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QuestionEnglish

1 - Title Implications: Explain what the word “trifles” literally means. Trifle means insignificant or trivial. 2 - Symbolic Setting. a) Outside: What is the weather? Cold and dark. Specifically, where is the murder site/ farmhouse located? The murder site is in a farm in Canada. B. Inside the house: List two things that let the audience “feel” how literally cold it is: It's a cold March morning and the audience is given a feeling of the cold in the atmosphere by the very first lines where Mrs. Hale opens the storm door and the cold wind cuts through her face and she rushes in to get her woolen scarf. Inside the house specifically, the feeling of cold becomes evident when all the men enter Minnie Foster's house and gather round the fire, they're even thankful that the sheriff had sent his own deputy that morning to make the fire prior to their arrival. 3 - List three significant details that are evidence of a poorly kept kitchen: Dirty towels, dirty pans in the sink, and the kitchen cupboard drawers that were sticky and messy because of the burst jam jars. 4 - Thumbnail Sketch: Make a comment about each of the characters A. Attorney Henderson: An unabashed male chauvinist who openly belittles women, but he is a good attorney. B. Sheriff Peters: Experienced in his job as sheriff but tends to be judgmental. C. Mr. Hale: A simpleton who is easily swayed by other opinions and a caring husband. D. Mrs. Peters: A fearful woman who does not have much opinion of her own but later shows insightfulness and is sympathetic to Minnie Foster's plight. E. Mrs. Hale: A smart, intuitive woman who is sympathetic to Minnie's plight and has a soft corner for her. She is investigative and curious to know why Minnie took the step that she had to and empathizes with her. 5 - List two “put down” comments the men make against women: Mr. Hale stereotypes women saying that women are used to worrying over trifles, when they learn that despite being held for murder Minnie was worried about her fruit preserves in jail. Attorney Henderson says that the women wouldn't be able to identify a clue even if they stumbled upon it. In a way, prejudging all women and calling them stupid. 6 - What evidence is there to suggest that John Wright was a hard man to live with? He did not allow Minnie to buy new clothes because when Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter went to retrieve her clothes from the closet they came upon shabby clothes that were mended over and over again and later they came across the stove with the broken lining and an old oven indicating to the fact that Mr. Wright did not let Minnie buy new clothes or possibly didn't give her money to upkeep herself or the house. 7 - Why hadn’t Mrs. Hale gone to see Minnie Wright in over a year? Mrs. Hale had not been to see Minnie for over a year even though she wished to see her because she was busy in the work of her own farm and also because she wasn't too fond of visiting the Wright's place because it was gloomy and lacked cheerfulness. 8 - Why does Mrs. Peters not like the phrase “married to the law”? Mrs. Peter's does not like the phrase “married to the law” because since she is married to the Sheriff, who ensures law and order in the county, she too is supposed to be exactly like her husband or in other words-'married to the law' and thus has no identity of her own. 9 - Why do the women hide the dead bird? The women hide the dead bird to protect Minnie from persecution. The dead bird can be used in a court of law to prove that Minnie had motive to kill her husband, which is exactly what Henderson is looking for. The women sympathize with Minnie once they have seen the conditions that she has had to put up with while living with Wright, who is a hard and cruel man. 10 - What other action might they have taken? The other action that they could have taken was to hand over the evidence to the attorney and implicate Millie beyond doubt for murdering her husband and letting the law take its course. 11 - How is each of these important? A. John Wright’s decision not to pay for a party [shared] telephone line: He said that folks talked too much anyways and thus deprived his wife of the little social life she could have had on the phone too. B. Bird cage with broken door: It is evidence that the bird was killed in a fit of rage. It is also symbolic of how Minnie broke the door of the cage that she was trapped in, the cage of her husband Wright's tyranny. C. Dead bird with its neck rung: It is symbolic of how Minnie, who used to sing in her past was subjugated by Wright to a point where she was hopeless and was as good as a dead bird, whose neck had been rung. In other words, Wright sucked the life out of Minnie by treating her badly and just as he had literally rung the singing canary's neck, over the years he had figuratively done the same act with his wife. D. Millie sang in the choir thirty years before: This is evidence that Millie was not always the shabbily clothed, lonesome, gloomy housewife. At one point she had the zest for life and used to sing in the choir. But her marriage to Wright transformed her for the worst. E. The quilt pieces: Minnie was sewing a quilt out of blocks and one of the blocks had been sewn in a haphazard manner in a stark contrast to the other blocks in the quilt it reflected that Minnie was nervous about something while sewing that block.