Overview

Lesson Procedure

70-75 minutes of class time across 5 phases.

1. Warm-Up5 minutes
2. Direct Instruction20 minutes
3. Guided Practice20 minutes
4. Independent Practice20 minutes
5. Closure5-10 minutes

1. Warm-Up5 minutes

   Warm-Up Prompt

   "Think of a movie or series that lingers on a long wait, or saves its most important moment for the very last shot. What would have been lost if it had hurried past the wait, or put that moment in the middle?"

   Collect two or three examples. Name what students are describing: an author's choice, a decision that could have gone another way. Tell students that RL.11-12.3 asks them to analyze the impact of such choices, not only to spot them.

2. Direct Instruction20 minutes

   Key terms.

   • Author's choice: any decision about how a story is built: where it is set, what comes first, how long the telling lingers, what is held back, who is shown and who is only described.
   • Impact: what the choice does to the reader or audience (suspense, sympathy, irony, a shift in judgment) and to the meaning.
   • Order and pacing: the sequence of events and how much space the telling gives each one. A writer can race through weeks and slow down for an hour.
   • Retrospective narrator: a narrator who tells events from later in life, so the telling can carry judgments the younger self could not make.
   • Relate elements: the standard asks how authors connect elements, such as a setting that mirrors a character's mind or a pace that controls what a reader expects.

   The method. For every choice, ask three questions (Diagram 2): What did the author do? What else could the author have done? What does the actual choice do that the alternative would not?

   Before Excerpt 1. "Araby" is from Joyce's collection Dubliners. The narrator looks back on his boyhood in Dublin. A "blind" street is a dead end; Mangan is a friend who lives across the street. Read the opening aloud.

   1North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street except at the hour when the Christian Brothers’ School set the boys free. An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground. The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces.

   2The former tenant of our house, a priest, had died in the back drawing-room. Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms, and the waste room behind the kitchen was littered with old useless papers. Among these I found a few paper-covered books, the pages of which were curled and damp: The Abbot, by Walter Scott, The Devout Communicant and The Memoirs of Vidocq. I liked the last best because its leaves were yellow. The wild garden behind the house contained a central apple-tree and a few straggling bushes under one of which I found the late tenant’s rusty bicycle-pump. He had been a very charitable priest; in his will he had left all his money to institutions and the furniture of his house to his sister.

   3When the short days of winter came dusk fell before we had well eaten our dinners. When we met in the street the houses had grown sombre. The space of sky above us was the colour of ever-changing violet and towards it the lamps of the street lifted their feeble lanterns. The cold air stung us and we played till our bodies glowed. Our shouts echoed in the silent street. The career of our play brought us through the dark muddy lanes behind the houses where we ran the gauntlet of the rough tribes from the cottages, to the back doors of the dark dripping gardens where odours arose from the ashpits, to the dark odorous stables where a coachman smoothed and combed the horse or shook music from the buckled harness. When we returned to the street light from the kitchen windows had filled the areas. If my uncle was seen turning the corner we hid in the shadow until we had seen him safely housed. Or if Mangan’s sister came out on the doorstep to call her brother in to his tea we watched her from our shadow peer up and down the street. We waited to see whether she would remain or go in and, if she remained, we left our shadow and walked up to Mangan’s steps resignedly. She was waiting for us, her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door. Her brother always teased her before he obeyed and I stood by the railings looking at her. Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side.

   4Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen. When she came out on the doorstep my heart leaped. I ran to the hall, seized my books and followed her. I kept her brown figure always in my eye and, when we came near the point at which our ways diverged, I quickened my pace and passed her. This happened morning after morning. I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood.

   • Where the story is set

     Paragraph 1: "North Richmond Street, being blind, was a quiet street ... An uninhabited house of two storeys stood at the blind end, detached from its neighbours in a square ground." What is the impact of opening on this street?

     Result: The first fact about the boy's world is that it goes nowhere: the street is a dead end, and an empty house stands at the closed end. Joyce starts with a place where nothing happens, so any excitement in the story will have to come from the boy's imagination. The word "blind" also prepares a story about not seeing clearly.

