Trifles: Dialogue: Mrs Hale, Mrs Peters, Sheriff Peters, County Attorney

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

MRS PETERS

I know what stillness is. (pulling herself back) The law has got to punish crime, Mrs Hale.

MRS HALE

(not as if answering that) I wish you’d seen Minnie Foster when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the choir and sang. (a look around the room) Oh, I wish I’d come over here once in a while! That was a crime! That was a crime! Who’s going to punish that?

Read the full dialogue.

Understanding the Given Circumstances

The scene takes place in the gloomy kitchen of the Wright farmhouse.
The play is set in the early twentieth century, a period when society expected women to focus on domestic duties, and women had limited legal rights. Gender dynamics were heavily patriarchal, with women’s concerns and perspectives often dismissed as insignificant, overly sentimental, and untruthful compared to men’s.
Mrs Wright (formerly Minnie Foster) is under arrest for the murder of her husband, John Wright, who was found strangled in his sleep.
Three men—Sheriff Peters, the County Attorney, and Mr Hale—are involved in investigating Mr Wright’s murder. They’re currently upstairs, out of earshot. They suspect Mrs Wright of the murder but haven’t found any evidence to explain why she would have done it.
As this dialogue begins, Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters discover a dead canary with a wrung neck, hidden in a pretty box. Pieces start to fall into place as the women connect the silenced bird to Mrs Wright’s isolated life under a cruel man.

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:

When Mrs Hale jumps up after discovering the bird’s neck has been wrung, how would you portray her sudden movement?
Where is Mrs Hale’s physical proximity in relation to Mrs Peters when they realize the significance of the dead bird? How are they both feeling, and how do they react to each other at this moment?
As Mrs Hale slips the box under the quilt pieces, what is her motivation for hiding the box, and how would you portray her actions?
When the Sheriff and County Attorney enter the scene, how do the women’s body language and positions shift in response? Why do the women act like that around the men, and how do their feelings about the men affect your performance?
As Mrs Peters recalls her own traumatic memory, how should she be positioned in relation to the audience? In relation to Mrs Hale?
How would you reflect the tension and unspoken alliance between the women in your movement on stage?

Meaning in Heightened Language

In Trifles, Susan Glaspell uses heightened language subtly, through pauses, repetition, and emotionally charged phrasing to convey the women’s growing realization of Mrs Wright’s tragic life. The fragmented speech patterns, hesitations, and understated dialogue reflect the weight of unspoken truths and suppressed emotions. The simplicity of the language masks the deep emotional and moral struggle the characters face as they uncover the evidence of Mrs Wright’s suffering.

Consider the following questions:

Mrs Peters’ halting admission “Somebody—wrung—its—neck,” uses repetition and broken rhythm to convey shock and horror. How can you use pacing and breath to emphasize the gravity of this realization?
Mrs Hale’s reflective line “He killed that, too” carries a double meaning—referring both to the bird and to Mrs Wright’s spirit. How can tone and timing highlight this layered meaning?
Silence plays a powerful role in this scene. How can you use pauses and stillness between lines to heighten tension and convey unspoken understanding?
When Mrs Peters says, “The law has got to punish crime,” she contrasts the legal system with moral justice. How might a conflicted tone or faltering delivery reflect her inner turmoil?
One of the famous quotes from this scene is “I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be—for women. I tell you, it’s queer, Mrs Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things—it’s all just a different kind of the same thing.” How would you deliver this line to convey its full impact?
Experiment with subtle shifts in vocal dynamics. How can changes in volume and intensity reveal the women’s shifting alliances and suppressed empathy for Mrs Wright?

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

Scene: Mrs Hale and Mrs Peters, alone in the Wright farmhouse kitchen.

MRS HALE

(brings out a fancy box) What a pretty box. Looks like something somebody would give you. Maybe her scissors are in here. (Opens box. Suddenly puts her hand to her nose) Why—(MRS PETERS bends nearer, then turns her face away) There’s something wrapped up in this piece of silk.

MRS PETERS

Why, this isn’t her scissors.

MRS HALE

(lifting the silk) Oh, Mrs Peters—it’s—

(MRS PETERS bends closer.)

