This course will explore the unique experience of the woman writer. Studying works written by women from a variety of cultures, races and classes will reveal how being a woman has influenced the woman writer's creative interpretation of the human condition.
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Trifles blog #1
In a paragraph or two please respond to the following:
Find
a quote from the play that you think accurately describes the differing
attitudes of the men and the women toward the crime. Put each quote on
your blog entry and discuss each of them.
The differing attitudes of the men and women showed how they conducted the crime. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters started to search around the kitchen for important things to give Mrs. Wright while she was in jail. While searching Mrs. Hale found jarred fruit she believed Mrs. Wright would want them. She also found a large sewing basket and they saw a log cabin pattern. Mrs. Hale stated, “Pretty isn’t it? I wonder if she was going’ to quilt it or just knot it?” (6). Sheriff responded sarcastically, “They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it!” (6). Both County Attorney and Sheriff laughed at his comment. Them laughing showed that they feel woman think about useless things. In their minds they believed Mrs. Hale worrying about a quilt or knot has nothing to do with solving a crime.
The different attitudes of the men and women towards the crime is that when Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters start to look for things to take to Mrs Wright in jail. Searching for things to take Mrs.Hale found a jarred fruit and thought she would want and also found a large sewing basket and saw a log pattern. Mrs. Hale states "Pretty, isn't it? I I wonder if she was goin to quilt or just knot it?" (6) Then the sheriff responds by "They wonder if she was going to quilt it or knot it"(6) Both sheriff and county attorney start laughing over this statement because to the men this clue to the murder as no meaning and think that the women are talking about useless things but they don't know is that Mrs Hale and Mrs. Peters also notice that the sewing of the quilt starts off nice and then if looks like it was sewed with angry. These useless things have so much meaning and the men just don't want to see it.
There were many clues to the murder in the kitchen but the men went straight upstairs to start their investigation. Sheriff: "Nothing here but kitchen things" is a great example of the different attitudes between the men and women in the play Trifles. The men in the play see a great big mess in the kitchen while the women solved the murder by paying attention to the trifles things in the kitchen. Mrs. Hales: "Those towels get dirty awful quick. Men's hands aren't always as clean as they might be." is another example of the different view. The women understand why Mrs. Wright might have dirty towels or a messy kitchen. Having an unhappy life can lead to not cleaning up or maybe she didn't have time in the morning to clean up because she was busy killing her husband. Whereas, the men just see lazy homemaker.
The County Attorney mocked the women, because they were interested in the stitching that Mrs. Wright was doing. He asked them if Mrs. Wright was going to quilt it or knot it. After Mrs. Peters responded, he says "Well that’s interesting, I'm sure. Has the bird flown?" He really did not care about the response because he changed the subject very quickly. But only if the Attorney knew that the stitching was part of the clue to the murder.
There are several quotes that show the differing attitudes towards the crime from both the men and woman. Mrs. Peters says, "She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire'd go out and her jars would break." Then The Sheriff goes on to reply, "Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves.” (3) The woman knew that when it came to the fruit preserves it was something Mrs. Wright was worried about because the women had mentioned it. That alone should have pointed out that Mrs. Wright was busy doing something for the jars to break but the men fail to realize that. Another thing that women see toward the crime that men do not is the unfinished quit. The ladies notice that the quilt was first sown so nicely and then all of a sudden it was just all over the place. They begin to question and think about what could have happened. They drew inferences that maybe it was because she was tired or nervous: nervous about what though? The court Attorney then asks her as a mild joke “Well ladies, have you decided whether or not she was going to quilt it or knot it?” (Pg. 8) The Court Attorney fails to see how the quilt can have some correlation with Mr. Wright being killed by a rope around his next. When the women respond with “ We think she was going to – Knot it,” that alone should have been an indication in relation to the murder, but the men just viewed it as a silly quilt.