   • How a character is introduced

     In paragraph 3 the girl is introduced only as "Mangan's sister," and the boy notices pieces of her: "Her dress swung as she moved her body and the soft rope of her hair tossed from side to side." In paragraph 4 he says "her name was like a summons," yet the story never gives her name. What is the impact?

     Result: She is never named and never described as a whole person, only in fragments: a swinging dress, a rope of hair. She stays an image rather than a character, and the story becomes as much about the boy's imagination as about her.

   • Who tells the story, and when

     Paragraph 4: "I had never spoken to her, except for a few casual words, and yet her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood." Whose judgment is the word "foolish"?

     Result: It belongs to the adult telling the story, not to the boy living it; at the time, the boy felt only the "summons." Joyce chooses a retrospective narrator, so a verdict on the boy's feelings is already present in the telling. Readers can sense the irony long before the boy does.

   • Relating setting and character

     Paragraph 2: among the dead priest's papers the boy finds three old books. "I liked the last best because its leaves were yellow." What does this detail add?

     Result: He chooses a book for the look of its pages, not for what it says. Joyce uses an object from the setting to give a first hint about the character: the boy responds to how things look and feel. That habit will shape his romance.

3. Guided Practice20 minutes

   Before Excerpt 2. Mangan's sister finally speaks to the boy. She asks whether he is going to Araby, a charity bazaar (a fair with stalls selling goods) coming to Dublin; she cannot go because of a retreat at her convent school. He promises to bring her something if he goes. For the rest of the week he can think of nothing else, and he arranges to go on Saturday night. The boy lives with his aunt and uncle. Read Excerpts 2 and 3 aloud. Pairs mark places where the telling slows down and places where it speeds up.

   1On Saturday morning I reminded my uncle that I wished to go to the bazaar in the evening. He was fussing at the hallstand, looking for the hat-brush, and answered me curtly:

   2“Yes, boy, I know.”

   3As he was in the hall I could not go into the front parlour and lie at the window. I left the house in bad humour and walked slowly towards the school. The air was pitilessly raw and already my heart misgave me.

   4When I came home to dinner my uncle had not yet been home. Still it was early. I sat staring at the clock for some time and, when its ticking began to irritate me, I left the room. I mounted the staircase and gained the upper part of the house. The high cold empty gloomy rooms liberated me and I went from room to room singing. From the front window I saw my companions playing below in the street. Their cries reached me weakened and indistinct and, leaning my forehead against the cool glass, I looked over at the dark house where she lived. I may have stood there for an hour, seeing nothing but the brown-clad figure cast by my imagination, touched discreetly by the lamplight at the curved neck, at the hand upon the railings and at the border below the dress.

   5When I came downstairs again I found Mrs Mercer sitting at the fire. She was an old garrulous woman, a pawnbroker’s widow, who collected used stamps for some pious purpose. I had to endure the gossip of the tea-table. The meal was prolonged beyond an hour and still my uncle did not come. Mrs Mercer stood up to go: she was sorry she couldn’t wait any longer, but it was after eight o’clock and she did not like to be out late as the night air was bad for her. When she had gone I began to walk up and down the room, clenching my fists. My aunt said:

   6“I’m afraid you may put off your bazaar for this night of Our Lord.”

   7At nine o’clock I heard my uncle’s latchkey in the halldoor. I heard him talking to himself and heard the hallstand rocking when it had received the weight of his overcoat. I could interpret these signs. When he was midway through his dinner I asked him to give me the money to go to the bazaar. He had forgotten.

   8“The people are in bed and after their first sleep now,” he said.

   9I did not smile. My aunt said to him energetically:

   10“Can’t you give him the money and let him go? You’ve kept him late enough as it is.”

   11My uncle said he was very sorry he had forgotten. He said he believed in the old saying: “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” He asked me where I was going and, when I had told him a second time he asked me did I know The Arab’s Farewell to his Steed. When I left the kitchen he was about to recite the opening lines of the piece to my aunt.

   Before Excerpt 3. The uncle gives the boy a florin, a coin worth two shillings, and he sets off alone by train.

