Trifles

“HALE: I guess you know how much he talked about himself, but I thought maybe if I went to the house and talked about it before his wife, though I said to Harry that I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John—

COUNTY ATTORNEY: Let’s talk about that later, Mr. Hale. I do want to talk about that but, but tell now just what happened when you got into the house.” 

In this quotation, George questions Mr. Hale and very purposefully steers him away from impugning Mr. Wright’s character or gaining insight into his marriage. This reflects the bias already coloring his investigation. While he is clearly looking for a piece of evidence to damn Mrs. Wright—as he has already decided that she is guilty—he plainly and simply does not want to hear anything that might justify Mrs. Wright’s actions. His solidarity is clearly with the murdered man—no matter what the latter may have done to upset, hurt, or abuse his wife. George’s silencing and re-directing of Mr. Hale in favor of this gender solidarity speaks to the manner in which he is blinded to the truth in the situation. Paradoxically, perhaps if he dug deeper into the unhappy married life of Mr. Wright, he would have uncovered the piece of evidence that he sought. Instead, he is content to rely upon his sharply biased “expertise.” 

“COUNTY ATTORNEY: (Looking around) I guess we’ll go upstairs first—and then out to the barn and around there. (To sheriff) You’re convinced that there was nothing important here—nothing that would point to any motive?

SHERIFF: Nothing here but kitchen things.” 

This quotation highlights the men's habitual underestimation of women, and the dismissal of the domestic space—and the secrets and intelligence that hide within it. In their arrogant, masculine search for evidence, George and Henry are implicitly searching for a “masculine” (or in other words, a “consequential”) piece of evidence.