As we never encounter Minnie in this play, we never hear her explanation as to why she killed her husband. Therefore, we are in the land of opinion, which is where we need to be to write a strong thesis statement.
You could argue that it wasn't until Minnie saw the cruelty with which her husband treated her poor bird when he wrung its neck that she fully realized that he had been treating her as cruelly as the defenseless bird—and perhaps felt some fear for her life. At that point, you could argue, she snapped and retaliated against years of abuse.
A thesis that the murder was a spontaneous response to a sudden realization or epiphany that her husband was a terrible person can be supported with evidence from the text. The women who accompany their husbands into Minnie's home notice that this normally very careful housekeeper leaves kitchen items in disarray. She leaves the bread out on the table, for example, instead of putting it back into the bread box, and she lets the fire go out so that her canned goods get too cold and explode. However, she carefully wraps her dead bird in a handkerchief, showing her tender care for it.
You might write something like the following: Mrs. Wright spontaneously killed her husband because his murder of her bird brought her to a realization of how abused she had been at his hands throughout their marriage.
Be sure to support this thesis with quotes from the text that prove your point.
Having long endured deprivation, isolation, and oppression, Minnie Wright finally reaches a breaking point when the only thing of beauty and carrier of joy in her stark home is destroyed.
A thesis statement, especially for a five-paragraph essay, will need to have three points that then are developed into the topic sentences for the body of the essay. Details from the play should be used as support. Here are a few examples for the main points:
Deprivation
Early in the play Trifles, the sheriff's wife, Mrs. Peters, and a neighbor, Mrs. Hale, look around the kitchen of the Wright home as the men seek clues upstairs. As Mrs. Peters gathers clothes for the now jailed Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Hale examines a skirt and notices how shabby it is. She remarks on the woman's deprivation and adds that Minnie Wright did not even belong to the Ladies' Aid:
MRS. HALE 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 Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir.
Isolation
Before her marriage to John Wright, Minnie Foster was an active part of her community and lived in town. But after marrying, Mrs. Wright now lives in an isolated farmhouse without any children and with only the most taciturn of men. While Mr. Wright is not a drinker and he keeps his word, Mrs. Hale tells her companion in the kitchen:
MRS. HALE But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him. (Shivers) Like a raw wind that gets to the bone. (Pauses, her eye falling on the bird cage.) I should think she would'a wanted a bird....
Because the farmhouses are distant from one another (in Iowa there are farms composed of hundreds of acres), Mrs. Hale regrets now that she did not visit Mrs. Wright more often. She reflects that Mrs. Wright is something like a bird herself:
MRS. HALE ....real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and--fluttery. How--she--did--change.
Oppression
The two pensive women regard antiquated and worn out things in the kitchen, such as the old stove on which it would be difficult to cook, and then the erratic stitching of the quilt, the broken bird cage, and the pretty box in which the dead canary, whose neck has been wrung, is laid. As they contemplate all these things, they piece together a life of quiet despair relieved, perhaps, only by the lovely song of the canary.
So when they overhear the county attorney conclude that he has all the pieces to the murder except "a thing that would connect up with this strange way of doing it," Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Wright look pointedly at each other. It is then that the two women decide to protect the deprived, lonely, and oppressed Mrs. Wright, who has killed her husband for having taken from her the only thing of beauty and joy that she had.
No comments:
Post a Comment