   1I held a florin tightly in my hand as I strode down Buckingham Street towards the station. The sight of the streets thronged with buyers and glaring with gas recalled to me the purpose of my journey. I took my seat in a third-class carriage of a deserted train. After an intolerable delay the train moved out of the station slowly. It crept onward among ruinous houses and over the twinkling river. At Westland Row Station a crowd of people pressed to the carriage doors; but the porters moved them back, saying that it was a special train for the bazaar. I remained alone in the bare carriage. In a few minutes the train drew up beside an improvised wooden platform. I passed out on to the road and saw by the lighted dial of a clock that it was ten minutes to ten. In front of me was a large building which displayed the magical name.

   2I could not find any sixpenny entrance and, fearing that the bazaar would be closed, I passed in quickly through a turnstile, handing a shilling to a weary-looking man. I found myself in a big hall girdled at half its height by a gallery. Nearly all the stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness. I recognised a silence like that which pervades a church after a service. I walked into the centre of the bazaar timidly. A few people were gathered about the stalls which were still open. Before a curtain, over which the words Café Chantant were written in coloured lamps, two men were counting money on a salver. I listened to the fall of the coins.

   3Remembering with difficulty why I had come I went over to one of the stalls and examined porcelain vases and flowered tea-sets. At the door of the stall a young lady was talking and laughing with two young gentlemen. I remarked their English accents and listened vaguely to their conversation.

   4“O, I never said such a thing!”

   5“O, but you did!”

   6“O, but I didn’t!”

   7“Didn’t she say that?”

   8“Yes. I heard her.”

   9“O, there’s a ... fib!”

   10Observing me the young lady came over and asked me did I wish to buy anything. The tone of her voice was not encouraging; she seemed to have spoken to me out of a sense of duty. I looked humbly at the great jars that stood like eastern guards at either side of the dark entrance to the stall and murmured:

   11“No, thank you.”

   12The young lady changed the position of one of the vases and went back to the two young men. They began to talk of the same subject. Once or twice the young lady glanced at me over her shoulder.

   13I lingered before her stall, though I knew my stay was useless, to make my interest in her wares seem the more real. Then I turned away slowly and walked down the middle of the bazaar. I allowed the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my pocket. I heard a voice call from one end of the gallery that the light was out. The upper part of the hall was now completely dark.

   14Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger.

   1. "I sat staring at the clock for some time and, when its ticking began to irritate me, I left the room" (Excerpt 2, paragraph 4). Teacher note: Joyce slows the telling to the speed of the boy's waiting. One Saturday gets more words than the evening she spoke to him and the days that followed put together (Diagram 1), so readers feel the hours drag and the hope drain.
   2. "I heard him talking to himself and heard the hallstand rocking when it had received the weight of his overcoat. I could interpret these signs" (Excerpt 2, paragraph 7). Teacher note: the uncle is introduced into the scene through sounds, not statements. The narrator never says he has been drinking; readers interpret the signs, as the boy does.
   3. "Gazing up into the darkness I saw myself as a creature driven and derided by vanity; and my eyes burned with anguish and anger" (Excerpt 3, paragraph 14). Teacher note: Joyce places the boy's judgment of himself at the very end, at the moment the lights go out, so the setting and the realization arrive together. Nothing comes after it: the story stops at the insight and leaves readers there.

   Pairs fill in one row of the choice-alternative-impact chart for the pacing of Excerpt 2 and one for the ending, then compare with another pair.

4. Independent Practice20 minutes

   Before Excerpt 4. "Trifles" is a one-act play first performed in 1916. A farmer, John Wright, has been found dead in his bed, and his wife has been taken to jail. The next morning the County Attorney (George Henderson), the Sheriff (Henry Peters) and a neighbor, Lewis Hale, come to the farmhouse to look for evidence, with Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale, who have come to collect a few things for Mrs. Wright. Before Excerpt 5, Hale finishes his account, and the men decide to search upstairs and the barn; the Sheriff says there is "Nothing here but kitchen things."

   Students read both excerpts on their own and complete a choice-alternative-impact chart with three rows: one choice about setting, one about how a character is introduced or developed, and one about the order of the action or what is held back. Each row needs a quotation (a line or a stage direction). Several quiz questions use these excerpts.

