Emotional Depression in TriflesTrifles is an interesting story about a country woman's emotional breakdown. It is clear from some of the descriptions in the text that she suffered emotional trauma. However, it is never clarified if she killed her husband or if he committed suicide. The emotional trauma can be shown at the beginning of the story by her attitude towards Mr. Hale. Mrs. Wright is in shock from her constant rocking; pleating of her skirt; his "weird" look and deadpan response to how Mr. Wright died "He died with a rope around his neck"; all indicate a high level of emotional stress in a situation. She doesn't respond to anything. Plus, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters examine her quilting. The stitching is very nice and even and then suddenly it becomes a mess of stitches. These actions and inactions truly indicate an unbalanced mental state, however, is this enough to charge a woman with murder. Further indicating the difficulty of deciding whether Mrs. Wright killed Mr. Wright is the canary. Mrs. Wright shows her love for the canary by trying to bury it in the cute sewing box. It was not someone's action that killed the canary. Mrs. Wright is also described as being bird-like. The reader can imagine him as someone small or light. She is described as being sweet, pretty, shy and fluttery. It would take a lot for a person of that nature 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 his wife's birdlike qualities. He seems to be a bossy and unhappy person. I propose that it is Mr. Wright who kills the canary. He takes something away from his wife by trying to maintain control over her. The cage is also badly damaged. Mrs. Wright is not described as a very strong person. In this vein of thinking, I also propose that Mr. Wright has gone mad. He killed the bird and hanged himself. It would take a lot of strength to hang a tall man and Mr. Wright was supposed to do it. Additionally, the sheriff and county attorney are baffled by the way the rope was stretched, it was strangely snagged..