Many people consider their children a gift from God but there are others that can simply leave their children with a stranger. In “A Doll’s House,” Nora decides to leave her husband because she thinks she is married to a stranger. This brings up a conversation about whether or not a woman, like Nora, is ever justified in driving away from a family. While Nora is not justified in leaving Helmer and therefore the babies, one can also understand why she should.
Similarly, while reading “Trifles”>Trifles,” one must decide whether Mrs. Peters’ and Mrs. Hale’s actions are justified. The murder of Mr. Wright was covered up by the two ladies because they believed Mrs. Wright should not be convicted of his murder. Mrs. Wright had no children even though Nora did. The decision to leave your children should not be justified because a child needs their mother. While Nora was wrong for leaving her family, Mrs. Wright’s actions are justified because of the emotional abuse from her husband.
Some people may believe that the actions in these plays can not be justified. One of the reasons I thought it was not appropriate for Nora to leave her husband was that Nora had already raised three children. In my mind, one should never leave his or her baby. She did not want to consider taking them or seeing them while she was gone. Nora never offered Torvald the opportunity to prove himself to be a spouse after she had concluded that things were not working out. This shows complete immaturity.
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Nora determined that abandoning Helmer was the easiest choice without giving him the opportunity to justify himself. This was the first and only chance she had to approached him and, as soon as she did, she quit. One might claim that Mrs. Wright has still committed murder, so neither the loss of an animal nor years of marital strife justifies homicide. Through supporting and wagering her, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are essentially witnesses who have justified the murder. Murder is still a crime no matter what the circumstances are and it may be hard to justify.
Others may decide that the actions were justified. Nora may have felt hopeless; she felt like a puppet that had been taken down from the shelf. Her husband thought she was worth paying attention to; she had no gratification, no identity. Not only does Torvald not regard her as a spouse, but he also can not even understand what she did for him. He’s left her stranded, no help, no intervention. This acknowledgment that there is no passion for them, and that it has never been, confirms her choice to leave. Her departure is a new beginning and a chance to grow up and become a woman.
The women in “Trifles” have opted to defend Minnie Wright because they see themselves in her and do not want to be cynical and denounce her. Minnie has been deeply lonely and unhappy for many years, enduring mental and possibly physical violence from her husband and murdering the only living person that cared about her could have justified revenge in kind.
At the end of the story, I don’t believe Nora was right in quitting the way she did. She did not try to find a solution for her marriage. She abandoned her children to the man she considered a stranger. Although I can understand Nora’s pain because she spent part of her life with a person who didn’t really appreciate her, I do think she was unreasonable to leave. The killing in “Trifles” was, in my view, highly justified. The ladies were withholding evidence of the crime, including Mrs. Wright’s precious bird whose neck her husband broke.
It would be ridiculous for Mrs. Wright to be convicted of murder just because she wanted to put an end to the suffering of her life. The play shows that Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are partnered with Mrs. Wright to help protect her from the people of the city who plan to use the system of law that they manipulate to preserve Mr. Wright’s barbaric and unjustifiable existence. The men in the play are abusive, they are disrespectful toward their wives and ignorant to the importance of women.
Personally, I believe that Nora was wrong for leaving her husband because she had children but Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale’s actions were justified because they were trying to help a friend. This is frequently seen as a stereotype; nevertheless, the play is known to accurately describe the frustration experienced by women at the beginning of the 20th century against men in their lives.
References
- California Courts – Domestic Violence
- National Center for Biotechnology Information – The Impact of Emotional Abuse on Children
- PsychCentral – Effects of Emotional Child Abuse on Adult Survivors
- National Center for Biotechnology Information – Leaving an Abusive Relationship: A Review of the Literature
- HelpGuide – Domestic Violence and Abuse: Signs of Abuse and Abusive Relationships
- National Child Traumatic Stress Network – Domestic Violence
- National Center for Biotechnology Information – The Impact of Domestic Violence on Children
