UNDERSTANDING MINNIE WRIGHT’S CHARACTER

THROUGH SYMBOLISM ANALYSIS IN SUSAN

GOSPELL’S TRIFLES

Pramudya Lazuardi

English Department
Faculty of Humanity
Diponegoro University

pramudyalazuardi@students.undip.ac.id

Abstract

The study aims to explain the deep understanding of Susan Gospell’s “Trifles”.
“Trifles” is play about a woman named Minnie Wright who struggles to face the
imprisonment from her husband and events afterwards. The further analysis is to
interpret symbol connected with Minnie. This study is categorized as qualitative
research with objective approach as the method and close reading as the data collecting
technique. The final of the discussion provides information about what are the symbols
found inside the play and how each symbol link each other in order to dig the character
more.

Keywords: Trifles, Minnie Wright, symbol, imprisonment, free

1. Introduction symbol is something that has more

Literature is a form of human
beings’ expression of life that is
poured by heart and soul of an author.
Modern drama is one of the parts of it.
It is a famous literary works genre
during the 20th century. Through its
freedom to express anything surreal
and absurd, modern drama is the best
method of fictional representation
through dialogue and performance
played by actors which imitate actions
that have meanings and feelings. One
of the ways to express those is by
using symbols.
The symbol is some specific
things which contain ideas, values,
and persons or ways of life (Roberts
and Jacobs, 1986: 294). In addition,
according to Perrine (1983: 196),
meaning than what it has already. In
order to understand symbols,
strategies and methods are necessary.
Symbols contained inside can be
understood by study of symbol. This
is needed to fully understand a literary
works. Symbol could be a person,
thing, place, action, situation, or even
can be symbols in any types of
literature (Robert and Jacobs, 1983:
196). There are several symbols that
will be further analyzed in this study,
they are :
1. Symbolic Name
Name is a basic illustration of
symbol. It may tell something
about characters. It is not just a
form of labeling, but also clue

