In Trifles, Glaspell uses the vehicle of the play to make an argument against women’s domestic subjugation and the power imbalance present in most marriages in the early 20th century. To achieve this, she employs pathos in her characters' dialogue and in her depiction of Minnie Wright, a woman accused of murdering her husband.
Pathos, or the appeal to an audience’s emotion in service of the writer’s argument, is present in many forms throughout the play, but it comes to a head when the women uncover the body of Minnie’s strangled bird. Mrs. Hale makes an emotional appeal on Minnie’s behalf:
“I wish you’d seen Minnie Foster when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the choir and sang. Oh I wish I’d come over in a while! That was a crime!”
She continues:
“I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be—for women.”
Through her outburst of emotion, Mrs. Hale appeals to the audience's feelings. She emphasizes the solitude and neglect that Minnie experienced and paints an image of Minnie's transformation from a cheerful choir singer to lonely, silent wife. Mrs. Hale subtly accuses Minnie's “cold” husband of causing her diminishment and, in doing so, provides context for Minnie's actions. Mrs. Peters delivers a similar pathos-laden argument; in sympathizing with Minnie's predicament, Mrs. Peters says:
“I know what stillness is. When we homesteaded in Dakota, and my first baby died—after he was two years old, and me with no other then… I know what stillness is.”
While Mrs. Peters still believes that “the law has to punish crime,” she presents an evocative image of “stillness,” or the dreadful loneliness that Minnie must have experienced. Through these passionate appeals and anecdotes, Glaspell's characters compel the audience to consider how women may be driven to despair—or violence—by their oppressive circumstances.