   1SCENE: The kitchen is the now abandoned farmhouse of JOHN WRIGHT, a gloomy kitchen, and left without having been put in order--unwashed pans under the sink, a loaf of bread outside the bread-box, a dish-towel on the table--other signs of incompleted work. At the rear the outer door opens and the SHERIFF comes in followed by the COUNTY ATTORNEY and HALE. The SHERIFF and HALE are men in middle life, the COUNTY ATTORNEY is a young man; all are much bundled up and go at once to the stove. They are followed by the two women--the SHERIFF's wife first; she is a slight wiry woman, a thin nervous face. MRS HALE is larger and would ordinarily be called more comfortable looking, but she is disturbed now and looks fearfully about as she enters. The women have come in slowly, and stand close together near the door.

   2COUNTY ATTORNEY: (rubbing his hands) This feels good. Come up to the fire, ladies.

   3MRS PETERS: (after taking a step forward) I'm not--cold.

   4SHERIFF: (unbuttoning his overcoat and stepping away from the stove as if to mark the beginning of official business) Now, Mr Hale, before we move things about, you explain to Mr Henderson just what you saw when you came here yesterday morning.

   5COUNTY ATTORNEY: By the way, has anything been moved? Are things just as you left them yesterday?

   6SHERIFF: (looking about) It's just the same. When it dropped below zero last night I thought I'd better send Frank out this morning to make a fire for us--no use getting pneumonia with a big case on, but I told him not to touch anything except the stove--and you know Frank.

   7COUNTY ATTORNEY: Somebody should have been left here yesterday.

   8SHERIFF: Oh--yesterday. When I had to send Frank to Morris Center for that man who went crazy--I want you to know I had my hands full yesterday. I knew you could get back from Omaha by today and as long as I went over everything here myself--

   9COUNTY ATTORNEY: Well, Mr Hale, tell just what happened when you came here yesterday morning.

   10HALE: Harry and I had started to town with a load of potatoes. We came along the road from my place and as I got here I said, I'm going to see if I can't get John Wright to go in with me on a party telephone.' I spoke to Wright about it once before and he put me off, saying folks talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet--I guess you know about how much he talked 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--

   11COUNTY ATTORNEY: Let's talk about that later, Mr Hale. I do want to talk about that, but tell now just what happened when you got to the house.

   12HALE: I didn't hear or see anything; I knocked at the door, and still it was all quiet inside. I knew they must be up, it was past eight o'clock. So I knocked again, and I thought I heard somebody say, 'Come in.' I wasn't sure, I'm not sure yet, but I opened the door--this door (indicating the door by which the two women are still standing) and there in that rocker--(pointing to it) sat Mrs Wright.

   1COUNTY ATTORNEY: Here's a nice mess.

   2(The women draw nearer.)

   3MRS PETERS: (to the other woman) Oh, her fruit; it did freeze, (to the LAWYER) She worried about that when it turned so cold. She said the fire'd go out and her jars would break.

   4SHERIFF: Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves.

   5COUNTY ATTORNEY: I guess before we're through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about.

   6HALE: Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.

   7(The two women move a little closer together.)

   8COUNTY ATTORNEY: (with the gallantry of a young politician) And yet, for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies? (the women do not unbend. He goes to the sink, takes a dipperful of water from the pail and pouring it into a basin, washes his hands. Starts to wipe them on the roller-towel, turns it for a cleaner place) Dirty towels! (kicks his foot against the pans under the sink) Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?

   9MRS HALE: (stiffly) There's a great deal of work to be done on a farm.

   10COUNTY ATTORNEY: To be sure. And yet (with a little bow to her) I know there are some Dickson county farmhouses which do not have such roller towels. (He gives it a pull to expose its length again.)

   11MRS HALE: Those towels get dirty awful quick. Men's hands aren't always as clean as they might be.

   12COUNTY ATTORNEY: Ah, loyal to your sex, I see. But you and Mrs Wright were neighbors. I suppose you were friends, too.

   13MRS HALE: (shaking her head) I've not seen much of her of late years. I've not been in this house--it's more than a year.

   14COUNTY ATTORNEY: And why was that? You didn't like her?

   15MRS HALE: I liked her all well enough. Farmers' wives have their hands full, Mr Henderson. And then--

   16COUNTY ATTORNEY: Yes--?

