Susan Glaspell's Trifles Susan Glaspell's Trifles explores the classic male stereotype of women by declaring that women often worry about matters of little or no importance. This stereotype assumes that only males are interested in important issues, issues that women would never discuss or address. The characters spend the entire play searching for clues to solve a murder case. Ironically, it is the female characters, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, who discover crucial evidence and solve the murder case, not the male characters. The men in the play, the sheriff, the county attorney, and Hale, search for evidence on their own at the crime scene and make fun of the women's arguments. The women's interest in the quilt, the broken birdcage door, and the dead canary, all considered unimportant or insignificant objects, is what consequently leads to the solving of the crime. By paying attention to details, the women are able to discover who the killer is and prove that the things men consider insignificant are important after all. At the beginning of the play, all the characters enter the abandoned farm of John Wright, who has recently been hanged by an unknown killer. The sheriff and county attorney begin scanning the house for clues as to who killed Mr. Wright, but make a grave mistake when they poorly search the kitchen, claiming there's nothing there "apart from kitchen things ". This illustrates men's mistaken belief that the kitchen is a place of trivial matters, a place where nothing of importance can be found. Mrs. Peters then notices that Mrs. Wright's fruit has frozen in the cold, and the men tease her and reveal their stereotype about women by saying that "women are used to worrying about trifles." The men then venture upstairs to the house to look for clues, while the women remain downstairs in the kitchen where they discuss the frozen fruit and the Wrights. Mrs. Hale explains that Mrs. Wright, whose maiden name was Minnie Foster, was a lively woman who sang in the choir. She suggests that the reason Mrs. Wright stopped being cheerful and active was her irritable husband. The women discover their first clue when they find a quilt that Mrs. Wright was sewing. The men make snide comments when questioning whether or not Mrs. Wright would have "quilted or just knotted it... middle of paper... asks the women once again whether or not Mrs. Wright would have "quilted it or knotted it." Mrs. Hale responds that he was going to "knot it", which may symbolically represent how Mrs. Wright knotted the rope around her husband's neck and killed him In their argument over seemingly unimportant items, such as the poorly sewn quilt , broken cage door for birds and dead canary, the women are able to gather important evidence and know enough information about Mrs. Wright to give her a motive for killing her husband. The men, however, have no idea who killed Mr. Wright and why,. even after thoroughly searching the house for clues. They believe they possess superior intelligence and knowledge of the world than women, but cannot find enough evidence to convict Mrs. Wright. Even if men discovered the same clues as women, it is highly unlikely that they would understand how this could constitute a motive for Mrs. Wright, as they simply cannot relate to her as a woman. Glaspell's Trifles shows how women reveal fundamental truths about life by paying close attention to.