Trifles

The definition of Trifles is something of little  importance or value. The play "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell is all about the details of this murder mystery that lead to solving the murder. The women roles are understated in the play while the men are the ones attempting to solve this crime. The women are assumed to take the role of the house keeper and care taker of the household, while the men are the brains behind the hard labor that get the job done. However, it is not the men who solve the murder mystery it is the women. Men often over look details and see the big picture. Women pay attention to the small details. As a woman, I am the first person to notice if something has moved or is missing in my house, that I did not move. Something that was not there before you left but is there now, I notice. It is the little subtleties like this that women naturally pick up on. These subtleties are what led Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale to solve the murder and what was the motivation behind it. The men mocked the woman for reading too much into Mrs. Wright's sewing. "They wonder if she was going to quilt it or just knot it." 
The first trifle that leads the women to believe something occurred to upset Mrs. Wright was her sewing. "Mrs. Peters, look at this one. Here, it has been so nice and even. And look at this! It's all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn't know what she was about! " They noticed her sewing was neat and in sewn perfectly until right before she stopped on the quilt. The last few stitches were not sewn neatly and stood out from the rest of the stitches.
The second trifle that the women pick up on is the bird cage that is missing a bird. " No, she didn't have a cat. She's got the feeling some people have about cats-being afraid of them."  Why would Mrs. Wright's bird cage be missing a bird if she did not own a cat? It wouldn't unless someone killed it.  Most of us have a pet that we love very dearly. If someone hurts or worse yet kills a loved one, you become volatile to your own dangerous actions.  In a distraught over her lost bird, Minnie Wright clearly lost control of herself and killed her husband. 
Even though the women had solved the murder, they did not tell the Sheriff or their husbands because they emphasized with Minnie. " When I was a girl, my kitten...there was a boy took a hatchet, and before my eyes....and before I could get there....If they hadn't held me back I would have hurt him. "  The men never find out the motivation behind the murder or who the real murderer is. All the little trifles that the men thought were foolish and silly were the clues that led to solving the crime. The moral of the story, don't overlook the trifles because they are what make the big picture.

Roman Fever

In my opinion, Roman Fever, is a timeless classic short story. No matter how old you are or where you come from, the reader can relate to the theme of deception and jealousy. At some point in our lives we have dealt with the so called friend who betrayed us behind our back or we may have even betrayed our friend. 
The phrase, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, depicts the "friendship" between Mrs. Slade and Mrs. Ansley. " Mrs. Slade bears her true feelings toward Mrs. Ansley in this line, She thought: "I must make one more effort not to hate her."  The two woman grew up together as children, lived across the street from each other, been "friends" for years but are they really friends?  The two woman competed their entire lives" Well as a girl she had been exquisite; far more beautiful than her daughter Barbara, though certainly Babs. according to the new standards at any rate, was more effective-had more edge, as they say. Funny where she got it, with those two nullities as parents."  Mrs. Slade was envious of Mrs. Ansley's daughter because her daughter got the physical characteristics  and personality that Jenny lacked. It was almost as if the girls were born to the wrong families.
All of Mrs. Slade's life she thought had the upper hand because she got the prize husband along with the exquisite, rich lifestyle. Yes, Mrs. Ansley did lead a rich lifestyle as well but not as exquisite as Mrs. Slade. However, Mrs. Ansley did get the "perfect" daughter that every mother is envious of, due to Mrs. Slade's own jealousy. The root of Mrs. Slade's jealousy led to her own misfortune. If she had not tried to deceive Grace Ansley into believing that Delphin (her husband) had written that, then Grace never would have had the daughter Mrs. Slade always envied and been deceived by her husband. Jealousy and insecurity leads to our own undoing and misfortune. The last line in the book, "I had Barbara," stated by Mrs. Ansley sums up the short story's theme of deception. Mrs. Slade was always proud and haughty of her flashy life she had because of marrying Delphin but in the end her life was based on deception by her husband and "friend." I feel bad for the woman because Delphin gets off easy in this short story with no consequences and she deceived by her friend. At the same time, she did this to her own self by writing the note to Grace. Her own insecurities and jealousy were the cause of the deception that Delphin and Grace carried their entire life. Had she not wrote that note then Barbara never would have happened. In the end I don't feel so bad for Mrs. Slade because she brought her own misfortune upon herself with insecurities.