uilt it or knot it(840). By quilting the blanket, she would have chosen to endure the pain that John wasputting her through, but by knotting the quilt she chose to eliminate it. Just as a knotrepresents a finishing or a completion of a project, it also was an end to John. Theweaving of the quilt also symbolises the building up of the marriage and then the endof it. The quilt started out as a beautiful piece of art and was brought to a close by acouple of sloppy stitches and knots(Uong). Just like the Wrights marriage, thequilt was beautiful until the end where everything was simply a mess.Isolationism also plays a very important role in the story. The Wrightsfarmhouse is located in a hallow, in the woods. This sets her in a secluded placeaway from most civilisation. The Wrights didnt even have a phone in their houseto be able to call anyone. Mr. Hale came to talk to Mr. Wright about a phone a fewtimes but, he put me off, saying folks talked too much anyway...(Glaspell, p.835). This is an example of how Mr. Wright did not want him or his wife to have regularcontact with anyone in town, which is another part of John sheltering Minnie and notletting her live her life. This is why Minnies bird was so important to her. It wasthe only normality to the outside world she had, and Mr. Wright had taken that awayfrom her(Shelton). When John finally killed the bird, he also killed a part ofMinnie. Symbolism plays a big role in Susan Glaspells Trifles. Symbolism is whathelps the reader decipher who killed Mr. Wright. Glaspell uses a dead bird with itscage, a quilt, and isolationism to create a motive in the mind of the reader. The birdsymbolised Minnie herself and how she was suppressed and literally murdered. Thequilt symbolised Minnies life and her choices about her husband; and finally theisolationism of Minnie gives her a good motive and reason to want to be free fromher husband. Glaspells use of symbolism gets the reader involv...