"They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it" said the Sheriff, the under line sarcasm the Sheriff has just shows how he doesn't take the ladies seriously. Although the woman were talking about a quilt when other important things were going on, they did pick up on a few details that helped them come to a conclusion about Mrs. Wright. The woman focused on minor details, such as the jars of fruit and the bread basket on the table, but although small, they helped them figure out more then the sheriff and attorney found out. "I wish i had come over to see Minnie Foster sometimes. I can see now" said Mrs. Hale. The woman were very emotional and focused on "irrelevant things" according to the men, but i believe they helped the audience understand more. The men were more focused on finding bloody evidence and something that popped out at them, rather then being more detailed and focusing on there emotional side.
"They wonder if she was going to quilt it or knot it" This quote was the exact description of how it the men were portrayed as the superior and of importance. They focused more on the obvious and what they expected to see in a murder scene when that could not have been the case for this investigation. However, the women focused on things the men would have found trivial when in truth those minor details helped with the solving of the case and making everything logical with reason. The men were sarcastic with different comments towards the women in order to intimidate or remind them it was a job for them and they could solve it themselves.
It is generally understood that one can properly understand the actions of another by looking at it from the other’s perspective. Such a case is portrayed in The Trifles in that, the two women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, who had accompanied their husbands and the County Attorney on a quest for evidence in the John Wright Murder case, were able to see certain facts that would contribute to the case due to their ability to identify with Mrs. Wright.
Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters on inspection of the quilt piece, deduces with their prior knowledge of sewing that Mrs. Wright had been nervous about something towards the end of the work. “It’s all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn’t know what she was about!” Mrs. Hale also adding to Mrs. Peters “what do you suppose she was so nervous about?” The two ladies also notice the broken door of the cage which the men oversee, and on finding the dead bird, go on to conclude, with the help of their own experience as a woman in the society, the evident theft of freedom and voice of Minnie Foster by her husband, JohnWright and conjecture that he had killed the bird which symbolized the free days of his wife Minnie Foster.
It is a little strange for us to think that women and men can have a different attitudes towards the murder of a man, but everything goes back to the mere definition of justice. To the woman, that are able to sympathize with Minnie Foster, she has done justice, an act not of revenge but of integrity. All of the symbols that they find in Mrs. Wright house disclose the state in which she was forced to live. Her husband killed her bird just like he killed her, asphyxiated her, with his own hands Mr. Wright took the life out of her. A feeling, that not only Minnie Foster had to experience, Mrs. Peters herself admits, "I know what stillness is. (Pulling herself back). The law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale" (9). The women understand the silent suffering they have to carry with themselves which makes them a lot more vulnerable to perceive the things that expose the true feelings that Mrs. Wright had towards her husband. On the other hand, for the men who take care of the important issues, who have things to do and things to think about, the worries of a woman are only playthings. This is explicitly said and carried out by all the men for which Hale is their spokesperson, "Well, women are used to worrying over trifles." (3) For men, women and everything that gets labeled as feminine is worthless, is just meaningless. What their assumptions of everything just being 'kitchen things' leads them to is the ignorance of what really matters. If they had payed a little more attention to what was obvious for the women, they would have solved the puzzle- Minnie Foster killed her husband Mr. Wright.
"COUNTY ATTORNEY. No, Peters, it’s all perfectly clear except a reason for doing it. But you know juries when it comes to women. If there was some definite thing. Something to show— something to make a story about—a thing that would connect up with this strange way of doing it."
This quote shows how the men feel about the crime. They are looking for hard evidence to convict Mrs. Wright. They cannot see past the facts to understand the way a person things so that they can understand why a person would murder Mr. Wright. they know if they cannot prove as to why Mrs. Wright would kill her husband, that she would not be convicted for the crime.
"MRS. PETERS. (in a whisper). When I was a girl—my kitten—there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes—and before I could get there—(Covers her face an instant.) If they hadn’t held me back, I would have— (Catches herself, looks upstairs, where steps are heard, falters weakly.)—hurt him."
