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Scene Study prepares you to perform key scenes for your theater class or audition. We've got all the information you need for a great performance.

Excerpt from Dialogue: Sheriff Peters, County Attorney, Mr Hale, Mrs Hale, Mrs Peters

 

COUNTY ATTORNEY

I guess before we’re through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about.

LEWIS HALE

Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.

(The two women move a little closer together.)

Read the full dialogue.
 

 

Understanding the Given Circumstances

  • The scene takes place in the early twentieth century in the rural kitchen of Mr and Mrs Wright’s farmhouse. The kitchen is cold, messy, and cheerless, reflecting the domestic isolation and hardship of farm life, especially for women during that time.
  • During the early 1900s, women managed the home and remained largely silent in public affairs. Mrs Wright’s isolated life on the farm reflects these societal pressures, which contribute to the emotional atmosphere of the scene.
  • The County Attorney and Sheriff Peters are investigating the murder of Mr (John) Wright. Mr Hale, a farmer living nearby, is recounting his visit to the house when he discovered something was wrong, while Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters observe and reflect on Mrs Wright’s situation.
  • The County Attorney leads the questioning with a dismissive attitude toward domestic concerns, believing the kitchen and its contents hold no relevance. This dismissiveness plays a key role in highlighting the contrast between the men’s overt investigation and the women’s more intuitive understanding.

 

Blocking and Movement

In theater, blocking is the process of planning the actors’ physical movements and positions. Be sure to show respect and establish trust when working with scene partners. As you prepare to block this scene, ask yourself the following questions:

  • What is Mr Hale’s motivation in this scene? How does his discomfort and confusion affect how he delivers his lines, and what do his actions reveal about his personality?
  • As Mr Hale explains his interaction with Mrs Wright, how can he portray her rocking motion to reflect her emotional state and her stillness when revealing her husband’s death to heighten the tension?
  • Where is the Sheriff standing on stage in relation to the other characters, particularly the County Attorney, and what does his staging imply about his relationship with the other characters in the scene? 
  • When Hale remarks that “women are used to worrying over trifles,” Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters move closer together. Do they do this consciously or unconsciously? How do their faces react? What does this suggest about how they feel about Hale’s remark and each other in that moment?
  • What do Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters notice about their surroundings and Mrs Wright’s situation that the men do not? To what extent are the male characters aware of their movements?
  • What role does the kitchen setting play in movement? Use the space (e.g., stove, sink, rocking chair) to show the characters’ comfort levels.
  • How should the characters handle props, such as the fruit jars? How can they show dismissiveness or empathy with their movements?
  • What physical or emotional cues can the actors who will play Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters use to communicate their growing understanding of Mrs Wright’s hardships in the scene?

 

Character Relationships

One of the most important relationships between the characters in Trifles is the division between the male and female characters. Although this scene occurs early in the play, the gender dynamics have already started to emerge. As the male characters survey the kitchen, they criticize Mrs Wright’s homemaking skills, commenting on her dirty towels and joking about her concern for her fruit jars when she is under arrest for murder. Hale goes so far as to remark that “women are used to worrying over trifles.” Ultimately, the men decide that the kitchen is unimportant to their investigation and move together to a different part of the house to search for clues and a motive for the murder. 

Meanwhile, in response to the men’s mockery, the two female characters, Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters, have huddled closer together in response to the men’s condescension. Their movement toward each other represents the bond they share based on their experiences of being housewives—a bond they also share with Mrs Wright, even though she’s not physically in the scene. Mrs Hale attempts to speak up when the County Attorney criticizes Mrs Wright’s housekeeping, pointing out the difficulty of farm work, but her response is met with patronizing remarks rather than serious consideration. The men consistently disregard her insights, reinforcing the idea that their authority outweighs the women’s perspectives. As the play progresses, it is Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters, by paying attention to the domestic space the men ignore, who uncover the crucial evidence. Ironically, the very “trifles” the men mock turn out to be the key to understanding the crime.
 

Full Dialogue: Sheriff Peters, County Attorney, Mr Hale, Mrs Hale, Mrs Peters

 

Setting: The kitchen in the now abandoned farmhouse of JOHN WRIGHT. 

COUNTY ATTORNEY

Well, Mr Hale, tell just what happened when you came here yesterday morning.

LEWIS HALE

Harry and I had started to town with a load of potatoes. We came along the road from my place and as I got here I said, ‘I’m going to see if I can’t get John Wright to go in with me on a party telephone.’ I spoke to Wright about it once before and he put me off, saying folks talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet—I guess you know about how much he talked himself; but I thought maybe if I went to the house and talked about it before his wife, though I said to Harry that I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John—

COUNTY ATTORNEY

Let’s talk about that later, Mr Hale. I do want to talk about that, but tell now just what happened when you got to the house.

LEWIS HALE

I didn’t hear or see anything; I knocked at the door, and still it was all quiet inside. I knew they must be up, it was past eight o’clock. So I knocked again, and I thought I heard somebody say, “Come in.” I wasn’t sure, I’m not sure yet, but I opened the door—this door (indicating the door by which the two women [MRS HALE AND MRS PETERS] are still standing) and there in that rocker—(pointing to it) sat Mrs Wright.

(They all look at the rocker.)

COUNTY ATTORNEY

What—was she doing?

LEWIS HALE

She was rockin’ back and forth. She had her apron in her hand and was kind of—pleating it.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

And how did she—look?

LEWIS HALE

Well, she looked queer.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

How do you mean—queer?

LEWIS HALE

Well, as if she didn’t know what she was going to do next. And kind of done up.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

How did she seem to feel about your coming?

