Trifles by Susan Glaspell

“Trifles” Question 11

In the drama “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, there is a bird whose neck is wrung by Mr. Wright, and only ladies found it. The bird is not only a motive, but also a significance of the play, the bird is Mrs. Wright herself.

Back to the play, Mrs. Hale mentioned Mrs. Wright doesn’t have a kid, “MRS. HALE: Not having children makes less work—but it makes a quiet house, and Wright out to work all day, and no company when he did come in.” (1287), besides of lonely, Mrs. Wright loves birds. Gradually, she made bird as her children, or even herself. Mrs. Wright and the bird has a lot similar, they both love singing, they both used to be free, before the bird was caught, before Mrs. Wright married to Mr. Wright. In the play, we can see the kitchen is untidy, mass, not like a woman’s kitchen, which presented Mrs. Wright didn’t do her wife job well. That goes against a woman’s duty in the society. Therefore, people don’t come to their house. Apparently, Mr. Wright killed the bird, which is the blasting fuse that she killed him. But the reason that Mr. Wright killed the bird is because he thinks Mrs. Wright spend too much attention on the bird, and she failed on the wife job and even communication with other women in the farm. The bird was trapped, not able to free flying in the sky, presents that Mrs. Wright was trapped by Mr. Wright, or say the rule of the society for woman. She stopped singing after she got married, she pinned on the bird as herself, Mrs. Hale sees this, “MRS. HALE: She—come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself—real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and---fluttery. How—she—did—changed.”