This quote shows the women's view on the crime. They peice together that Mrs. Wright did commit the murder, but they realize why she would have done it. Mrs. Peters reminisis about how a boy had made her so mad that she would have hurt him, and it made they understand Mrs. Wright's actions.
Cleverness is the key to retaining power from the men in this story. The one thing that woman are criticized for, is for the idea that women tend to look at the ‘little picture’ instead of the ‘whole picture'. Two stories of revenge are told in this story, the revenge of suppression and revenge of being portrayed as ‘unsophisticated, unintelligent’ women. First we have the story of Mrs. Wright and the struggles with her husband, John. Married women throughout history have been portrayed and played the role as being inferior to the husband in marriage. This seems to be the case with Mrs. Wright. There are many quotes in this story that show the differing attitudes between the men and women toward the crime. The quote I considered the most important one was when the one when County Attorney asks, "Well, ladies, have you decided whether she was going to quilt it or knot it?" (page 8) That quote itself shows how what women see toward the crime that men do not which to them is the unfinished quit. The ladies notice that the quilt was first sown so nicely and then all of a sudden it was just all over the place. Then Mrs. Peters goes on to say, "We think she was going to --- knot it." (page 8) With that being said the court attorney doesn't seem to know that this whole quilt could have been a correlation or a clue as to what had happened to Mr. Wright. To men this was a silly thing but to women they focus on things that men would find trivial.
The title “trifles “refers to unimportant things. During the 1900’s men and women had specific roles in life according to men, women’s role wore all about trifles whilst men had to do important tasks , the sense of superiority and patriotism remained in the air during this time period placing women in a state of inferiority . Here is an example: County attorney: (looking around) I guess we‘ll go upstairs first – and then out to the barn and around there. (To the sheriff). You‘re convinced that there was nothing important here – nothing that would point to any motive? Sheriff: Nothing here but kitchen things. County attorney: Here is a real mess. In this example we are able to see the behavior of men, they wore interested in looking for evidence in places where the man of the house spend most of its time they also made an observation on the house, if they notice that the house was a mess then why didn’t they critically think about the reason why Mrs. Wright did not perform her “duty”?. They didn’t pay much attention to the kitchen; if they thought that Mrs. Wright was responsible for the crime they should have pay attention to everything specially the kitchen. In the other hand when the women was left alone in the kitchen they remember Mrs. Wright behavior before and after she married and came to the conclusion that she was having a miserable life. Going thru her stuff they discovered links to her psychological state of mind, the death bird, the pretty box, her sewing basket and her skills with handcrafts led them to discover the reason of the crime. The attitude of men was completely based on what they thought was important trifles matter and their sense of superiority did not allowed them to think critically. Here is another example in page 10: County Attorney: Oh I guess they’re not very dangerous things the ladies have picked up .Mrs. Peters does not need supervising. For that matter, a sheriff‘s wife is married to the law. Ever think of it that way, Mrs. Peters? Here we see the sense of superiority, they wouldn’t imagine that a trifle and a women could do such thing because of their inferiority but if they knew better they would have known that the “knot “was the answer to the crime.
After reading this story I came to the conclusion that the women were more emotional and the men were just worried about finding evidence and were not as emotional. There was one part where the Sheriff said “They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it.” I like this quote the most to represent the men’s attitude throughout this story because it shows that the men didn’t have much respect for the women they always felt that women were below men. The men only focused on the bigger picture of the crime they never considered their emotions.
The women in the story were very concerned with Mrs. Minnie Wright and sympathized with her. When they found the possible evidence that was a clue that could have tied the motive of her killing her husband they understood why she did it. The fact that the men continued to belittle the women every chance they got it made the women bond connect further to Minnie Wright. They could imagine what she was going through being with a grumpy man such as Mr. Wright. Another difference was that the men were looking for evidence in a practical basic manner and at no time paid attention to small details inside the house. They also dismissed anything the women were doing in the kitchen and also talked bad about how Minnie left the kitchen as if she was worthless.