Modern English and American Drama 1

 something about them (Perrine,
1966: 227-228)
2. Symbolic Object
Reader’s observation of an object
or more will give the value of the
object itself.
3. Symbolic Action
Action has great implication of
something that being expressed by
an author that is represented by the
characters’ gesture.
Susan Gospell’s Trifles is a
modern play that is full of meaning,
but the meaning is hidden in the
stories. The play told us about a story
of a wife named Minnie Wright
imprisoned in her marriage with John
Wright. The pressure she receives as
John’s wife turns out to be the cause
of her inside pressures. At first,
Minnie was a lively and happy
woman, but it all changed after her
marriage life comes. She becomes a
lonely and bridled woman. John is a
husband who loves to oppress her
wife. The top of her feeling bursts
after John killed her only friend, a
bird. In the end, she ends up killing
her own husband, and then triggered
an open-case investigation. Minnie
Wright’s case shows a woman’s
confrontation against a man’s
domination
In this study, the writer will
analyze how to understand the
character of Minnie Wright, through
the interpretation from symbols found.
Although not using the characteristics
method, the writer uses symbolism to
fully understand how the author
describes Minnie Wright.
2. Methods
2.1 Research Methodology
2 Modern English and American Drama
This study applies the qualitative
research design because the subject of
this research is a play script.
According to Creswell, qualitative
research is a method to explore and
understand the human and making
interpretation of them (2009: 1).
Consequently, this study uses
objective method as something that
related with extrinsic aspects.
2.2 Instruments
The main instrument of this study is
the writer himself As the main
instrument, the writer has the key role
of observing, collecting, analyzing
and interpreting the data and finally
making conclusions. In collecting the
data, the writer considers close-
reading method. Close-reading
method is a way to further analysis of
complex interrelationship and
ambiguities of the verbal and
figurative components within the
literary works (Creswell, 2009: 217)
2.3 Data Analysis Procedures
The writer analyzes the found data
using descriptive analysis method.
The analysis is also based on writer’s
interpretation.
3. Findings
The writer found several symbols
which is related with Minnie Wright’s
analysis, then the writer divides the
data based on three kinds of symbolic
items.
Table: 1. Symbol Findings
Symbolic Symbolic Symbolic
Name Objects Actions
The Wright The Rocking Minnie uses
Chair The Rocking
Chair
Minnie The Quilt Minnie uses /mɪn.i/, has almost similar
Wright The Regular pronunciation as the word “mini”
Chair
/mɪɪn.i/.
The Bird
The Birdcage According to Cambridge
Dictionary, mini as a prefix means a
word for “smaller / less important than
4. Discussion
a normal example of the same thing”.
In this section, the writer provides an
If being combined, Minnie Wright
descriptive explanation of the
might means smaller right.
findings. The detailed information is
Comparing John and Minnie,
presented to explain the objectives of
Minnie has less human right than
the research covering the discussion
John. The feeling than she had makes
on what the findings meaning and the
her feels imprisoned. John’s power is
relations between them with Minnie’s
more powerful to use his own right to
characteristics according to the
take her right. This symbolizes the
symbolic analysis from the writer’s
lesser the right Minnie had instead of
interpretation.
John’s higher right. This concludes
her detained nature because of other’s
4.1 Symbolic Name
oppression.
4.1.1. The Wright
Wright is the name of the family
4.2 Symbolic Name
of the main character, Minnie Wright,
4.2.1. The Rocking Chair
and her husband, John Wright. The
Rocking chair is an object that
word “wright”, which is pronounced
Minnie uses after killing her husband.
as /raɪt/, is similar with the word
Killing him gives her anxiety as she
“right”.
just did crime, something that she
The similarity of their
could never think of before. In order
pronunciation brings the writer into
to calm herself, she uses the rocking
two conclusions. First, Minnie marries
chair back and forth so she can feel
John who thinks that he is always
relaxed and comfortable.
right. Therefore, as a woman who is
Minnie uses the rocking chair
always wrong before his husband’s
symbolizes her habit to cover
eyes brings her into the second
something that she keep and hide from
problem. That problem is right.
others. This conclude her nature of
Having a husband with mindset like
being closed with others
that makes Minnie lost his right as a
woman, and as a human who has to
4.2.2. The Quilt
satisfy her needs and desires.
At the moment of when the quilt
is found in the play, the quilt has not
4.1.2. Minnie Wright
been finished yet. It is Minnie’s
Minnie Wright’s name derived
choice to whether continue to quilt
from two different words. The wright
those large squared patches of fabric
is already previously explained, but
or not. If she wants to stop, then she
the word “Minnie” rings another
has to knot it, but if she wants to
similarity with other word. The word
“Minnie”, which is pronounced as

