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Chapter 1 Trifles
Class 11 English
Exercise
Susan Glaspell
Understanding the text
Answer the following questions.
a. Do you believe that Mrs. Wright killed her husband? Explain.
Answer: Yes, I believed that Mrs. Wright killed her husband. After
listening to the conversation of two womens they were comparing
Mrs. Wright before marriage life and after marriage life. By this we
can understand that Mrs. Wright had very wonderful life before
marriage and after marriage, her life was boring. She couldn’t sing
talk to anybody, depressed and her bird was killed by her husband.
So, in case of revenge she killed her husband.
b. Do you think Mr. Wright’s death would have been uncovered if
Mr. Hale hadn’t stopped by the Wrights’ home?
Answer: No, I don’t think Mr. Wright’s death would have been
uncovered if Mr. Hale hadn’t stopped by the Wright’s home because
if Mr. Hale hadn’t stopped by the Wrights’ home, nobody would
ever know about Mr. Wright’s death as the location of the house
was quite far from the road and the news of his death will remain
suppressed.
c. Why does Mrs. spanHale think that Mrs. Wright’s worries about
her preserves indicate her innocence?
Answer: Mrs. Hale suggests think that Mrs. Wright’s worries about
her preserves indicate her innocence because she did not feel happy
and she contrasts Mrs. Ale saying that only an innocent woman
would ask for an apron and a shout while worrying about fruit. So
because of this, Mrs. Ale thinks that Mrs. Wright’s worries about
her preserves indicate her innocent.
d. How does Mrs. Peters’ homesteading experience connect her to
Mrs. Wright?
Answer: Mrs. Peter end up protecting Minnie Wright by hiding the
strangled canary, which could be used as key evidence against her.
Although Mrs. Peter’s is the sheriff’s wife and married to the law
she comes to the same conclusion as Mrs. Wright and ultimately
acting on her behalf. In this way Mrs. Peter’s home steading
experience connects her to Mrs. Wright.
e. How do the women’s perspectives on men differ?
Answer: The woman’s perspectives on men differ by the fact that
the mens are powerful and have become stupid and lazy but the
women have no power except that of intelligence, which allows
them to manipulate the men.
Reference to the context
Read the extract from the play given below and answer the
questions that follow:
a. “MRS. PETERS:(glancing around). Seems funny to think of a bird
here. But she must have had one, or why would she have a cage? I
wonder what happened to it?
MRS. HALE: I s’pose maybe the cat got it.”
i. Who does ‘she’ refer to?
Answer: ‘She’ refers to Mrs. Wright.
ii. What does the word ‘one’ stand for?
Answer: The word ‘one’ stands for a bird.
iii. What is the full form of “s’pose”
Answer: The full form of “s’pose” is “suppose.”
iv. What do you mean when Mrs. Hale says, “the cat got it”?
Answer: When Mrs. Hale says, “the cat got it”, I mean “the cat
must have caught the bird.”
b. “MRS. HALE: Wright was close. …… she used to wear pretty
clothes and be lively, when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town
girls singing in the choir But that— oh, that was thirty years ago.”
i. Why does Mrs. Hale refer to Mrs. Wright as “Minnie Foster”?
Answer: Mrs. Hale refers to Mrs. Wright as “Minnie Foster”
because, before her marriage, Mrs. Wright was a very beautiful
singer. She was known as Minnie Foster, and she used to dress
pretty and sing in the choir.
ii. What does her description tell you about Mrs. Wright?
Answer: Mrs. Wright was a beautiful singer before her marriage,
according to her description. Her name was Minnie Foster, who
used to sing beautifully and wear pretty clothes thirty years ago.
iii. What does Mrs. Hale mean by “that was thirty years ago”?
Answer: By “that was thirty years ago”, Mrs. Hale refers to the
period in Mrs. Wright’s life when she was an unmarried and wellknown singer known as Minnie Foster.
c. What is the main theme of the play?
Answer: The main themes in Trifles are gender, isolation, and
justice.
Gender: The male characters only want to utter evidence of
Minnie’s crime, whereas the women came to understand the
emotional pain that drove Minnie to murder her husband.
