Susan Glaspell's "Trifles"

Susan Glaspell’s “Trifles”

Many people around the world use the same universal quote, “actions speak louder than words,” because it is very true. Everyday people say things that may not actually be truthful. A lot of the time you can see this through the speaker’s actions. If what is that they are saying doesn’t match their actions then you may doubt what it is that they are telling you or you just don’t believe them. In this play Susan Glaspell creates characters that reveal specific emotions, not through their words but through their actions.
Our bodies don’t lie. Glaspell also uses props, costumes, and visual details to create and reveal the hidden truths.
Glaspell begins by setting the scene by describing a dark and gloomy kitchen, this opening scene sets a mysterious tone for the rest of the story. Glaspell proceeds with describing what exactly is on the table and that things are not complete. As one of the characters, Mr. Hale, describes what he experience he mentions that when he walked in Mrs. Wright was sitting in the rocking chair “pleating” her apron. This simple detail of pleating her apron that she later wants, adds to the mysteriousness of the story. Glaspell later uses the word queer to describe the way that she looked. Queer has many different meaning but it can mean that she seemed mentally unbalanced and of questionable nature. This foreshadows the later suspicions of her killing her husband. Also the fact that she claims that she didn’t wake when somebody slipped the rope around his neck and strangled him, makes her look like a possible suspect.
Glaspell uses the quote “actions speak louder than words” a lot with the women in this play. The discoveries happen during the conversation and interaction of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. Mrs. Hale makes deliberately slow movements towards the bread-box, and then abruptly changes “in a manner of returning to familiar things.” Also when Mrs. Hale realizes that she almost sat in the rocking chair she “with a slow look at it, steps back” (Glaspell 14). This continues the suspense and mystery behind Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale seems spooked and scared for some reason her actions say that there is something that isn’t right, but they just can’t bring themselves to say it or prove it. Once again when Mrs. Hale notices that half of the table is clean and the other half is messy then she “makes a move as if to finish work, then turns and looks at loaf of bread outside the breadbox. Drops towel. In that voice of coming back to familiar things” (Glaspell 17). One thing that is said that really connects things is Mrs. Hale’s statement “His neck, Chocked the life out of him. [Her hand goes out and rests on the bird-cage]” (Glaspell 27) Shortly after she said “No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird- a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too” (Glaspell 26). This thoughts and remarks made by these women slowly but surely start to reveal hidden messages that Glaspell is gradually introducing to the reader.
Glaspell also uses a few props in the scene to reveal hidden messages. Mrs. Wilson’s apron is mentioned a few times in the story. She was pleating it when Mr. Hale walked in and found out that Mr. Wright was dead. Mrs. Wright requested it to be given to her while she was in jail. Mrs. Wright’s sewing also played a big part in this story. Mrs. Hale noticed that part of her quilt was messed up, seemed rushed, nervous. So Mrs. Hale decided to take part of it apart and do it right. This reveals just how oblivious she was to her surroundings and what was happening. She must have clued in when she suddenly stopped knitting leaned over and asked Mrs. Peter’s, what she thought Mrs. Wright was so nervous about. The broken birdcage also leads to a new angle in the case. The women come to believe that someone had to have broken it. Then the discovery of the dead canary in the fancy box, right after Mrs. Hale compares her to a sweet and pretty bird. This suggests that Mr. Wright stopped Mrs. Wright from singing in the choir and killed her bird which was found in the box. Mrs. Wright might have gotten to the point where she couldn’t handle Mr. Wright taking everything that she had away from her so she did the same thing that he did to her bird to him. She already didn’t have children, she was alone and now he took her bird so she got upset and took his life.
“Actions speak louder than words.” Mrs. Wright’s action screamed that she was finally done with the “abuse.” She wanted something for herself, her bird, her singing, her apron, but all of them were taken away from her, so she finally took something from the person that took away her little bit of happiness. As Mrs. Hale said, “…I don’t think a place’d be any cheerfuller for John Wright’s being in it” (Glaspell 12). He was clearly not the happiest person to be around. Glaspell uses many techniques to reveal her message to her reader, visual detail, props, and the actions of her characters.