Trifles by Susan Glaspell is a short play built around the murder of John Wright. Throughout the play, there are numerous intertwined themes and ideas. With closer examination of Glaspell’s work, it is clear that there is a far greater plot in action than just a murder. Mrs. Minnie Wright has been arrested for the murder of her husband while the investigation is active. Interestingly enough the murder is not the focused of this play. The focus is how two wives Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters identify with the accused. Throughout the play, the wives uncover several seemingly insignificant clues which provide insight on the daily life of Mrs. Wright before the death of her husband. Although both women ultimately end up identifying themselves with Mrs.…show more content… Wright’s captivity persisted over the course of 30 years, which lead to many physical and psychological effects. In the time period of Trifles there was no title or definition for the suffering Mrs. Wright had experienced. However, today it is known that Minnie was a victim of domestic violence, and from such abuse she developed Battered Women Syndrome, which is a subgroup of PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Walker 22). Battered Women Syndrome is a common defense for any woman that is driven so far they kill their significant other after enduring years of agonizing psychological and physical abuse from their better half (Claus 978; Walker 22).
Mrs. Hale was able to detect many common symptoms of a battered woman in Mrs. Wright after going through her home. According to Lenore Walker, woman who experience long term captivity achieve the highest level of PTSD possible, and experience episodes of depression, passivity, and avoidance of confrontation (Walker 22). When Mrs. Hale went through Minnie’s house, she could clearly perceive that Minnie experienced many of the repercussions of a battered woman such as her isolation, depression, and loneliness, and thus felt shameful of her ignorance of Mrs. Wright’s…show more content… Hale felt guilty that she did not visit Minnie more often. Mrs. Hale always found the Wright’s house unsettling and eerie, this was why she stayed away. She stated, “I stayed away because it weren’t cheerful—and that’s why I ought to have come. I—I’ve never liked this place. Maybe because it’s down the hollow and you don’t see the road. I dunno what it is but it is a lonesome place and always was” (781). The reason Mrs. Hale stayed away was actually one of the psychological effects Minnie experienced. The visual condition of Minnie’s home was lonely, cold, and uncheerful. The state of Minnie’s home represented a direct reflection on the extent of her confinement because the status of the home, in the time period of Trifles, was the woman’s responsibility. Mrs. Hale realized this connection, and felt shameful that her discomfort of the Wright’s house stopped her from visiting Minnie. She felt as though if she had visited Minnie more often that she might have been able to help her and perhaps have helped prevent the recent events that had
