The Dead Bird
Wow, what a statement! This whole story is very involved in the category of vampirism that we had to read for today in Foster's How to Read Literature Like a Professor (Chapter 3). By diasecting this sentence a person can see that Minnie Foster, a.k.a. Mrs. Wright, used to be a vivacious person before something happened, in this case, her marriage to Mr. (not) Wright. He said to have been a "hard man" by Mrs. Hale.
This man had an effect on more than just Minnie. He had an effect on the dead bird (which symbolized Minnie's free spirit) and the integritiy of the two women who find probable cause that Minne did in fact murder him. The women feel somewhat responsible for what she did so they compromise their honesty to help Minnie out.
I also really enjoyed the different meanings of the word "trifles." It can mean "to pass or spend (time) idly or frivolously" like the women were doing while waiting for their husbands. By doing so they obviously found "an article or thing of very little value" that would prove Mrs. Wright guilty. It is also a "a kind of pewter of medium hardness" like Mr. Wright himself. It was said that he was both "hard to live with" and "a good man" so he was kind of in the middle, but still enough to throw Minnie over the edge.
That is an interesting theory about Mr. Wright. Another effect of the marriage was that it destoryed Minnie's usefulness to society. And if you will recall, That is the same thing that Dracula does the women he bites.
I love the fact that you tied in the vampirism that we've been reading with Mr. Wright and his actions. After all, what did Minnie have but a comfortable cage, but a cage nonetheless. Even songbirds need to have a little bit of freedom in order to survive and she had none.
I like how you included the various shades of the definition of "trifle." They really shed light on why Glaspell chose the title of the story as she did.
After that thorough analysis, what really is there left to say? You considered many different angles of one aspect (that being the relationship between John Wright and his wife). It'd be interesting to know how you tie all the other characters into the whole alagory you have going on. Because if you remember what Dr. Jerz says, authors do not add characters unless they serve a purpose.
All in all, that was a great analysis.
That was a very good analysis. You did exactly like Dr. Jerz said to do. When you made the comment about the word, right, being in Mr. Wright's name you made your point and did not carry it on into another paragrapgh. I enjoyed that. I also wanted to comment on Jeanine's comment of all the characters serving a purpose because this is very true and you did an excellent job of teing all the characters into your quote.
I must say, you nailed a couple heads there. Great connection with the vampirism that we read about with Foster and the different meanings of trifle, it really helped make the meaning of the play and characters even clearer.