Trifles by Susan Glaspell - in an Artist’s Studio by Christina Rossetti

Behind the Character

Characters develop over time in their works of literature. It is important that the reader views each character as a person and understand that the series of events he or she encounters within their work makes for their growth . They are people who are developing through other characters situations,experiences and they slowly start revealing their true nature throughout the story. In the play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell and the poem In an Artist’s Studio by Christina Rossetti, the characters are people who slowly reveal their true nature to us.

Characters are like plots in a story in that they both slowly develop and reveal who they really are. In the case of the play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, we see growth within the character Mrs. Wright- wife of Mr. Wright. In the beginning of Trifles we are confronted with the mystery murder of Mr. Wright. It is deemed impossible that Mrs. Wright was the cause of the crime. However, in the beginning of the story different characters portray her in a manner that says otherwise. Mr. Hale for instance sheds light on her character by telling us that she was acting in a creepy and psychotic manner when she was asked questions about her husband’s whereabouts. Evidence shows that her response to questions about her husband resulted in laughter as oppose to sorrow. “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” (Glaspell, Trifles, pg.1338). Mrs. Wright’s actions help the reader develop her as a character and begin to give her a role in this play, even though the role seems negative. Other characters such as Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters felt sorry for her and suggested her odd behavior was a result due to her marriage and later death of her husband. They say that she wasn’t always like that; she was portrayed as extremely cheerful and singing all the time. The women who visit the Wright home notice an empty bird cage and recall that Mrs. Wright had owned a song bird. The women observe the door of the birdcage is broken. When the women discover the dead bird wrapped up in a piece of fine silk in Mrs. Wright’s sewing box, they piece these clues together and discover the reason why Mrs. Wright killed Mr. Wright.The death of the bird symbolizes the death of who she used to be- happy. The messiness of the kitchen also represents