Emotional Breakdown in TriflesTrifles is an interesting story about the emotional breakdown of a country woman. It is obvious from some descriptions within the text that he has had emotional trauma. However, it was never clarified whether she killed her husband or whether he committed suicide. The emotional trauma can be staged early in the story by her attitude towards Mr. Hale. Mrs. Wright is in a state of shock from her constant rocking; skirt pleating; his "strange" appearance and deadpan response to Mr. Wright's death "He died by a rope around his neck"; all indicate a high level of emotional stress in a situation. She doesn't answer anything. Also, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters examine her quilting. The stitching is very nice and even and then suddenly it becomes a wild mess of stitches. These actions and inactions truly indicate an unbalanced mental state, however, it is enough to accuse a woman of murder. What further indicates the difficulty in deciding whether Mrs. Wright killed Mr. Wright is the canary. Mrs. Wright shows that she loves the canary by trying to bury him in the cute sewing box. This is not the action of someone who killed the canary. Mrs. Wright is also described as a bird. The reader can imagine her as a small or thin person. She is described as sweet, cute, shy and flighty. It would take a lot for someone of this description to commit murder. On the other hand, Mr. Wright is portrayed as someone who is difficult to live with. He is described by Mrs. Hale as having killed the bird-like qualities in his wife. He seems like a domineering and unhappy person. I propose that Mr. Wright should kill the canary. He is taking something away from his wife by trying to maintain control over her. The cage is also badly damaged. Mrs. Wright is not described as having much strength. Following this train of thought I also propose that Mr. Wright went mad. He killed the bird and hanged himself. It would take a lot of strength to hang a large man and Mr. Wright was expected to be one. Even the sheriff and county attorney are baffled by the way the rope was strung, it was arranged strangely.