Trifles

      Trifles is a play about murder, deceit, and an investigation.  I honestly think this could be an episode of Law and Order.  A lonely housewife is treated coldly by her husband and endures.  She finally snaps when he killed the one thing that brought her joy, her bird.  There is a police investigation and one of the investigators has a wife that knew the accused woman.  Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are there during the investigation and act as if they are just two oblivious women, but they in fact have a theory of their own and evidence that can prove it!

     Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters discuss what happened to their friend and what could’ve possibly happened to her husband.  The both discuss that the alleged murder happened with a rope, in the middle of the night silently.  Both of the women seem slightly suspicious but neither want to admit that Mrs. Henderson probably did it. 

“Mrs. Hale: Do you think she did it?

Mrs. Peters: Oh, I don’t know.

Mrs. Hale: Well, I don’t think she did.  Asking for an apron and her little shawl.  Worrying about her fruit.”

     The women go back and forth debating the situation and are walking around the downstairs looking around, while the men are upstairs.  The men come downstairs when they over hear the women talking, “Mrs. Hale: I wonder if she was goin’ to quilt it or knot it?

Sheriff: They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it!”

     The women inadvertently played dumb when the men came back around, which in the end helps them.  At this point the women start stumbling into evidence, such as the empty birdcage.  This becomes the topic of their conversation and soon they stumble into the carcass of the dead bird.  The bird’s neck was forcibly broken and with one look they both come to the same conclusion about the birds death.  The attorney comes into the room and they play dumb once again, “County Attorney: Has the bird flown?

Mrs. Hale: We think the – cat got it. County Attorney: Is there a cat?

Mrs. Peters: Well, not now. They’re superstitious you know. They leave.”

    The two women lied.  They lied to protect their friend.  They lied to cover up the motive.  This is when they both are caught in this moral dilemma, should they turn in the evidence and let their friend go to prison for murder or do they continue to play the innocent dumb women.  The two argue back and forth and then the men return to the room when they hide the dead bird, which would be the key piece of evidence, it would be the motive and Mrs. Hale stashed it in her pocket.

     People debate over whether or not the women did the right thing.  Some say the law is the law, but others say that Mr. Wright did not give her the life she wanted.  He was not a bad man just a very cold and detached man.  He showed no love and the only thing that made Mrs. Wright happy; the one small thing that gave her joy was taken from her from her husband.  Some would say this isn’t a justified reason but put in the same situation as Mrs. Hale and Peters, and I would certainly do they same.