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Marriage As a Tool of Oppression  

Trifles paints a picture of marriage as an oppressive institution that places women at the mercy of husbands who may freely treat them with cruelty and derision at no risk to their own reputation. Minnie Wright’s unhappy marriage is the clearest manifestation of this theme, but the play’s other two women strongly empathize with Minnie thanks to their own oppressive marriages. The institution of marriage puts John Wright in a position of power over Minnie, a position he is allowed to monstrously abuse while still being regarded as a “good man” in town. Wright essentially enslaves Minnie for thirty years, exploiting her labor in the home, treating her coldly, and denying her anything that might bring her joy. Mrs. Hale wistfully remarks how Minnie Foster “changed” after she married John Wright, but this is a polite way of saying that Wright destroyed her. Indeed, Mrs. Hale compares Wright’s killing of Minnie’s canary, “a thing that sang,” to his metaphorical killing of Minnie Foster, the pretty young choir girl who is now just a memory.  

Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters also suffer the oppression of marriage, if perhaps to a lesser extent. Throughout the play, both women’s husbands belittle them with sexist jokes. Notably, neither woman is ever called by her first name, as if “Mrs. Peters” and “Mrs. Hale” have no identity apart from their husbands. Indeed, the men’s confusion about Minnie Wright’s motive stems from their inability to comprehend that a woman could have any motives of her own. When the County Attorney quips that Mrs. Peters can be trusted because, as the Sheriff’s wife, she is “married to the law,” he reveals how little regard he has for Mrs. Peters as an individual being with her own mind and volition. Ironically, the women of the play do have minds and volitions, which they use to subvert their oppressive husbands. Minnie slips a noose over John Wright’s neck, and Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters conceal the evidence from their husbands.  

The Justice System's Gender Bias  

The familiar adage that justice is blind takes a sinister twist in Trifles, where blindness refers not to impartiality but to the justice system’s failure to recognize crimes against women. The entire play centers around the investigation of Minnie Wright, a woman who is suspected of murdering her husband, John Wright. The two people in charge of the investigation are both men (the County Attorney and the Sheriff) as is the chief witness (Mr. Hale). The men’s biases against women handicap their investigation from the start. This prevents them not only from discovering any evidence, but also from detecting John Wright’s abusive treatment of Minnie. Early in the play, when Mr. Hale mentions that John Wright never cared what his wife wanted, the County Attorney abruptly cuts him off and changes the subject, as if Wright’s treatment of his wife is unimportant or irrelevant. This dismissive attitude keeps the men from discovering John Wright’s abusive treatment of his wife, but one suspects they would not see such behavior as criminal even if they were presented with the evidence. In a justice system dominated by male perspectives, female victims are all but invisible.  

The Obliviousness of Men 

While Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters quickly uncover clues at the crime scene, the male investigators end the play right where they started: entirely clueless. Throughout the play, the men’s flippant disdain for feminine trifles creates a delicious stream of dramatic irony, as the audience is well aware of the clues that are right under the men’s upturned noses. In that sense, the men’s running mockery of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters serves to highlight their own stupidity and ignorance. However, this ignorance is self-inflicted. The masculine prejudices of the male characters preempt their curiosity about “feminine” concerns such as canning, baking, knitting, and even pet birds, all of which contain clues about Minnie’s motives. To concern themselves with such feminine trifles would distract from the important business of police work.  

The play’s outcome suggests that masculine cluelessness is not only humorous but dangerous. Although men seem to hold all the power in the male-dominated world of the play, their willful ignorance of feminine concerns makes them vulnerable to women. No doubt John Wright went to bed without an inkling that his wife would strangle him in his sleep. His killing of the canary was an assertion of power and domination. Surely he never suspected that Minnie was capable of striking back. The male investigators are equally oblivious to the quiet rebellion of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. They are completely unaware of the evidence the women have found, let alone that they plan to hide it. The men’s arrogance has rendered them clueless, allowing the women to easily undermine them.  

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