A synapsis of the play trifles
Trifles teach that perception can mislead one to erroneous thinking and give false a sense of what’s actually factual. As the play opens up you immediately realize that the men (county attorney, sheriff, and farmer) are making a business trip to figure out how Mrs. Henderson killed her husband, while the women (spouses of the sheriff and farmer) on the other hand tagged along to help a friend by gathering a few items that will comfort her during her imprisonment. The women actually felt as if they were sneaking in Mrs. Henderson’s home rather than conducting business. This scene implies that the women are on board as far as feeling bad about their searching, but Mrs. Peter’s (sheriffs wife) response “Mrs. Hale, the law is the law” destroys the impression that women tend to relate only to their genders thought process. As the county attorney searched the house he continued to make several comments about it house being untidy and needing a touch up. The women did not hesitate to defend Mrs. Henderson and quickly reminded the county attorney that it’s difficult to run a farm and simultaneously take care of the home. From the men’s perspective they never considered entertaining the women’s thoughts about how or why Mrs. Henderson would have killed her husband, because they figured that women were only equipped to handle situations that pertain to the home. The women were actually more detailed (questioning the knot in the quilt and finding the birdcage and dead bird) in their survey of what actually happened by discovering the emotional impact of what Mrs. Henderson had gone through. The women investigated Mrs. Henderson’s history and who she was before entering the marriage and felt her pain of loneliness after being married, which symbolizes their emotional connection and vantage point from Mrs. Henderson view. The men remained puzzled (not finding evidence) throughout the entire investigation in which they never came to any conclusions as to why and