Analysis Of The Setting In “Trifles”
...of circumstance, the proving ground of, what happened? Who’s here? Who’s coming?” (Welty qtd. in Literature). The place of a story’s happening, along with the time in which it happens, is
the setting. Setting is as instrumental to the meaning of a piece of literature by greatly affecting its results, as are the characters, point of view, and plot. The physical and time details of the setting become linked with values, ideals, and attitudes of the characters. The details of the setting of Susan Glaspell’s one-act play Trifles provide clues for solving the murder. Glaspell uses simple but effective elements in the setting to create suspense as an attempt is made to solve the mysterious murder that has occurred on the John and Minnie Wright farm. Three men and two women are the only characters that appear on a simple kitchen stage in the play. The three men (county attorney, sheriff, and a neighboring farmer) enter and exit several times while discussing and looking for evidence and motive of the murder. Meanwhile, the two women (sheriff’s Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Petersand farmer’s wives) remain on stage, taking notice of and talking about Mrs. Wright’s “little things” in the kitchen (Glaspell 461) [Page references are to Judith Stanford's Responding to Literature, 4th ed. NY: McGraw-Hill, 2003]. The men make light of the small things that the women take note of, in particular as to how Mrs. Wright was contemplating to construct the quilt. As the women converse and share experiences of their own and those of Mrs. Wright, they begin to form a feminine bond. Upon finding a battered birdcage and eventually the dead canary, the women nonverbally mutually agree to hide the evidence of the murderer’s motive. Glaspell conveys the setting in three realms: time (era), regional (geographical), and domain (kitchen). Collectively the three setting elements...
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