VCCS Litonline Introduction to Literature English 112 (English Composition II)

Scene from Mary Baldwin College production of TRIFLES (1994)

Photo by Virginia Francisco, Mary Baldwin College 

• "a gloomy kitchen"--a stark, uninviting place, an oppressive room in an oppressive house. Yet this is the room where Mrs. Wright spent most of her time.
  
• "without having been put in order"--the person whose kitchen this is must either be a sloppy housekeeper, or something must have happened while he/she was working here.

• The SHERIFF enters (presumably in uniform), followed by two men, one (the County Attorney) probably wearing a coat and tie--we are possibly looking at the scene of a crime or an accident.

• The characters are "much bundled up"--apparently it is cold outside, winter, a gloomy, oppressive time of year (especially in the North).

There are some other inferences we might make that are perhaps not so obvious. For instance, look at the descriptions of the characters and how they enter the scene:

• The women are described as "nervous," "disturbed," looking "fearfully" about. This, of course, confirms our suspicion that something has happened here, but if we look a little harder, we might notice a contrast between the women and the men. 
  
• The men enter FIRST. They go directly to the stove (the warmest spot in the room). From this, we would probably infer that they--the men--are in charge here, confident and assertive. As the scene is set, the men are huddled around the stove together, and the women are standing "close together" near the door. Two groups, men and women, two different "worlds." And whose world APPEARS to be the more important of the two?

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