LEWIS HALE

Why, I don’t think she minded—one way or other. She didn’t pay much attention. I said, “How do, Mrs Wright it’s cold, ain’t it?” And she said, “Is it?”—and went on kind of pleating at her apron. Well, I was surprised; she didn’t ask me to come up to the stove, or to set down, but just sat there, not even looking at me, so I said, “I want to see John.” And then she—laughed. I guess you would call it a laugh. I thought of Harry and the team outside, so I said a little sharp: “Can’t I see John?” “No,” she says, kind o’ dull like. “Ain’t he home?” says I. “Yes,” says she, “he’s home.” “Then why can’t I see him?” I asked her, out of patience. “Cause he’s dead,” says she. “Dead?” says I. She just nodded her head, not getting a bit excited, but rockin’ back and forth. “Why—where is he?” says I, not knowing what to say. She just pointed upstairs—like that (himself pointing to the room above) I got up, with the idea of going up there. I walked from there to here—then I says, “Why, what did he die of?” “He died of a rope round his neck,” says she, and just went on pleatin’ at her apron. Well, I went out and called Harry. I thought I might—need help. We went upstairs and there he was lyin’—

COUNTY ATTORNEY

I think I’d rather have you go into that upstairs, where you can point it all out. Just go on now with the rest of the story.

LEWIS HALE

Well, my first thought was to get that rope off. It looked ... (stops, his face twitches) ... but Harry, he went up to him, and he said, “No, he’s dead all right, and we’d better not touch anything.” So we went back down stairs. She was still sitting that same way. “Has anybody been notified?” I asked. “No,” says she unconcerned. “Who did this, Mrs Wright?” said Harry. He said it business-like—and she stopped pleatin’ of her apron. “I don’t know,” she says. “You don’t know?” says Harry. “No,” says she. “Weren’t you sleepin’ in the bed with him?” says Harry. “Yes,” says she, “but I was on the inside.” “Somebody slipped a rope round his neck and strangled him and you didn’t wake up?” says Harry. “I didn’t wake up,” she said after him. We must ’a looked as if we didn’t see how that could be, for after a minute she said, “I sleep sound.” Harry was going to ask her more questions but I said maybe we ought to let her tell her story first to the coroner, or the sheriff, so Harry went fast as he could to Rivers’ place, where there’s a telephone.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

And what did Mrs Wright do when she knew that you had gone for the coroner?

LEWIS HALE

She moved from that chair to this one over here (pointing to a small chair in the corner) and just sat there with her hands held together and looking down. I got a feeling that I ought to make some conversation, so I said I had come in to see if John wanted to put in a telephone, and at that she started to laugh, and then she stopped and looked at me—scared, (the COUNTY ATTORNEY, who has had his notebook out, makes a note) I dunno, maybe it wasn’t scared. I wouldn’t like to say it was. Soon Harry got back, and then Dr Lloyd came, and you, Mr Peters, and so I guess that’s all I know that you don’t.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

(looking around) I guess we’ll go upstairs first—and then out to the barn and around there, (to the SHERIFF) You’re convinced that there was nothing important here—nothing that would point to any motive.

SHERIFF PETERS

Nothing here but kitchen things.

(The COUNTY ATTORNEY, after again looking around the kitchen, opens the door of a cupboard closet. He gets up on a chair and looks on a shelf. Pulls his hand away, sticky.)

COUNTY ATTORNEY

Here’s a nice mess.

(The women draw nearer.)

MRS PETERS

(to the other woman) Oh, her fruit; it did freeze, (to the LAWYER) She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire’d go out and her jars would break.

SHERIFF PETERS

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.

LEWIS HALE

Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.

(The two women move a little closer together.)

COUNTY ATTORNEY

(with the gallantry of a young politician) And yet, for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies? (the women do not unbend. He goes to the sink, takes a dipperful of water from the pail and pouring it into a basin, washes his hands. Starts to wipe them on the roller-towel, turns it for a cleaner place) Dirty towels! (kicks his foot against the pans under the sink) Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?

MRS HALE

(stiffly) There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

To be sure. And yet (with a little bow to her) I know there are some Dickson county farmhouses which do not have such roller towels. (He gives it a pull to expose its length again.)

MRS HALE

Those towels get dirty awful quick. Men’s hands aren’t always as clean as they might be.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

Ah, loyal to your sex, I see. But you and Mrs Wright were neighbors. I suppose you were friends, too.

MRS HALE

(shaking her head) I’ve not seen much of her of late years. I’ve not been in this house—it’s more than a year.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

And why was that? You didn’t like her?

MRS HALE

I liked her all well enough. Farmers’ wives have their hands full, Mr Henderson. And then—

COUNTY ATTORNEY

Yes—?

MRS HALE

(looking about) It never seemed a very cheerful place.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

No—it’s not cheerful. I shouldn’t say she had the homemaking instinct.

MRS HALE

Well, I don’t know as Wright had, either.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

You mean that they didn’t get on very well?

MRS HALE

No, I don’t mean anything. But I don’t think a place’d be any cheerfuller for John Wright’s being in it.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

I’d like to talk more of that a little later. I want to get the lay of things upstairs now. (He goes to the left, where three steps lead to a stair door.)

SHERIFF

I suppose anything Mrs Peters does’ll be all right. She was to take in some clothes for her, you know, and a few little things. We left in such a hurry yesterday.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

Yes, but I would like to see what you take, Mrs Peters, and keep an eye out for anything that might be of use to us.

MRS PETERS

Yes, Mr Henderson.

(The women listen to the men’s steps on the stairs, then look about the kitchen.)

MRS HALE

I’d hate to have men coming into my kitchen, snooping around and criticising.

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Next section Dialogue: Mrs Hale, Mrs Peters, Sheriff Peters, County Attorney

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