GIRLS AGAINST BOYS Merriam-Webster defines trifle as "something of little value or importance." It also defines it as "talk [done] in a jesting or mocking manner." The characters in Trifles (Walter H. Baker Co.), a one act play by Susan Glaspell, fill the bill on both counts. The action takes place in the gloomy kitchen of an old Iowa farmhouse. The county attorney is there to investigate the murder of the home's occupant, Mr. Wright. He's brought along with him the sheriff and the neighbor who discovered the murder. They've in turn brought along their wives. The year is 1900. As the play progresses we learn it is not the women's place to question the men on such matters as murder. As they investigate the crime scene, the men are drawn closer to concluding that Mr. Wright's wife did her husband in; the women are polarized in their sympathy toward the widow. While the authorities mull over the limited amount of hard evidence - a rope - the women's concern centers on the state of the house. The kitchen is a mess. The towel is dirty, and spoiled jars of fruit lie atop the cupboard, having broken in a freeze. Mr. Hale criticizes the women for "worrying over trifles." . . . it is obvious to [the women] she killed her husband in retaliation for destroying the only joy that existed in their dreary household. The investigation proceeds. Ironically it is the women who uncover - then re-cover - the real evidence. They discover a quilt in progress, beautifully stitched except for the most recent block which was sewn "as if she didn't know what she was about." The women "innocently" repair the messy stitching, and decide to take the quilt to the jail where Mrs. Wright is being held. They next discover a bird cage, although Mrs. Wright was never known to have had a bird. They're reminded what a lovely voice she had before marrying Mr. Wright. "She was kind of like a bird herself - real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid - and fluttery. How - she - did - change," Mrs. Hale observes. Their next discovery, the bird, is no mere trifle. It has been strangled. This only serves to cement the women's sympathies with Mrs. Wright, as it is obvious to them she killed her husband in retaliation for destroying the only joy that existed in their dreary household. As the curtain falls, the men - the authority figures of this play - are left scratching their heads having failed to uncover a clear motive for the murder. Even as the county attorney ponders, ". . . it's all clear except for a reason for doing it . . . If there was some definite thing," the women succeed in covering up the evidence. They know the "thing" but they're not telling. In the end the patronizing attitudes of their husbands make it easy for the women to hide behind their silence; behind the trifles women are wont to. posted 02/04/01 TOP