Trifles Class 11 Exercise: Questions Answers, Summary & Notes | NEB Grade 11 English Unit 1

"Trifles" is a one-act play by Susan Glaspell which premiered in 1916. And as a play, it is powerful in exploring gendered roles at home, domestic life, mental health, emotional repression and justice. As in a small rural farmhouse, it represents how the voices and experiences of women are regularly diminished in a patriarchal society.

The play is a part of Class 11 English, Literature Unit 1 and is remarkable for its indirect but powerful feminist content.

The play begins with an investigation of a murder in the farmhouse of John Wright and his wife, Minnie Wright. John has been discovered dead, strangled with a rope, and his wife Minnie is being accused of the crime! George Henderson, the county attorney, and the sheriff, Henry Peters, search the house for clues but then are joined by the neighboring farmer, Lewis Hale. With them are Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, the wives.

As the men dismiss the kitchen and domestic items as “trifles,” the women quietly note the clues: broken jars of preserves, unfinished sewing, a broken-spined birdcage, and, eventually, a dead bird with a broken neck, hidden in a box. These details reveal the emotional and mental abuse Minnie experienced, particularly the isolation and the destruction of her only comfort — her singing bird.

The women then resolve to hide this damning evidence from the men and, in so doing, are tacitly complicit in Minnie’s mute cry for help and justice.

a. Do you believe Mrs. Wright killed her husband? Explain.

Yes, Mrs. Wright did kill her husband. Her emotional loneliness, continuous isolation and oppression by John Wright flashed her mad. The symbolic murder of her pet bird — the only thing that ever made her happy — was the last straw. The homicide was her quiet revenge against years of psychological torment.

b. Would Mr. Wright be dead had Mr. Hale never visited a home with Mrs. Wright?

Probably not. It was Mr. Hale’s unexpected visit that caused the discovery. Minnie acted bizarrely after he asked about her husband, arousing his suspicion. If Hale had not come no one might have ever known of the murder at all.

c. Why does Mrs. Hale think that Minnie’s worry over the preserves is evidence of her innocence?

Mrs. Hale believes that Minnie’s concern that her fruit jars might break in the cold means her entire mind was on trivial considerations. It reflects her mental state and domestic preoccupations, not the mindset of a cold-blooded murderer.

d. How does homesteading relate Mrs. Peters to Mrs. Wright?

Mrs. Peters empathizes with Minnie due to a personal wound. She remembers her own trauma: giving up a child and watching her kitten die. It is this vision that allows her to sympathize with Minnie’s mourning for the dead bird, creating a connection of wordless comprehension between them.

e. How do the women view men differently?

Mrs. Hale is even harder on men, brimming with resentment over the way that they dismiss and diminish women’s work. Mrs. Peters, who at first complies to the law and her husband’s authority, later starts to become more sympathetic to Minnie. Eventually, the two women realize how much they themselves have suffered at the hands of male oppression and start to chafe at male domination together.

Gender dynamics: Men are dismissive of women and their “little” concerns, even though those “trifles” solve the murder.

Justice vs. Law: The women do discover the motive but decide not to reveal it, indicating an emotional justice rather than a legal one.

Mental health: The play brings the mental effect of emotional abuse and isolation to the fore.

Female solidarity: Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale connect through shared experience and ultimately shield Minnie.

The Bird: Symbolizes Minnie’s happiness and freedom, soaked from the loss. Its death is symbolic of her death inside.

The Quilt: The hand stitching–uneven, broken, shaky–signifies the ruffled state of Minnie’s mind.

The Broken Cage : It represents her captivity and yearning to be free.

Trifles subverts conventional notions of crime, justice, and gender in a murder mystery by weaving a discreet, yet powerful, narrative. These small “unimportant” details of domesticity are the real truths, yet society doesn't care. Both a mystery and an exploration of the experience of being a woman in the public eye, this is a play for studying Class 11 English Literature.