"Mrs. Peters: [To the other woman.] Oh, her fruit; it did freeze. [To the County Attorney] She worried aobut that when it turned so cold. She said the fire'd go out and her jars would break.
Sheriff: Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves.
County Attorney: I guess before we're through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about.
Hale: Well, women are used to worrying over trifles."
(Trifles, Glaspell, 840)
I chose this quote because it is somewhat the beginning of the men discussing women's trifles. It also shows that although Mrs. Wright killed her husband, she was so miserable with him and her own life in general that she appears more worried about trifles such as her food freezing than being found guilty or possibly even feeling guilty for the murder of her husband. I also think that it shows she feels little or no remorse; Mr. Wright killed her canary, which she loved, so maybe she saw it fit to do the same to him. It was possible that she was so miserable she was driven to the thought that that would make things equal; IE, he killed what she loved so she killed what made her miserable. I question whether or not she really did feel guilty for killing her husband, what her exact motive was, and whether or not she was legitimately more concerned with the trifles than the murder.
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Hi, Amanda. I like the play on the word "trifles." To the men, these are things that don't matter. To the women, these are vital aspects of their lives, which makes Mrs. Wright's crime visible to them and the reasons for it. Because the men treat trifles as meaningless, they won't catch Mrs. Wright because they won't see the clues related to her crime, and they won't understand the motivation--that Mrs. Wright had so little pleasure in life, the cruelty associated with the loss of a mere trifle, a bird, could cause her to commit murder. Nancy
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