Trifles be triflin

Trifles is, to me, a classic murder mystery, with a special twist. In the beginning we learn about the murder of Mr. Wright, which was committed by his wife (so is suspected) as he slept defenseless in bed. The men in the play, along with their wives, are coming to the Wright's house to search for evidence that Mrs. Wright was indeed the one who killed her husband. While the action of this play is centered around solving a murder, the feminist aspects of the script was particularly interesting to me. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are underestimated by the men in the play, and seen as simple, silly women. When in reality, these women are the only ones who have the sense and eye for detail to notice essential clues in the mystery of Mr. Wright's murder. They discover an unraveling quilt, amongst other unfinished projects. To the men, this was simply evidence that Mrs. Wright was a poor homemaker. The powers of empathy possessed by the women allowed them to see the significance behind the seemingly trivial things around the house. The men find nothing, but the silly women figure out the entire thing. However, after they discover the bird cage and the dead bird and they discover Minnie's motive for killing her husband, they choose to continue playing dumb and conceal the evidence from the men, thus protecting Minnie's innocence. In addition to empathy, the women feel a great deal of responsibility to one another. They feel genuinely responsible for not being there for Minnie during her seemingly abusive marriage. Instead of viewing Minnie as a deranged killer, they sympathize and genuinely make an effort to understand her motives. In a way, they even justify her. All the while, the men are doing nothing of importance. And in the end, the men suspect nothing. The women hold all the power. They just don't let the men know that they do. Thats my favorite part of the story.

Overtones and undertones

It would be so cool and chaotic if life was really like the world in Overtones. This is a play about your inner self literally fighting to surface, but your forced exterior comes through. It is a very artistic concept…having another person inside of your head. This comedy of manners reminded me very much of The Importance of Being Earnest, in the exchanges between Harriet and Margaret. They really genuinely dislike each other on the inside, yet they are being so sickeningly polite on the outside. Even though they don't like each other, however, they both want something from the other. Harriet wants to spend time with her long lost lover and Margaret's husband, John. Margaret wants Harriet to have her portrait done by John and pay him a large sum of money because they are in deep financial trouble. Yet, even with their mutually beneficial interests, both women are too proud to come right out and say what they want. Their inner selves are going insane, but on the outside they are completely composed. Both are flaunting their feathers and lying about living very extravagant perfect lives, when in reality neither women are happy at all. Both women get what they want in the end, but only after a long series of social mind games. I like that the author used Hetty and Maggie as the names of Harriet and Margaret's undertones. Their undertones are the casual, familiar, genuine, informal versions of themselves, thus they receive more casual nicknames. It was an excellent choice on the part of the playwright. I would be extremely interested to see how this play would come to life on stage. I imagine that this script would present some very specific challenges, such as making it clear that the overtones and undertones are the same people, even though they would be played by two different actors. I think this would be an interesting show to put on here at LSU, honestly. Small, all female cast. Perfect.