The differing attitudes of the men and women showed how they conducted the crime. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters started to search around the kitchen for important things to give Mrs. Wright while she was in jail. While searching Mrs. Hale found jarred fruit she believed Mrs. Wright would want them. She also found a large sewing basket and they saw a log cabin pattern. Mrs. Hale stated, “Pretty isn’t it? I wonder if she was going’ to quilt it or just knot it?” (6). Sheriff responded sarcastically, “They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it!” (6). Both County Attorney and Sheriff laughed at his comment. Them laughing showed that they feel woman think about useless things. In their minds they believed Mrs. Hale worrying about a quilt or knot has nothing to do with solving a crime.
ReplyDelete---Shanelle Hunter
I used the same quilt quote as well. I agree with your response.
DeleteThe different attitudes of the men and women towards the crime is that when Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters start to look for things to take to Mrs Wright in jail. Searching for things to take Mrs.Hale found a jarred fruit and thought she would want and also found a large sewing basket and saw a log pattern. Mrs. Hale states "Pretty, isn't it? I I wonder if she was goin to quilt or just knot it?" (6) Then the sheriff responds by "They wonder if she was going to quilt it or knot it"(6) Both sheriff and county attorney start laughing over this statement because to the men this clue to the murder as no meaning and think that the women are talking about useless things but they don't know is that Mrs Hale and Mrs. Peters also notice that the sewing of the quilt starts off nice and then if looks like it was sewed with angry. These useless things have so much meaning and the men just don't want to see it.
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly how I felt, I used the same quote as well, women have a great eye to detail can't say the same for men particularly in this story.
DeleteThere were many clues to the murder in the kitchen but the men went straight upstairs to start their investigation. Sheriff: "Nothing here but kitchen things" is a great example of the different attitudes between the men and women in the play Trifles. The men in the play see a great big mess in the kitchen while the women solved the murder by paying attention to the trifles things in the kitchen. Mrs. Hales: "Those towels get dirty awful quick. Men's hands aren't always as clean as they might be." is another example of the different view. The women understand why Mrs. Wright might have dirty towels or a messy kitchen. Having an unhappy life can lead to not cleaning up or maybe she didn't have time in the morning to clean up because she was busy killing her husband. Whereas, the men just see lazy homemaker.
ReplyDeleteThe County Attorney mocked the women, because they were interested in the stitching that Mrs. Wright was doing. He asked them if Mrs. Wright was going to quilt it or knot it. After Mrs. Peters responded, he says "Well that’s interesting, I'm sure. Has the bird flown?" He really did not care about the response because he changed the subject very quickly. But only if the Attorney knew that the stitching was part of the clue to the murder.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThere are several quotes that show the differing attitudes towards the crime from both the men and woman. Mrs. Peters says, "She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire'd go out and her jars would break." Then The Sheriff goes on to reply, "Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves.” (3) The woman knew that when it came to the fruit preserves it was something Mrs. Wright was worried about because the women had mentioned it. That alone should have pointed out that Mrs. Wright was busy doing something for the jars to break but the men fail to realize that.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that women see toward the crime that men do not is the unfinished quit. The ladies notice that the quilt was first sown so nicely and then all of a sudden it was just all over the place. They begin to question and think about what could have happened. They drew inferences that maybe it was because she was tired or nervous: nervous about what though? The court Attorney then asks her as a mild joke “Well ladies, have you decided whether or not she was going to quilt it or knot it?” (Pg. 8) The Court Attorney fails to see how the quilt can have some correlation with Mr. Wright being killed by a rope around his next. When the women respond with “ We think she was going to – Knot it,” that alone should have been an indication in relation to the murder, but the men just viewed it as a silly quilt.
"They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it" said the Sheriff, the under line sarcasm the Sheriff has just shows how he doesn't take the ladies seriously. Although the woman were talking about a quilt when other important things were going on, they did pick up on a few details that helped them come to a conclusion about Mrs. Wright. The woman focused on minor details, such as the jars of fruit and the bread basket on the table, but although small, they helped them figure out more then the sheriff and attorney found out.