Isolation: Minnie wright is isolated from her famous and family by
her controlling abusive husband.
Justice: The man and woman have different conceptions of justice.
The man want Minnie to be convicted of murder whereas the
woman hide the evidence that would have convicted Minnie out of
respect for the years of abuse Minnie suffered.
d. Discuss the symbolism used in the play.
Answer: Symbolism is a literary device which is used to represent a
concept through symbols or underlying meanings of objects or
qualities. Here in this play, we find various things that symbolize
varieties of hidden meanings which are as follows:
1. The preservative jars: These jars symbolize the cold and broken marriage
relationship between Mrs. Wright and her husband.
2. Singing Canary bird: The singing Canary bird symbolizes the freedom of
Mrs. Wright before her marriage.
3. The birdcage: The birdcage symbolizes the trapped life of Mrs. Wright
after her marriage.
4. Wrung neck of canary: It symbolizes the concept of revenge in a tit for
tat manner. Mr. Wright has also been murdered with a rope around his
neck instead of a gun.
5. Knot in a quilt: Mrs. Hale’s dialogue as the knot in a quit symbolizes the
murder with a rope. The stitches in the particular quilt even symbolize
the nervousness of Mrs. Wright.
e. Discuss the setting of the play. Does it have an impact on the
theme of the play?
Answer: This play is set in Mr. John Wright’s abandoned farmhouse.
The house is a lonesome, gloomy place down in the hollow where
the road cannot be seen.
Yes, it have an impact on the theme of the play. The play is set in a
rural area, more specifically at an abandoned farmhouse. Being in a
rural landscape, the characters are meant to represent real people.
And although this is a set in American’s heartland, the relatively
larger distance between neighbours in rural farming areas implies a
sense of loneliness that parallels Mrs. Wright’s loneliness. In this
way, the setting have an impact on the theme of the play.
Reference beyond the text
a. The credibility of a character is determined not only by the
character’s thoughts and actions but also by what other characters
say and think about him or her. Discuss in relation to the characters
of Trifles.
Answer: In this play, we all readers are brought towards off-stage
main character Mrs. Wright through on stage characters like Mrs.
Hale and Mrs. Peters. Here, these two on-stage characters keep on
discussing and informing us about various aspects of Mrs. Wright’s
life. Their discussion related to Mrs. Wright while investigating has
provided us with various hidden aspects of Mrs. Wright’s life.
Thanks to women’s knowledge, we may learn about Mrs. Wright’s
life and suffering. Readers are engaged in knowing about their life
narrative emotionally. Both ladies and Mrs. Wright’s descriptions
seem unbelievable. Their contributions to the play made all readers
happy with Mrs. Wright. The work of these two characters, Mrs. Wright was favorably represented in the eyes of all readers.
Everybody sympathizes with Mrs. Wright.
b. Dramatic irony occurs when the reader or audience has
information that is unknown to the characters in a play; it creates
tension and suspense. Analyse the play discussing the author’s use
of dramatic irony based on these questions:
(i) What information is crucial to the play Trifles?
Answer: Dramatic irony is a literary device that has been created
when the audience or reader comes to know the things at first that
are hidden. The key information in this play about dramatic irony is
that Ms. Wright killed her husband. The readers know the reasons
behind the murder via the discussion of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters,
but these facts are not known to the male characters who seem to
be concerned with discovering clues.
(ii) How does the playwright use this information to create
dramatic irony?
Answer: To create dramatic irony, the playwright creates various
twists and suspenses. The playwright keeps on presenting
information related to murder through predictions and proofs given
by the characters during the time of investigation to find the actual
murderer.
(iii) What effect does the dramatic irony have on the audience and
on the play?
Answer: Dramatic irony is very well managed and presented by the
playwright. It has put the audience and readers above the leading
male characters of the play. It has managed all the readers’
attention, anticipation, hope, fear, curiosity and suspense. Here,
the readers have got the actual information before all male
characters of the play. Dramatic irony has made this play very
interesting and full of twists where facts are disclosed creating
curiosity among the readers.
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