Wednesday, April 22, 2015

“[He] was close. I think maybe that’s why she kept so much to herself. She didn’t even belong to the Ladies Aid. I suppose she felt she couldn’t do her part, and then you don’t enjoy things when you feel shabby. She used to wear pretty clothes and be lively, when she was . . . one of the town girls singing in the choir. But that—oh, that was thirty years ago.” Identify the author and the title of the work, and then explain the significance of the quote as it relates to the poem, short story, or play in a paragraph (be sure to reference specific details of the text). Type your answer using 5–6 sentences.

This quotation is taken from a play called Trifles, written by Susan Glaspell and first performed in 1916. The play consists of only one act and one scene, and the given quotation can be found approximately halfway through the scene.
At this point in the play, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are searching the kitchen of Mrs. Wright's farm house. Mrs. Wright's husband has been found dead upstairs, and Mrs. Hale suspects that Mrs. Wright killed him.
In the given quotation, Mrs. Hale is talking to Mrs. Peters about Mrs. Wright and is speculating about why Mrs. Wright has never socialized with the other ladies in the community. She supposes that it might be because she had no money to buy nice clothes. A little later, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find evidence which incriminates Mrs. Peters, but they decide to hide the evidence because they feel sorry for her. They feel sorry for her because they now realize how lonely she was.

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