ReplyDelete"I wish i had come over to see Minnie Foster sometimes. I can see now" said Mrs. Hale. The woman were very emotional and focused on "irrelevant things" according to the men, but i believe they helped the audience understand more. The men were more focused on finding bloody evidence and something that popped out at them, rather then being more detailed and focusing on there emotional side.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete"They wonder if she was going to quilt it or knot it"
ReplyDeleteThis quote was the exact description of how it the men were portrayed as the superior and of importance. They focused more on the obvious and what they expected to see in a murder scene when that could not have been the case for this investigation. However, the women focused on things the men would have found trivial when in truth those minor details helped with the solving of the case and making everything logical with reason. The men were sarcastic with different comments towards the women in order to intimidate or remind them it was a job for them and they could solve it themselves.
Yangchen Lhamo (Young)
ReplyDeleteIt is generally understood that one can properly understand the actions of another by looking at it from the other’s perspective. Such a case is portrayed in The Trifles in that, the two women, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, who had accompanied their husbands and the County Attorney on a quest for evidence in the John Wright Murder case, were able to see certain facts that would contribute to the case due to their ability to identify with Mrs. Wright.
Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters on inspection of the quilt piece, deduces with their prior knowledge of sewing that Mrs. Wright had been nervous about something towards the end of the work. “It’s all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn’t know what she was about!” Mrs. Hale also adding to Mrs. Peters “what do you suppose she was so nervous about?” The two ladies also notice the broken door of the cage which the men oversee, and on finding the dead bird, go on to conclude, with the help of their own experience as a woman in the society, the evident theft of freedom and voice of Minnie Foster by her husband, JohnWright and conjecture that he had killed the bird which symbolized the free days of his wife Minnie Foster.
It is a little strange for us to think that women and men can have a different attitudes towards the murder of a man, but everything goes back to the mere definition of justice. To the woman, that are able to sympathize with Minnie Foster, she has done justice, an act not of revenge but of integrity. All of the symbols that they find in Mrs. Wright house disclose the state in which she was forced to live. Her husband killed her bird just like he killed her, asphyxiated her, with his own hands Mr. Wright took the life out of her. A feeling, that not only Minnie Foster had to experience, Mrs. Peters herself admits, "I know what stillness is. (Pulling herself back). The law has got to punish crime, Mrs. Hale" (9). The women understand the silent suffering they have to carry with themselves which makes them a lot more vulnerable to perceive the things that expose the true feelings that Mrs. Wright had towards her husband.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, for the men who take care of the important issues, who have things to do and things to think about, the worries of a woman are only playthings. This is explicitly said and carried out by all the men for which Hale is their spokesperson, "Well, women are used to worrying over trifles." (3) For men, women and everything that gets labeled as feminine is worthless, is just meaningless. What their assumptions of everything just being 'kitchen things' leads them to is the ignorance of what really matters. If they had payed a little more attention to what was obvious for the women, they would have solved the puzzle- Minnie Foster killed her husband Mr. Wright.
The Quotes I Chose:
ReplyDelete"COUNTY ATTORNEY. No, Peters, it’s all perfectly clear except a reason for doing it. But you
know juries when it comes to women. If there was some definite thing. Something to show—
something to make a story about—a thing that would connect up with this strange way of doing
it."
This quote shows how the men feel about the crime. They are looking for hard evidence to convict Mrs. Wright. They cannot see past the facts to understand the way a person things so that they can understand why a person would murder Mr. Wright. they know if they cannot prove as to why Mrs. Wright would kill her husband, that she would not be convicted for the crime.
"MRS. PETERS. (in a whisper). When I was a girl—my kitten—there was a boy took a hatchet,
and before my eyes—and before I could get there—(Covers her face an instant.) If they hadn’t
held me back, I would have— (Catches herself, looks upstairs, where steps are heard, falters
weakly.)—hurt him."
