In the one-act play Trifles by Susan Glaspell, a group of people come to a remote farmhouse to investigate the murder of John Wright, the owner of the farm. His wife, Mrs. Wright, is being held as a suspect. While Sheriff Peters, the county attorney, and Mr. Hale (who discovered the murder) walk around looking for clues, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale wait in the kitchen. They talk about Mrs. Wright's loneliness and the deterioration of her joyful spirit after she married her husband.
While they wait, the women begin to find little clues suggesting not only Mrs. Wright's unhappiness but also possible abuse on the part of her husband. They come across pieces of quilt Mrs. Wright was sewing and notice that though most of the stitches in the quilt are "nice and even," the sewing on the last block is "all over the place." Perhaps Mrs. Wright was anxious and wasn't concentrating on what she was doing.
The women look at each other, as if suddenly aware that this could be an important indication of Mrs. Wright's state of mind. Mrs. Hale then begins to correct the sewing by pulling out the messy stitches and replacing them with neat ones. She says that bad sewing makes her fidgety, but the implication is that she is doing this to cover up Mrs. Wright's possible guilt. Although messy sewing would not at first seem a viable clue to the men, the women are able to use it to read Mrs. Wright's motivation for possibly committing the murder.
Later, the women notice the damaged bird cage and the dead canary in the box. They cover up this evidence as well. In their opinion, although Mrs. Wright may have killed her husband, it's possible that she was justified in doing so because of the way he had treated her. That's the real reason why Mrs. Hale pulls out and corrects the sewing, and also why Mrs. Peters hides the dead bird and does not show it to the men.
When Mrs. Peters asks Mrs. Hale why she is pulling out Mrs. Wright's hasty, messy stitching, Mrs. Hales says,
Bad sewing always made me fidgety.
Of course, that's not the real reason Mrs. Hale removes the stitches. It's clear that she knows that poor stitching is a sign that Mrs. Wright was nervous about something—possibly about having murdered her husband.
Mrs. Peters tells Mrs. Hale she shouldn't tamper with evidence. Mrs. Hale responds by saying she will simply fix the sewing. She then asks what Mrs. Peters thinks Minnie Wright was nervous about. Mrs. Peters suggests that perhaps Mrs. Wright wasn't nervous at all, but tired. Mrs. Peters say she sometimes sews "awful queer" when she is tired.
Both women clearly know that the detail of Mrs. Wright's sloppy sewing reveals a good deal about her state of mind and might even implicate her as guilty of murder. They try to cover up for her. While they can read the signs of what was going on and reconstruct the crime, the men dismiss and overlook these sorts of details as worthless "trifles."
Mrs. Hale takes the stitches out of the quilt because their hasty stitching shows Mrs. Wright was preoccupied and possibly indicates her guilt.
To the women, the quilt provides insight into Mrs. Wright’s mind. The men would not notice this, but women would. To the men, all the little domestic indicators are meaningless trifles. The women realize their true meaning. They understand Mrs. Wright was miserable.
When Mrs. Hale sees the quilt Mrs. Wright was working on, she notices the stitching is off.
MRS HALE: (examining another block) Mrs Peters, look at this one. Here, this is the one she was working on, and look at the sewing! All the rest of it has been so nice and even. And look at this! It's all over the place! Why, it looks as if she didn't know what she was about!
Again, the men would not notice this at first. Upon closer examination, however, it would be evidence showing Mrs. Wright’s state of mind. Her husband was dead and her stitches were crazy. Even a man could figure out this meant Mrs. Wright was not entirely well and likely killed her husband.
Mrs. Hale feels sorry for Mrs. Wright. The whole situation is becoming apparent to her, from how Mr. Wright treated his wife to the circumstances of his death. She pulls out the stitches.
MRS PETERS: Oh, what are you doing, Mrs. Hale?
MRS HALE: (mildly) Just pulling out a stitch or two that's not sewed very good. (threading a needle) Bad sewing always made me fidgety.
No one noticed Minnie Wright withdraw from society and stop being her sunny self after she married. The women realize they didn't see the signs and intervene. There is a certain sense of guilt there, but also some womanly camaraderie in their instinct to protect Mrs. Wright by hiding evidence.
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