TRIFLES

In the real case with Margaret Hossack, there is not any evidence to suggest that women were able to come by and help her out, but Glaspell seems intrigued with this idea. The setting to this story is extremely important. The story takes place not in a courtroom, rather Minnie’s private kitchen. Linda Ben-Zvi notes, “Glaspell offers the audience a composite picture of the life of Minnie Wright, Margaret Hossack, and the countless women whose experiences were not represented in court because their lives were not deemed relevant to the adjudication of their cases. Most important, by shifting venue, Glaspell brings the central questions never asked in the original Hossack case into focus: the motives for murder, what goes on in the home, and why women kill” (Ben-Zvi 154). While Minnie may have been responsible for John’s death, she is certainly not guilty of murder. Minnie Foster was trapped with no way to exit- she was forced to break ground (and John’s neck), in order to save herself.