Blog Entry 17: Quote-Response

Trifles by: Susan Glaspell
“
Country Attorney: Here’s a nice mess.
[The women draw nearer]
Mrs. Peters: [To the other women.] Oh, her fruit; it did freeze. [To the County Attorney] She worried about that when it turned 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.
[The two women move a little closer together.]” (Gaspell Pg.840)

It is not only the words that stand out to me in the section of the play but also the mannerisms that the author portrays with the actions of the women. It is pointed out that the wife was more worried about her preserves freezing and breaking rather than the fact that she was just arrested for her husband’s murder. To me that shows that she knows that she is innocent and is worried about her lifestyle and her things that she will need to survive now that her husband is gone. Obviously the word trifles stands out a lot in this section but also preserves and nice mess. The attorney says it is a nice mess, I assume with sarcasm, and the ladies respond by moving closer. I didn’t find there to be any fear from the women just that they were uncomfortable in this house. It is a house where someone they knew had just been found dead the day before so a little discomfort is understandable I think. The men seem to have the demeanor of guilt for the wife and the women seem more worried about her than anything else. Just by typing only the section of the play the reader is still able to get the feeling of the time period that this play is based in and that says a lot about how well the play was written. I found this reading very interesting.