MRS PETERS

It’s the bird.

MRS HALE

(jumping up) But, Mrs Peters—look at it! Its neck! Look at its neck!

It’s all—other side to.

MRS PETERS

Somebody—wrung—its—neck.

(Their eyes meet. A look of growing comprehension, of horror. Steps are heard outside. MRS HALE slips the box under quilt pieces, and sinks into her chair. Enter SHERIFF and COUNTY ATTORNEY. MRS PETERS rises.)

COUNTY ATTORNEY

(as one turning from serious things to little pleasantries) Well ladies, have you decided whether she was going to quilt it or knot it?

MRS PETERS

We think she was going to—knot it.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

Well, that’s interesting, I’m sure. (seeing the birdcage) Has the bird flown?

MRS HALE

(putting more quilt pieces over the box) We think the—cat got it.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

(preoccupied) Is there a cat?

(MRS HALE glances in a quick covert way at MRS PETERS.)

MRS PETERS

Well, not now. They’re superstitious, you know. They leave.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

(to SHERIFF PETERS, continuing an interrupted conversation) No sign at all of anyone having come from the outside. Their own rope. Now let’s go up again and go over it piece by piece. (they start upstairs) It would have to have been someone who knew just the—

(MRS PETERS sits down. The two women sit there not looking at one another, but as if peering into something and at the same time holding back. When they talk now it is in the manner of feeling their way over strange ground, as if afraid of what they are saying, but as if they can not help saying it.)

MRS HALE

She liked the bird. She was going to bury it in that pretty box.

MRS PETERS

(in a whisper) When I was a girl—my kitten—there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes—and before I could get there—(covers her face an instant) If they hadn’t held me back I would have—(catches herself, looks upstairs where steps are heard, falters weakly)—hurt him.

MRS HALE

(with a slow look around her) I wonder how it would seem never to have had any children around, (pause) No, Wright wouldn’t like the bird—a thing that sang. She used to sing. He killed that, too.

MRS PETERS

(moving uneasily) We don’t know who killed the bird.

MRS HALE

I knew John Wright.

MRS PETERS

It was an awful thing was done in this house that night, Mrs Hale. Killing a man while he slept, slipping a rope around his neck that choked the life out of him.

MRS HALE

His neck. Choked the life out of him.

(Her hand goes out and rests on the bird-cage.)

MRS PETERS

(with rising voice) We don’t know who killed him. We don’t know.

MRS HALE

(her own feeling not interrupted) If there’d been years and years of nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful—still, after the bird was still.

MRS PETERS

(something within her speaking) I know what stillness is. When we homesteaded in Dakota, and my first baby died—after he was two years old, and me with no other then—

MRS HALE

(moving) How soon do you suppose they’ll be through, looking for the evidence?

MRS PETERS

I know what stillness is. (pulling herself back) The law has got to punish crime, Mrs Hale.

MRS HALE

MRS PETERS

(looking upstairs) We mustn’t—take on.

MRS HALE

I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be—for women. I tell you, it’s queer, Mrs Peters. We live close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same things—it’s all just a different kind of the same thing, (brushes her eyes, noticing the bottle of fruit, reaches out for it) If I was you, I wouldn’t tell her her fruit was gone. Tell her it ain’t. Tell her it’s all right. Take this in to prove it to her. She—she may never know whether it was broke or not.

MRS PETERS

(takes the bottle, looks about for something to wrap it in; takes petticoat from the clothes brought from the other room, very nervously begins winding this around the bottle. In a false voice) My, it’s a good thing the men couldn’t hear us. Wouldn’t they just laugh! Getting all stirred up over a little thing like a—dead canary. As if that could have anything to do with—with—wouldn’t they laugh!

(The men are heard coming down stairs.)

MRS HALE

(under her breath) Maybe they would—maybe they wouldn’t.

COUNTY ATTORNEY

No, Peters, it’s all perfectly clear except a reason for doing it. But you know juries when it comes to women. If there was some definite thing. Something to show—something to make a story about—a thing that would connect up with this strange way of doing it—

(The women’s eyes meet for an instant. Enter HALE from outer door.)