Trifles: Minnie Wright, A Bird in a Cage Essay Sample
Minnie Wright represents the focal point in the short narrative. and the image that best reveals her character is that of a bird in a coop. By comparing Minnie to a bird locked in a coop. the writer manages to convey to the reader her feelings of hopelessness. dispair. and a yearning to be free once more.
Before she married John Wright. she was Minnie Foster. a cheerful. beautiful and unworried immature lady who enjoied singing. as Mrs Hales describes her: “She used to have on pretty apparels and be lively. when she was Minnie Foster. one of the town miss vocalizing in the choir. But that- Ohio. that was 30 old ages ago” ( 1207 ) . However. her matrimony with John Wright becomes a coop. her prison.
Bing “ ( … ) a difficult man” . as pointed out by Mrs. Hale. his coldness. abrasiveness resulted in interrupting her spirit. oppressing her sunniness and turning her into a shadow of her former ego. into a quite and unnoticeable adult female. a contrast to what she one time used to be ( 1209 ) .
Apart from typifying Minnie herself. the bird besides represents the lone connexion to her yesteryear. a reminder of her young person. revealed once more. by Mrs. Hale’s short description: “ ( … ) She was sort of like a bird herself- truly sweet and reasonably but sort of cautious and fluttery. How- she- did- change” ( 1210 ) . The bird and it’s vocal are her last nexus to those happy yearss. the lone thing that kept her spirit alive. the armour that saved her from being wholly engulfed by the glumness and emptiness of her matrimony.
By killing the cannary. John took away her last hope. therefore transforming her into a adult female capable of making anything in order to interrupt free. taking away her last scintillas of humanity and metaphorically stoping her life. “Just like a natural air current that gets to the bone” . John Wright succeeds in altering Minnie from a miss filled with joy of life. into a adult female drained of every emotion and feelings ( 1209 ) . The violent death of the bird was the trigger that caused her to snarl and slay her hubby the same manner he had killed the bird. by interrupting his cervix. in a ineffectual effort to interrupt her ironss and recover her freedom.
In decision. Minnie’s unfortunate matrimony transformed her from a cheerful immature lady into an empty shell. all this taking to a capital wickedness: slaying.
Plants Cited
Glaspell. Susan. “Trifles” . “The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Between the Wars. Ed. Nina Baym. New York. New york: W. W. Norton & A ; Company. 2003. Print