This quote shows the women's view on the crime. They peice together that Mrs. Wright did commit the murder, but they realize why she would have done it. Mrs. Peters reminisis about how a boy had made her so mad that she would have hurt him, and it made they understand Mrs. Wright's actions.
Cleverness is the key to retaining power from the men in this story. The one thing that woman are criticized for, is for the idea that women tend to look at the ‘little picture’ instead of the ‘whole picture'. Two stories of revenge are told in this story, the revenge of suppression and revenge of being portrayed as ‘unsophisticated, unintelligent’ women. First we have the story of Mrs. Wright and the struggles with her husband, John. Married women throughout history have been portrayed and played the role as being inferior to the husband in marriage. This seems to be the case with Mrs. Wright. There are many quotes in this story that show the differing attitudes between the men and women toward the crime. The quote I considered the most important one was when the one when County Attorney asks, "Well, ladies, have you decided whether she was going to quilt it or knot it?" (page 8) That quote itself shows how what women see toward the crime that men do not which to them is the unfinished quit. The ladies notice that the quilt was first sown so nicely and then all of a sudden it was just all over the place. Then Mrs. Peters goes on to say, "We think she was going to --- knot it." (page 8) With that being said the court attorney doesn't seem to know that this whole quilt could have been a correlation or a clue as to what had happened to Mr. Wright. To men this was a silly thing but to women they focus on things that men would find trivial.
ReplyDeleteThe title “trifles “refers to unimportant things. During the 1900’s men and women had specific roles in life according to men, women’s role wore all about trifles whilst men had to do important tasks , the sense of superiority and patriotism remained in the air during this time period placing women in a state of inferiority . Here is an example:
ReplyDeleteCounty attorney: (looking around) I guess we‘ll go upstairs first – and then out to the barn and around there. (To the sheriff). You‘re convinced that there was nothing important here – nothing that would point to any motive?
Sheriff: Nothing here but kitchen things.
County attorney: Here is a real mess.
In this example we are able to see the behavior of men, they wore interested in looking for evidence in places where the man of the house spend most of its time they also made an observation on the house, if they notice that the house was a mess then why didn’t they critically think about the reason why Mrs. Wright did not perform her “duty”?. They didn’t pay much attention to the kitchen; if they thought that Mrs. Wright was responsible for the crime they should have pay attention to everything specially the kitchen. In the other hand when the women was left alone in the kitchen they remember Mrs. Wright behavior before and after she married and came to the conclusion that she was having a miserable life. Going thru her stuff they discovered links to her psychological state of mind, the death bird, the pretty box, her sewing basket and her skills with handcrafts led them to discover the reason of the crime. The attitude of men was completely based on what they thought was important trifles matter and their sense of superiority did not allowed them to think critically.
Here is another example in page 10:
County Attorney: Oh I guess they’re not very dangerous things the ladies have picked up .Mrs. Peters does not need supervising. For that matter, a sheriff‘s wife is married to the law. Ever think of it that way, Mrs. Peters?
Here we see the sense of superiority, they wouldn’t imagine that a trifle and a women could do such thing because of their inferiority but if they knew better they would have known that the “knot “was the answer to the crime.
After reading this story I came to the conclusion that the women were more emotional and the men were just worried about finding evidence and were not as emotional. There was one part where the Sheriff said “They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it.” I like this quote the most to represent the men’s attitude throughout this story because it shows that the men didn’t have much respect for the women they always felt that women were below men. The men only focused on the bigger picture of the crime they never considered their emotions.
ReplyDeleteThe women in the story were very concerned with Mrs. Minnie Wright and sympathized with her. When they found the possible evidence that was a clue that could have tied the motive of her killing her husband they understood why she did it. The fact that the men continued to belittle the women every chance they got it made the women bond connect further to Minnie Wright. They could imagine what she was going through being with a grumpy man such as Mr. Wright. Another difference was that the men were looking for evidence in a practical basic manner and at no time paid attention to small details inside the house. They also dismissed anything the women were doing in the kitchen and also talked bad about how Minnie left the kitchen as if she was worthless.
ReplyDelete