Trifles by Susan Glaspell

In this play, male characters have a limited understanding of how women live in a male-dominated society. Thus, their approach to the reality behind the murder is limited as well. In this way, Glaspell tries to remark on the inequality between the sexes. 

The setting is rural in which women are imprisoned in their houses and expected to be passive. However, while solving the murder mystery, women become active as they can decode the signs and read the visual messages of Minnie, unlike men. In this way, the play emphasizes the limited understanding of men about women’s world.

Like a silent character, the setting becomes a visual sign reflecting the distinction between men and women. The farmhouse in which the crime is committed is away from the community and it is highly claustrophobic, which mirrors Minnie’s isolation in her private sphere. Also, the play takes place in the kitchen. The kitchen is symbolic as it is the place women belong to according to the patriarchy. Such signs as "gloomy untidy kitchen" and "the loaf of bread outside the breadbox" are unusual as women are expected to tie the house. This untidiness stresses the depressed psychology of Minnie in an unhappy marriage. However, male characters think that Minnie does not accomplish her responsibilities as a good housewife while female characters can understand the reasons for her acts. This difference between men and women arises the dramatic irony as "the belittled" women are capable of solving the crime.

They find clues by relying on their female subjectivity and realize that Minnie has killed her husband. She kills him because he wants silence, does not care about Minnie’s desires, imprisons her in the house, and kills the bird that she loves. For instance, John does not even want to have a phone. In this way, he confines the socialization of Minnie. Thus, female characters support Minnie who is a representative defiant figure against patriarchy. Keeping her murder a secret, they symbolically reflect feminism.

Again symbolically, male characters enter the crime scene first in a confident manner as they are thought to be superior to women. The female characters are mentioned with their husband’s surname unlike Minnie as they represent the place of their husband in a patriarchal society.

After her marriage, Minnie transforms into a depressed woman. When she is in prison, Minnie wants her apron which makes her feel confident as she is expected to be a housewife in a male-dominated society.

Male characters do not give importance to the kitchen as a crime scene since they ignore female characters. A kitchen is a place of "trifles" and only women deal with trifles. However, ironically, the answer is there. Female characters realize the psychology of Minnie because in her "hegemony", the kitchen is a mess.

Sheriff makes fun of female characters as they talk about patchwork which is, in fact, a clue due to its partly disorganized pattern. This pattern reflects Minnie's anger as she loses her focus. Patchworks, generally, give hints about the women’s world in rural places. They try to give their messages through patterns. Thus, this disordered pattern shows Minnie’s anger which leads her to kill her husband.

Another hint is the broken birdcage. The strangulated bird stands both for the identity of Minnie and her company of her since she is mentioned as a pretty and joyful bird before her marriage. John probably strangles the bird as he wants quiet. Thus, Minnie acts out of temper as her only company dies.

Bird is strangulated by John; he is strangulated by Minnie and Minnie is strangulated by John symbolically in her marriage. In a sense, killing the bird is killing Minnie’s identity.

In the absence of authorities, people make their justice. Minnie, in a sense, acts as a vigilante justice and female characters show their role in that justice by keeping the murder a secret.