College English Trifles

gathering of the audience

a play needs this to exist

transition

brings the audience together as a community focused on the play itself

exposition

the scenes that give background information that the audience must have to understand the conflict

conflict

the way the play becomes dramatic. The character has to make a choice, face difficulties, or overcome obstacles. This can be brought on by the protagonist or another character. This can become heightened until it can’t go any further

climax

the point of no return, where conflict is most extreme, choices have been made, and characters live with those consequences.

denouement

unknotting, th eresolution signaling a new understanding or situation has been reached

curtain call

audience sees the actors as normal people again, end of suspension of disbelief return to normal life

soliloquoy

Character’s thoughts, problems, secrets, that they say out loud so the audience knows it. Only the audience can hear them, often the character will distance themselves from the other characters on the stage.

Monologue

A character gives a long speech to multiple characters or the audience, but is not their thoughts.

Aside

Not for everyone, characters kind of mumbles under their breath to the audience or a character. Directed at audience and not heard by other characters

tragedy

a serious drama that focuses on the downfall or disastrous fate of a protagonist.

melodrama

sensational dramatic piece with exaggerated characcters and events intended to appeal to emotions, making a big play out of something trivial

comedy

genre of performance with light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents in which the characters ultimately triumph

dark comedy

genre of comedy that finds something funny in surprising places. Its role is to find the brighter side of difficult subjects

farce

dramatic work using buffooney and horseplay and typically includign crude characerization and improbable situations. Silly and over the top drama

Closet play

a play to be read rather than acted

origin of tragedy

means goat song in greek because actors would wear goat skins and chorus would chant.

audience comes from…

greek word to listen or hear

Explain literal and figurative meaning of this symbol: Minnie Foster

Literal: her name before she married her husand when she was still singing in choir. Figurative: represents a time when minnie had power or force, wasn’t dominated or dependent on husband

Explain Literary and figurative meaning of this symbol: the preserves

literally a canned jar of fruit preserves that exploded from the cold and left a mess in the kitchen. Deeper meaning: represent Minnie and the cold (her husband) and how she was trapped in her marriage leaving it to finally explode and leave a mess

Explain Literary and figurative meaning of this symbol: the bird cage

Literally had a bird cage in her house that was empty and the door open, and busted in by someone breaking it.

Deeper meaning: represents Minnie’s prison in the house and how her marriage has locked her up. Her killing her hsuband represents the breaking of the door because she has finally escaped her prison

Explain Literary and figurative meaning of this symbol: the dead bird

literally the dead bird strangled by her husband with its neck wrung. Deeper: represents Minnie and how she used to sing like a bird when she was younger. She was eautiful and free but trapped and “killed” by her husband, representing her loss of joy and life

Explain Literary and figurative meaning of this symbol: the quilt

literal: log-cabin patterened quilt left unfinished by minnie with increasingly random stiching at end

Deeper: represents how Minnie life was going toward disarray and lost her way. Also shows how undervalued women are in t he eyes of men, and hwo she was trying to give warmth in her marriage but her husband never accepted it.

Explain Literary and figurative meaning of this symbol: knotting of quilt

literally was knotting the quilt as a technique to finish up and stop working on it

Deeper> the knotting represents how Minnie was done giing eerything to her husband and done being trapped in her marriage. Her tying the knot is a refernece to her tying the knot of the rope around her husband’s next and finally ending things

Explain Literary and figurative meaning of this symbol: Minnie used to sing in choir

Literally: used to sing as part of the choir and her voice was like a canary

Deeper: represents her joy and freedom before her marriage

Explain Literary and figurative meaning of this symbol: cold

literal weather at the farm house

represents coldnesss in relationship and emotional oppression

Explain Literary and figurative meaning of this symbol: location of farmhouse

isolated farmhouse from town that is gloomy and lonesome

deeper: isolation represents Minnie’s isolation from her friends and society as mentioned in the text because of her marriage. She lacks any suport and represents her overlooked struggles

Explain Literary and figurative meaning of this symbol: party telephone

a telephone that mr. wright did not want to have in his home to communicate with others in the town

represents Minnies isolation from society and hwo Mr. Wright was pruposely trying to maintain it. He never asked from Minnie’s thoughts on it, just like she never had any sayin her marriage

Explain Literary and figurative meaning of this symbol: location of the women

Always stay in the kitchen while the men explore the true scene of. thecrime

shows how women are always pushed to the side and the safer or more mundane roles in the household to not play a major role besides domestically

Explain Literary and figurative meaning of this symbol: a little closer together phrase

the two women in the house always stayed close together and huddled together more and more over the coruse of the story

represents how the women stick up for each other and unite together from their struggles, even as they find the evidence to incriminate Minnie. They stick up for Minnie’s secret and resist the patriarchal system

Explain the meaning of the following irony: the title Trifles

shows the disregard for the thoughts and ideas of the women, dismissing them as simply trifles and unimportant things. The actions and items the women focus on are the primary cles to the mruder, not just mundane things

Explain the meaning of the following irony: the women solving the mystery

ironic because even though the men have the formal experience and all the power and disregard the women’s concerns, it is ultimately eh attention of the women who brings success even though they were the ones most unlikely to have success

Explain the meaning of the following irony: mr wright

name irony because everything he did to minnie was wrong via emotional and social abuse.

Explain the meaning of the following irony: dramatic irony

the readers know about the women’s investigation into Minnie and the real cllues and outcome. ofthe murder, including the bird while the men are clueless and blind to their ideas. Another piece of irony is that minnie sits in jail but is free more than ever

what decision do the women make and why?

don’t tell the men what they uncovered and that minnie is responsible, or about the bird. This is because they feel sympathy for her struggle and know the men would not understand. Mr. Wright was abusive and minnie was the actual vicitim but the men would not care

List 2 times the men made condescending comments about the women

1. the men mock the women for wondering whether she would have quilt or knot the unfinished quilt, even though it was actually a relevant clue and theme of the murder

2. the men comment on how the women are only focused on the trifles of the house and nothing important towards the case, like Minnie worrying only about the preserves rather than her husband. Stereotypical statements

Identity the role and personality of the following: county attorney

• lead prosecutor

• young and patronizing, acts sarcastic towards women, arrogant

Identity the role and personality of the following: sheriff

• law enforcement officer investigating the murder

• practical and straightforward but also dismissive of the women. Defers to county attorney

Mr. Hale

• neighbor farmer to Wright family. First person to discover crime

• plain spoken and observent. He also reveals gender bias with his stereotypical statements toward women

Mrs. Hale

• Also neighbor and wife. Accompanies Mrs. Peters to colllect belonging sof Mrs Wright

• observant and empathetic person. She feels protective of situation and guilty she didn;t realize the situation earlier and do mroe to help.

Identity the role and personality of the following: Mrs. Peters

• sheriff wife, helps to collect belongings

• intiially loyal to the law and cautious as the wife of the sheriff but becomes more sympathetic towards Mrs. Wright’s situation and unites with Mrs. Hale to fight agains the patriarchal oppression and realize that it was her duty to protect Mrs. Wright. Less submissive towards the husband and realizes she needs to protect Minnie at the end