Blog Entry 17: Quote-Response on "Trifles"

Quote:

"Mrs. Hale: [Examining another block.] Mrs. Peters, look at this one. Here is the one she was working on, and look at the sewing! All the rest of it has been so nice and even. And look at this! It's all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn't know what she was about" (Glaspell 837).

Response:

As Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale attempt to disassociate Mrs. Wright from any possible implication of murder, they both begin to realize at this point (as only women would) that Mrs. Wright has recently become preoccupied and distressed. The first awareness that perhaps Mrs. Wright is not as innocent as they would like to believe becomes evident in the erratic stitching found in her quilting style. As the men continue to bathe in self-importance, searching for obvious clues, the women are able to find the most provocative clue while solving the case right under the men's noses.

The cleverness of women in the day of Susan Glaspell was not only unrecognized, but unwelcome by men. The words, "...she didn't know what she was about" (Glaspell 837), stand out to suggest an irrefutable empathy shared by the women. Both women, through silent recognition, conclude and acknowledge that when a woman is under stress, it can be abundantly apparent in her stitching. I was quite taken with the loyalty these women display for one another as they attempt to offer unuttered justification for one of their own kind, even though her crime may have been heinous and unacceptable by man's laws.