   17MRS HALE: (looking about) It never seemed a very cheerful place.

   18COUNTY ATTORNEY: No--it's not cheerful. I shouldn't say she had the homemaking instinct.

   19MRS HALE: Well, I don't know as Wright had, either.

   20COUNTY ATTORNEY: You mean that they didn't get on very well?

   21MRS HALE: No, I don't mean anything. But I don't think a place'd be any cheerfuller for John Wright's being in it.

5. Closure5-10 minutes

   Exit ticket: (1) Name one choice Joyce made and one choice Glaspell made. (2) For one of them, write one sentence that begins "If the author had instead ..." and one that explains what the actual choice does.

   Teacher note on content and language: "Trifles" centers on a man strangled with a rope in his bed, and the play later includes a pet bird that has been killed. Tell students before reading. In "Araby," the uncle's late arrival suggests that he has been drinking, and the story reflects the Catholic Dublin of Joyce's boyhood (a Christian Brothers' school, a convent retreat). In "Trifles," the Sheriff's phrase "that man who went crazy" reflects the language of 1916. The words are the authors', kept as published.

   For homework: students read the excerpt from later in "Trifles," below. Before it, the men go upstairs; the women find Mrs. Wright's quilt pieces, one sewn very unevenly, and, in a cupboard, an empty bird-cage whose door has been pulled apart. After it, they find the family's canary dead in Mrs. Wright's sewing box, its neck wrung, and they hide the box from the men. Mrs. Wright's name before she married was Minnie Foster.

   1MRS HALE: It would, wouldn't it? (dropping her sewing) But I tell you what I do wish, Mrs Peters. I wish I had come over sometimes when she was here. I--(looking around the room)--wish I had.

   2MRS PETERS: But of course you were awful busy, Mrs Hale--your house and your children.

   3MRS HALE: I could've come. I stayed away because it weren't cheerful--and that's why I ought to have come. I--I've never liked this place. Maybe because it's down in a hollow and you don't see the road. I dunno what it is, but it's a lonesome place and always was. I wish I had come over to see Minnie Foster sometimes. I can see now--(shakes her head)

   4MRS PETERS: Well, you mustn't reproach yourself, Mrs Hale. Somehow we just don't see how it is with other folks until--something comes up.

   5MRS HALE: Not having children makes less work--but it makes a quiet house, and Wright out to work all day, and no company when he did come in. Did you know John Wright, Mrs Peters?

   6MRS PETERS: Not to know him; I've seen him in town. They say he was a good man.

   7MRS HALE: Yes--good; he didn't drink, and kept his word as well as most, I guess, and paid his debts. But he was a hard man, Mrs Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him--(shivers) Like a raw wind that gets to the bone, (pauses, her eye falling on the cage) I should think she would 'a wanted a bird. But what do you suppose went with it?

   8MRS PETERS: I don't know, unless it got sick and died.

   9(She reaches over and swings the broken door, swings it again, both women watch it.)

   10MRS HALE: You weren't raised round here, were you? (MRS PETERS shakes her head) You didn't know--her?

   11MRS PETERS: Not till they brought her yesterday.

   12MRS HALE: She--come to think of it, she was kind of like a bird herself--real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid and--fluttery. How--she--did--change.

Differentiation Strategies

Assessment Guidance

1. Question 1 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   Which question is most clearly an RL.11-12.3 question rather than an RL.9-10.3 question?

   AWhat does this character want most, and which other character stands in her way as the story goes on? BWhy might the author introduce this character through other people's talk, and to what effect? CHow is this character different at the end of the story from how she was at the start? DWhich lines of dialogue show this character's conflicting motivations most clearly?

2. Question 2 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "The other houses of the street, conscious of decent lives within them, gazed at one another with brown imperturbable faces" (Excerpt 1, paragraph 1). What is the impact of describing the houses this way?

   AThe houses seem smug and unmoved, so the street's respectability looks cold and dull BThe houses seem warm and welcoming, so the boy feels safe and at home on his street CThe houses seem to spy on the boy from their windows, which shows that he has done something wrong DThe houses seem crowded and noisy, which places the story in a busy city center

3. Question 3 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "The former tenant of our house, a priest, had died in the back drawing-room. Air, musty from having been long enclosed, hung in all the rooms" (Excerpt 1, paragraph 2). Why might Joyce open with these details about the house?

