Christopher Booker is a scholar who wrote that every story falls into one of seven basic plot structures: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, the Quest, Voyage and Return, Comedy, Tragedy, and Rebirth. Shmoop explores which of these structures fits this story like Cinderella’s slipper.
Plot Type : Voyage and Return
Anticipation Stage and 'fall' into the other world:
Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters enter into the gloomy world of the Wright farmhouse like a couple of Alices into an even creepier Wonderland. Though Mrs. Hale is more outspoken than Mrs. Peters, both women enter this place under the hairy thumb of the male-dominated society that's oppressing women everywhere. As in all Voyage and Return plots, there's room for growth in these characters.
Initial fascination or Dream Stage:
Sometimes characters are excited by the new world at first, but that's definitely not true here. Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters would be a little twisted if they were pumped about exploring the house where Mrs. Wright has recently strangled her husband. Still, the ladies have a dark fascination for the place. It's probably a lot like their kitchens at home, but it's dirty, cold, everything is just a little bit askew. The house itself is isolated and gloomy. As they investigate, the ladies sink deeper and deeper into the lonely world of Mrs. Wright.
Frustration Stage:
A lot of times this is where the mood of the journey starts to go from light to dark, but Trifles just takes us from dark to darker. For one, the County Attorney and the other menfolk keep belittling the ladies basically for being ladies, but Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters are kind of used to that. But when the ladies discover the birdcage with the door ripped off and get a hint of the monster that was Mr. Wright, they start to truly realize just how monstrous the male-dominated society around them can be.
Nightmare Stage:
The shadow of Mr. Wright falls on our heroines when they discover the body of Mrs. Wright's canary with its neck wrung. The ladies now fully understand the thing that made the long suffering Mrs. Wright finally snap and strangle her husband.
Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters empathize with Mrs. Wright and feel her pain. The years of loneliness, the horror at finding her bird murdered—they feel it all. (We told you this was getting darker.) To make matters worse, the Attorney is snooping around, and the ladies know this dead bird is just what he needs to convict Mrs. Wright.
Thrilling Escape and return:
When the County Attorney declares that he's going to stay around and snoop by himself, the ladies know they have to do something. So they take a thrilling last stand against the shadow of Mr. Wright, the Attorney, and male-dominated society as a whole by hiding the dead bird that could convict Mrs. Wright. The dark and gloomy kitchen of Mrs. Wright has changed their lives forever, opening their eyes the darkness they live with every day back at home.