NURUL AIN BINTI IBRAHIM

TESL 2

2. The action of hiding the evidence of the crime by the two women are considered as not
right. Discuss.

The play entitled Trifles written by Susan Glaspell in 1916, is one-act play on the
murder of the sixty-year-old John Hossack, which she had covered extensively during her
stint as a journalist with the Des Moines Daily News after her graduation from Drake
University. On August 8, 1916, Glaspell adapted the play into the short story A Jury of Her
Peers. Trifles is also thematically complex which addresses the abiding issue of justice and
contemporary issues of gender and identity politics.

The characters of the play consist of Mrs. Wright, John Wright, county attorney
George Henderson, Henry Peters the sheriff, neighbouring farmer and witness Lewis Hale.
The two main protagonists in the story of Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, the respective wives of
Henry Peters and Lewis Hale. The murder crime takes place in the empty farmhouse of John
Wright. The men take charge of the investigation and leave the women to pick up a few items
for Mrs. Wrights convenience. At the beginning of Trifles, Mrs. Peters discovers an empty
birdcage with a broken door in a cupboard and eventually find the dead bird in a box in Mrs.
Wright's sewing basket while they are searching for materials for the quilt. The bird has been
strangled in the same manner as John Wright. The empty birdcage and the dead canary are the
evidences for the crime case, but the two women agreed to conceal it.

Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peter have their own reason to hide the evidence but both show
understanding and sympathy for the plight of Mrs. Wright. As for Mrs. Hale, she understands
and empathizes with Mrs. Wrights isolation as they were friend since young. Mrs. Wright
was a happy, outgoing young girl in pretty clothes before she married John Wright. Mr.
Wright and Mrs. Wright lived in a gloomy farmhouse where she could not even see the road.
No one came to visit, and she did not go out after she got married. Mrs. Hale hides the
evidence because she feels sorry for Mrs. Wright. Mrs. Hale regrets for not visiting Mrs.
Wright to cheer her and not having protected her from isolation.

On the other hand, even though Mrs. Peters did not know Mrs. Wright as a young
woman, she does understand the loneliness Mrs. Wright felt. As a child, she watched angrily
and helplessly as a boy viciously killed her kitten with a hatchet. When she and her husband
were living in the Dakota countryside, her two-year-old baby died. Mrs. Peters who is
married to the sheriff, often apologizing for the behaviour of the men because they are only
doing her duty. She begins the play as the cautionary voice of reason, warning Mrs. Hale for
not touching anything in the farmhouse as she prefers to follow the law. However, by the end
of the play, she helps Mrs. Hale conceal the evidence because she empathizes with Mrs.
Wrights actions.
 Actually the action of hiding the evidence of the crime by the two women is not right
because it is a criminal offense. Hiding the evidence which is also called as tampering the
evidence means an act in which a person alters, conceals, falsifies, or destroys evidence with
the intent to interfere with an investigation. The goal of tampering with evidence is usually to
cover up a crime. For example, the U.S. government takes tampering with evidence very
seriously. A person who is convicted of the crime under federal law may face a prison
sentence of not more than 20 years, a fine, or both. If Mrs. Hale and Mrs Peters were caught
tampering the evidence, they would absolutely feel ashamed for their wrongdoings. Even
though their intention is to give life back to Mrs. Wright but their action is against the law.
Their action will make George Henderson and Henry Peterss reputation low especially Mr.
Peters who his wife is trained since married to obey the law.

All religion in this world have this kind of belief in karma (Hindu) and kifarah (Islam)
which is what you give, you get back. Mrs. Wright killed her husband because she was
pushed over the edge when her husband killed her bird. She lived in a very isolated house,
without children, and was oppressed by her strict husband and the bird was the only thing she
cherished. When the bird was killed, she had nothing else to look forward to and had to end
her oppression with murder. Although the women's decision was influenced by their empathy
for Mrs. Wright's situation, but their actions were immoral in the end. The action of the two
women are considered as not right because they make have let a murderer walk free. It should
not matter what gender the offender is, if they break the law and murder someone, they
should be punished accordingly.

In conclusion, the action of hiding the evidence of the crime by Mrs. Peters and Mrs.
Hale are considered as not right. It's a difficult question because of the prominent existence of
the idea that sin should be judged separately from the motive. However, I believe that if the
play had been set in the 21st century and Mrs. Wright received an actual trial, she would at
the least receive a lighter punishment due to mentally abused by her husband. John Wright is
also obviously not sinless. It was him who drove his wife to the point of committing murder.