The one-act play “Trifles” is loosely based on the murder of a farmer in Iowa in the early 19th century, which Glaspell reported while working as a journalist. The farmer's wife was accused of the murder and was initially convicted, but later acquitted. Literary analysts note that Glaspell "approached the case like a detective" (Bryan and Wolf). More than a decade after that incident, when she was a career writer, analysts describe, "in the space of ten days, Glaspell composed a one-act opera" inspired by that real-life murder (Bryan and Wolf) . In "Trifles", while the county attorney and the sheriff, along with Mr. Hale are investigating Mr. Wright's murder, the companions, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, search through Mrs. Wright's kitchen and closets to collect the his things. The investigators are certain that the murderer is Mrs. Wright, but they look for clues to establish a motive, and ignore looking carefully in the kitchen believing it is not important. Through the voices of the characters, Glaspell criticizes the opinionated patriarchal society. In this play, although Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters find some incriminating evidence against Mrs. Wright, they find her not guilty of her husband's death based on their knowledge of Mrs. Wright's character, her husband's strong imposition and also because of the their sympathy for her. Analyzing the personality of the central character, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters carefully examine the transformation of a pleasant and lively Minnie Foster into a lonely housewife, Mrs. Wright. Thirty years ago, Minnie was a very bubbly and charming girl, “she wore nice dresses and was lively” and was “one of the girls in town who sang on… middle of paper… .y, but Glaspell it told their personalities through the voices of other characters. By delicately integrating male chauvinism into various scenes and actions of the play, Glaspell showed the then existing male dominance and challenged readers and viewers to ask who is actually guilty of the murder, Minnie Foster or the male dominant society! Glaspell also indicated that, by tampering with the evidence, the female characters not only concluded that Minnie is not guilty of the crime, but also psychologically triumphed over their male counterparts. Works Cited Bryan, Patricia L., and Thomas Wolf. Midnight Assassin: A Murder in America's Heartland. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2005. xii-xiii. Web.Glaspell, Susan. "Nonsense." Norton's introduction to literature. Ed. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York: Norton, 2010. 1385-94. Press.