"Trifles," by Susan Glaspell, is about a murder investigation of a man who supposedly was murdered by his wife. The setting of the play takes place in the house of the murder victim, John Wright. Throughout the play the two women, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are deemed as almost invisible, unimportant. During the time of 1917 women did not have rights, they were the slaves of men. They could not vote and they had no independence. They were seen as keepers of the house, cleaning dishes, cleaning the house, cleaning, cleaning, and cleaning. .
Throughout the play these two women seem to always been talking and worrying about the most of irrelevant of things, and the men mock them for this. In the very beginning of the play Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale are in the kitchen all concerned about the fruit and if it froze or not. "Oh, her fruit: it did freeze. She worried about that when it turned so cold"" (Glaspell, 1128) and in response the Sheriff wants to beat the women for worrying about something so foolish. The men go on to lecture how dirty everything was in this kitchen and the women try to excuse everything. .
The men go off to investigate and find motive for the murder, in other words really important stuff. During this time the women tend to be talking about and doing the most random of things. They both act like what they are talking about is super important, but in reality it is not. Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale examine clothes of Mrs. Wright and try to decipher Mrs. Wright's life based off her clothes, foolishness. "She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was one of the town girls singing in the choir"" (Glaspell, 1129). .
The two ladies find an unfinished quilt that Mrs. Wright was working on. The two ladies talk about whether or not Mrs. Wright was going to "quilt it or just knot it " and immediately following, the Sheriff order heard their conversation and laughed at them. Throughout this play the men are always looking down on the two female characters.