Rachel Kelly
Mrs
. Celotto
English Comp
.
II
8 April 2015
The play
“
trifles
”
written by Susan Glaspell is about the murder of Mr
.
Wright and how
the victim
’
s wife is the main suspect
.
The motive for the murder is unknown at first
.
Then the play progresses when the county attorney
,
the sheriff and his wife
,
and the neighboring farmer and his wife came to the Wright
’
s house to investigate
.
There is a lot of symbolism in this play
,
from isolation to freedom
.
A symbol of isolation is that they do not have a telephone
.
“
I
’ m going to see if I can
’
t get
John Wright to go in with me on a party telephone
…
he put me off
,
saying folks talked too much anyway , and all he asked was peace and quiet— I guess you know about how much he talked himself ”
(943)
. With no telephone in the home Mrs
.
Wright did not have contact to the outside world at all
.
This means she spent a lot of time with her who does not seem to be a kind person
.
She was also responsible for a lot on the farm because they do not have any children
.
So if she needed extra help she could not call anyone to help her
.
The major symbolism in Glaspell
’
s play is the bird
.
The birdcage is symbolic for Mrs
.
Wright
’
s life
.
She
’
s was caged just like the bird then her husband got frustrated and broke the cage . Mr
.
Wright caged her from the outside world because he kept her without a telephone
.
Since they had no children all she had was the bird
.
The bird itself also was symbolic in the way
Kelly 2
that it sang
.
It reflected Mrs
.
Wright
’
s old life from when she was young and sang in the choir
.
Then of course the death of the bird was symbolic
.
“
No
, Wright wouldn
’
t like the birda thing that sang
.
She used to sing
.
He killed that
,
