A metaphor is “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action that it does not literally denote in order to imply a resemblance” according to The World English Dictionary. In the same dictionary plot is described as, “the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story.” In the play Trifles Mrs. Wright is suspected of killing her husband, Mr. Wright, who was murdered in his sleep, being strangled to death. When the county attorney, George Henderson, the sheriff, Henry Peters, and the sheriff’s wife, Mrs. Peters, arrive at the crime scene with the neighboring farmer and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Hale, they begin to look through the house for evidence and discuss how they had found Mrs. Wright, rocking in her chair and seemingly blank about what was happening around her. The men found no clues, and yet the women found pieces of hints and pieced them together, as one would do with a torn up quilt. They found a quilt that Mrs. Wright was sewing at the time, and found that the most recent piece was quite uneven and not as well sewn as the rest of the quilt. They also found a dead bird inside its cage, abused and beaten as though someone had killed it purposefully. They took these clues and found themselves able to piece together a motive for Mrs. Wright to kill her husband. They understood that her bird was the last freedom Mrs. Wright had, and having that also taken away from her had led her into killing her husband, and in the same way he killed her bird. The quilt that Mrs. Wright had been sewing is used as a metaphor for the way that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters pieced and drew together the clues of the murder, now having a complete understanding of such.
Word Count: 324
Works Cited:
"Metaphor." Pocket Dictionary Merriam-Webster: The World English Dictionary. Barcelona: Océano, 2000. Print.
"Plot." Pocket Dictionary Merriam-Webster: The World English Dictionary. Barcelona: Océano,...