Blog 17: Trifles

MRS. PETERS (with a rising voice). "We don't know who killed him. We don't know."
MRS. HALE (her own feeling not interrupted.) "If there'd been years and years of nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful--still, after the bird was still."
MRS. PETERS (something within her speaking). "I know what stillness is. When we homesteaded in Dakota, and my first baby died--after he was two years old, and me with no other then--"
MRS. HALE (moving). "How soon do you suppose they'll be through, looking for evidence?"
MRS. PETERS." I know what stillness is." (Pulling herself back). "The law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale."
MRS. HALE (not as if answering that). "I wish you'd seen Minnie Foster when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the choir and sang." (A look around the room). "Oh, I wish I'd come over here once in a while! That was a crime! That was a crime! Who's going to punish that?"
(Glaspell pg.818)

I chose these lines of dialogue out of Trifles because they seem to me a very powerful part of the play. It seems to me the women are realizing that Mrs. Wright very well could have committed murder, but they are trying to think of things that would cause her to be troubled enough to do that. When Mrs. Peters says, " I know what stillness is." I was given the idea that Mrs. Peters feels for Mrs. Wright in the fact that she seemed to live in nothing but stillness. When Mrs. Hale says, " I wish I'd come over here once in awhile! That was a crime! That was a crime! Who's going to punish that?" I realized that Mrs. Hale realizes that Mrs. Wright may have committed murder and if she had been more of a friend to her and given her companionship Mrs. Wright would not have hung her husband. When I read "the law has got to punish crime Mrs. Hale," I did get a sense that Mrs. Peters is still a little hesitant on keeping the dead bird her and Mrs. Hale found a secret especially since she is the sheriff's wife. I did find it very interesting though, that they did at least want to keep the secret for the time being. That is a big secret to keep.
 I thought the ending was interesting. It made you think about what might happen later. Since Mrs. Peters is a little more hesitant, I kind of imagined her spilling the beans in court or something and her husband being very ashamed that his wife did not come forward in the first place. And then Mr. Hale also not being happy with his wife for keeping things from him as well.