Susan Glaspell's Trifles is a good play because it unravels the different motives for murder throughout the play. Unlike most murder mysteries, Trifles is a play where the reader knows the murderer early on. Some readers may say that this makes the play bad. However, a murder mystery does not have to always have the reader in suspense to find out who the culprit was, but it can also have the reader in suspense to find out questions of why the culprit did it. Trifles is a play that does just that, it keeps the reader wondering what drove this woman to kill her husband.
             One element of a murder mystery play is motive. Motive is the reason or emotion that drives a person to do something. In the beginning of Trifles the reader is confused of the motive for Mr. Wright's murder. When Mr. Hale and his friend first arrive at the house to visit Mr. Wright, they find his wife, Mrs. Wright rocking in the rocking chair pleating her apron. When the county attorney asks him how she looked, he says, "Well, she looked queer." She then goes on to tell him that her husband is dead and someone has strangled him. When the officials arrive with the neighbors, the sheriff and the county attorney go over any evidence, and interview Mr. Hale for information about the previous day. As the officials look for evidence for a possible motive, the women of the play talk to one another about the Mr. and Mrs. Wright. The women seem to collect more evidence for motives than the officials do. The first hint of a possible motive for Mrs. Wright murdering her husband comes when the women discuss how Mrs. Wright used to be before she was married. Mrs. Hale says, "I heard she used to wear pretty clothes and be lively when she was Minnie Foster, one of the town girls singing in the choir." This statement suggests that she was unhappy in her marriage and that her marriage had changed her, and not in a good way. Mrs. Hale...