Trifles symbolize the importance of the topics and items that concern the women in the story, as these concerns provide the women with the insight to understand the motive of Minnie's crime.
Trifles Symbols
Trifles. The title of the play refers to the concerns of the women in the play, which the men consider to be only “trifles.” ...
Canning Jars of Fruit. The canning jars of fruit represent Minnie's extreme concern over her role as wife and her household responsibilities. ...
The Dirty Towel. ...
The Quilt. ...
The Dead Bird.
Hale and Mrs. Peters hide the evidence because they don't want Minnie Wright to get into trouble. They know that she killed her husband, but they also know that she was the victim of years of domestic abuse. As they don't wish to compound Minnie's suffering, they hide the evidence of her crime.
The motive for the crime lies in Minnie Wright's sad and isolated life. This isolation is imposed by her hard and silent husband. When he kills her canary, he is figuratively killing her contact with her past self—a woman full of life and song.
Written in the early 1900s, “Trifles” deals with the rights of, expectations for and assumptions about women in society at the time. In an ironic twist, the audience knows that the women have solved the murder mystery while the men remain oblivious of the truth because of their assumptions.
-Astolfo