Modern English and American Drama 3

continue to work on her quilt, she
must unite the pieces of the quilt.
The quilt is found at the moment
of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters
investigate the murder of John Wright.
At this point, the quilt is a
representation of Minnie’s decision
towards what she did to her husband.
The unfinished quilt symbolizes the
unfinished business she has done. As
a murderer, she has to look as clean as
possible. After that, she might has to
face trials of what she has done.
The quilt also made from several
patches united together. This
symbolizes the information contained
linked to the murder of John Wright.
If Minnie chooses to knot it, it
represents the end of her fate as she
surrenders for what she has started
and done before, but if she chooses to
continue the quilt, it means that she
still has works to do to save her fate
which is still uncertain.
4.2.3. The Bird
The bird is the only friend that
Minnie had. But it turns out that the
bird was killed, not because of illness
or any other natural causes. When
found by Mrs. Hale, the corpse of the
dead bird was not buried, but covered
in a one of the most beautiful fabric,
silk, then put in a beautiful box.
What happened to the bird is not
just a mere coincidence, but as a
symbolization of Minnie’s feeling. As
an imprisoned woman with the
prohibition to socialize with other, the
bird is the only friend Minnie had. In
fact, the bird is her only precious
friend. The reason why the bird is
covered in silk is because she wants to
show us that the bird is really precious
that it deserves a thing as beautiful
4 Modern English and American Drama
and expensive as the silk. The
beautiful box represents the honor and
the best parting gift she wants to give
to her precious friend. These special
treatments show how the bird means
to her in her loneliness, sadness, and
sorrow.
When Minnie lost her light in
her darkness, it brings something
darker. The death of the bird is the
trigger of her murder action. It shows
the pain that Minnie felt knowing
what keeps her in sanity is gone. The
bird incident is the burst of her
suffering.
In another perception, the bird
represents Minnie herself as the bird
only lives trapped in the birdcage. The
bird and Minnie suffer the same thing,
imprisonment and unable to do
everything freely. A bird should be
able fly and dance in the sky and a
woman should be able to do what a
woman can and want to do.
4.2.4. The Birdcage
The birdcage is what keeping the
bird so it cannot escape. When the
birdcage was found, it was already
broken without the bird. The
indication is that the birdcage was
roughly forced to open just to take the
bird away.
The birdcage symbolizes of
what John Wright did to Minnie. John
is a cold man. He tortures her just by
preventing Minnie to socialize and
even make friends. It is like a prison,
but except it is a prison full of
loneliness.
What happened to the birdcage
after the incident symbolizes what
happen to Minnie’s life also. The
broken birdcage represents the prison
Minnie had. It is broken so it means
she is no longer be imprisoned. In a
rough way means that in able to reach
freedom, rough way is happened.
Although, the one who broke the
birdcage is the ‘builder’ himself, John
Wright, Minnie is now free. But the
deed is that she has to do rough thing
such as murder in order to break free.
4.3 Symbolic Actions
4.3.1. Minnie uses the rocking chair
After Minnie murdered John
Wright, she sits on the rocking chair
and starts to use it back and forth. She
felt comfortable using the rocking
chair although she has just killed
someone.
Minnie is not used to do extreme
thing like murder. The event occurred
is the final explosion of what she has
been held in her mind and feeling
since marrying John. After the
murder, she feels guilty, not pleasure.
The anxiety kicks in so she has to
calm her mind, so nobody can find out
what she did.
The rocking chair action
symbolizes Minnie’s intention to not
literally running away from her
problem. As a woman who just
exposed her insanity, she tried to act
as natural as possible. The reason why
she does this represents Minnie’s way
to solve her problems, to not getting
caught, but not to run away.
4.3.2. Minnie uses the regular chair
After the investigation of John
Wright’s murder case has been
started, Mrs. Dale tries to call the
local authority to help solving and
prosecuting the culprit. Minnie, which
is previously sat on the rocking chair,
sudennly moves to the ordinary chair,
Modern English and American Drama
holds together her hand, with her face
faces downward.
As previously mentioned before,
the rocking chair is the symbol of
Minnie’s action to cope her anxiety
and stress, then she moves to the
regular chair. This symbolizes that she
cannot hold her anxiety anymore. She
needs to face the reality, not just
ignoring what happened.
5. Conclusion
Writer’s interpretations of the
symbol which is connected to Minnie
bring deep explanation of her
characteristic. She is a character
which experienced freedom and
livelihood before, but was taken away
because a prison officer named John
Wright, her husband. After holding
his frustration because of her
imprisonment, she did something
rough just to release herself.
Although, after that she will faces
another reality.
References
Abrams, M.H. 1998. A Glossary of
Literary Terms: Seventh Edition.
Boston: Thomson Learning, Inc
Glaspell, S. 1916. Trifles. In Barnet, S.
et.al (Eds.) Types of Drama: Plays
and contexts. 7 th ed. New York:
Longman.
Kennedy, X. J.Gioia, Dana. (Eds.).
2013. Literature :an introduction
to fiction, poetry, drama, and
writing. Boston : Pearson,.
Perrine, Laurence. 1987. Literature:
Structure, Sound and Sense Fifth
Edition. Orlando: Harcourt Brace
Jovanovich, Inc
Roberts, Edgar V. Jacobs, Henry E. 2007.
Literature: An Introduction to
Reading and Writing Upper Saddle
River, N.J. : Pearson Prentice Hall,
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