Trifles vs. A Jury of Her Peers

Compare/Contrast between the Play Trifles and the Short Story of Trifles.

In the short story “A Jury of Her Peers” written by Susan Glaspell, the author rewrites the Play “Trifles” in a narrative form. A Jury of Her Peers has the same characters as Trifles, but now the reader gets to hear what the characters were thinking and feeling. The narrative elaborates on how the characters met and even how they feel about one another. For example, on page 275 the writer explains how Mrs. Hale first met Mrs. Peters, “the year before at the county fair”. Mrs. Hale’s opinion of Mrs. Peters is brought to the surface on page 276 when the writer reveals that she felt Mrs. Peters “didn’t seem like a sheriff’s wife”. Whereas in the play Trifles, the reader is left with no insight of this nature since the dialogue is so central (all you know is what you see and hear). Feelings are left out of the play, and revealed in the short story.
We get a better feel for the relationship between Mr. and Mrs. Hale in the short story. Mr. Hale rushes her (on page 275) when he yells “Martha!”, and tells her to “Don’t keep folks waiting out here in the cold”. Her annoyance towards him shows on page 277 where she gets irritated with him for “saying things he didn’t need to say”. She tries to give him a cross look, but is interrupted by the county attorney. Our suspicions of male dominance are confirmed on page 279 when the sheriff replies to the county attorney “Nothing here but kitchen things” and the writer reveals that his little laugh was for the “insignificance of kitchen things”. In the end, the two female characters Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters hide the evidence found in the kitchen that could have been used to convict the accused Minnie Wright of murder. The short story brings more of the readers’ imagination to work, whereas the play is pretty black and white, with little room for interpretation.

Trifles

Susan Gaspell’s Trifles, a drama written in 1916 depicts both flat and three-dimensional characters. The two woman characters Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are three dimensional because they have thoughts, feelings and insight. They respond both internally and externally. For example, Mrs. Hale responds to the County Attorney's criticism of Mrs. Wright having dirty towels in the kitchen by saying "There's a great deal of work to be done on a farm" and "Those towels get dirty awful quick". She empathizes with Mrs. Wright even though she's the prime suspect of the murder of Mr. Wright. She acknowledges that Mrs. Wright may have been the murderer, but she seems determined to understand her side of the story. Both Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Peters uncover evidence that points to a motive for the murder; did Mr. Wright kill her canary? Did she wring his neck like he wrung the birds? The men characters are flat and uneventful, they are shallow and arrogant.
Unlike the other “flat” characters in the story, the two female characters look deeper into the psyche of the possible murderer. Once they understand her motive, they begin to analyze her reasoning for the killing. Mrs. Peters shares her own story of a time when her kitten was killed, and another time when her first baby died. Mrs. Hale regrets not visiting the lonely woman more. Together they begin to understand why she may have killed her husband.
Mrs. Hale develops into the person who helps cover up the possible motive for the crime. Maybe it’s her own guilt for not being a better neighbor. Maybe she can relate to the subservient way woman are treated by men, and she feels this woman had put up with enough. Finally, Mrs. Hale seemed to conclude that Minnie Foster could have been somebody, had she not married a farmer. In the end, the two woman stick together, against the men who are shallow and treat them like they’re stupid.