrs. Wright. Ultimately, Mrs. Peters decides to stand up for what she believes. The character development of Mrs. Peters is driven by her sympathy for Mrs. Wright. At the beginning of “Trifles”, Mrs. Peters’ character is portrayed as anxious and insecure. The evidence the women find reveals that Mrs. Wright was trapped in a neglectful marriage. All of the insightful evidence influences Mrs. Peters to disregard her duties as Mr. Peters’ wife, and conceal the evidence from him. Despite Mrs. Peters original compliant and coy personality, the events throughout the play drive her to boldly protest submitting to the male
This theory shows us how patriarchal our society is and that’s how Susan Glaspell’s shows her work in her life time where women only had a few roles. They were to have house chores done, cook, and reproduce. Women in the early twentieth century felt it is time to stand up against patriarchal oppressions and which is why Glaspell’s work critiques the society we live in for restricting women. One of her most famous dramas, “Trifles”, Glaspell showed the females capability to stand up for one another
Buriel 26 Nov. 2014 Trifles: A Story of Gender Differences Gender is referred to as the social or cultural distinctions associated with being male or female. Scholars generally regard gender as a social construct, meaning that it does not exist naturally, but it is instead a concept that is created by culture and social norms. In society there is a divide between the two genders. Growing up most of the friends kids make are the same gender as them; a girl’s best friend
Although “A Jury of Her Peers” and “Trifles” are similar in plot, Mustazza’s article, “Generic Translation and Thematic Shift in Susan Glaspell’s ‘Trifles’ and ‘A Jury of Her Peers’” highlights the differences and similarities between the two. Mustazza’s article may help aid readers to understand the differences between Glaspell’s two works and provide understanding as to why Glaspell may have changed the genre and form of the plot. “Trifles” is a dramatic play whereas “A Jury of Her Peers” is prose
Mrs. Peters is Mrs. Hale's partner in crime, which might be kind of an unlikely role for a sheriff's wife. Of course, when we first meet Mrs. Peters we'd never guess she'd become Thelma to anyone's Louise. The stage directions describe Mrs. Peters as "a slight wiry woman, [with] a thin nervous face" (1).
By the end of play, though, Mrs. Peters takes the biggest journey of any other character when she stands with Mrs. Hale in hiding the evidence that could convict Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Peters' feelings of duty to the law and her husband are crushed by her feelings of empathy for the murderess.
At the beginning of the play, the unspoken stage directions that introduce the scene serve as foreshadowing for the rest of the play, as it hints at the personalities of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters while drawing attention to the evidence that will later become important in our understanding of Minnie Wright's psychology.
The jars of preserves explode from the cold, despite her best attempts to prevent that fate, and she too loses her calm because of the coldness of her husband, although she never discovers the fate of the jars because the women choose to protect what remains of the preserves just as they choose to protect her.
On the one hand, the women have chosen to protect Minnie Wright because they see themselves in her and do not want to be hypocritical and condemn her. Minnie has been desperately lonely and unhappy for many years, going through emotional and possibly physical abuse from her husband, and the killing of the only living thing that cares for her may have justified retribution in kind. On the other hand, one could contend that Mrs. Wright has still committed murder, and neither the death of an animal nor years of marital troubles excuses homicide. By aiding and abetting her, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are effectively accomplices who have condoned murder.
Sherlock Holmes, for example, is generally dispassionate in his pursuit of murderers as he continually bests the police at their own jobs. Like Holmes, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale act as amateur detectives who circumvent the folly of official law enforcement, in the form of the sheriff and the county attorney.