   AThey explain that the boy's family is wealthy because it inherited the priest's money BThey signal that the story will be a ghost story in which the dead priest returns CThey show that the boy has decided to become a priest like the former tenant DThey give the boy's home an air of decay and a faded religious past

4. Question 4 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   The boys play in "the dark muddy lanes," "the dark dripping gardens" and "the dark odorous stables," and then Mangan's sister appears, "her figure defined by the light from the half-opened door" (Excerpt 1, paragraph 3). What is the impact of this pattern?

   AThe darkness shows that the boys are afraid of the girl and hide whenever she appears BThe repeated darkness makes the light around the girl stand out, like a vision CThe light shows that the girl's family is much richer than the boy's family DThe darkness shows that the story takes place late at night in the summer

5. Question 5 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "Every morning I lay on the floor in the front parlour watching her door. The blind was pulled down to within an inch of the sash so that I could not be seen" (Excerpt 1, paragraph 4). What is the impact of this detail?

   AThe boy watches unseen, so readers know the girl only through his one-sided gaze BThe blind shows that the family is poor and cannot afford proper curtains CThe boy hides because the girl has told him she never wants to see him at her door again DThe blind keeps out the winter cold while the boy does his schoolwork

6. Question 6 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   While the boy waits for his uncle, Joyce brings in Mrs Mercer, "an old garrulous woman, a pawnbroker's widow, who collected used stamps for some pious purpose," and the boy says, "I had to endure the gossip of the tea-table" (Excerpt 2, paragraph 5). Why include a minor character at this point?

   AShe offers to take the boy to the bazaar herself when it becomes clear that the uncle will be very late BShe reveals that the uncle has already spent the money he promised to the boy CShe is related to Mangan's sister and passes on a message from the girl DHer dull talk fills the waiting time, stretching the delay and showing adult life as tedious

7. Question 7 of 20 · Short Answer

   When the uncle finally comes home, he says, "The people are in bed and after their first sleep now." He then quotes "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" and asks whether the boy knows "The Arab's Farewell to his Steed" (Excerpt 2, paragraphs 8-11). How does Joyce use these responses to develop the uncle and the boy's situation?

   Show model answer

8. Question 8 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   "The high cold empty gloomy rooms liberated me and I went from room to room singing" (Excerpt 2, paragraph 4). What is the impact of this sentence?

   AIt shows that the boy has given up on the bazaar and is happy to stay at home instead BIt shows that the upper rooms are warm and bright compared with the rest of the house CEven gloomy, empty rooms free the boy, which shows how his imagination transforms whatever surrounds him DIt shows that the boy is practicing a song he plans to sing at the bazaar

9. Question 9 of 20 · Multiple Choice

   At the bazaar, "Nearly all the stalls were closed and the greater part of the hall was in darkness. I recognised a silence like that which pervades a church after a service," and "two men were counting money on a salver" (Excerpt 3, paragraph 2). What is the impact of these details?

   AThe enchanted place he imagined is dark, emptying and busy with money, which deflates his romance BThe comparison shows that the boy feels calm and comforted, like a worshipper who has just finished praying CThe details show that the bazaar is just opening and will soon be full of people DThe comparison reveals that the bazaar is being held inside a church building

10. Question 10 of 20 · Short Answer

    Before the lights go out, the young lady speaks to the boy "out of a sense of duty," he lingers at her stall "though I knew my stay was useless," and he allows "the two pennies to fall against the sixpence in my pocket" (Excerpt 3, paragraphs 10-13). Explain how Joyce orders these small moments to prepare for the story's last sentence.

    Show model answer

11. Question 11 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    The opening stage direction of "Trifles" describes "a gloomy kitchen, and left without having been put in order--unwashed pans under the sink, a loaf of bread outside the bread-box, a dish-towel on the table--other signs of incompleted work" (Excerpt 4, paragraph 1). What is the impact of Glaspell's choice to set the whole play in this kitchen?

    AThe kitchen shows that the Wrights were wealthy farmers who kept servants, which explains the crime at once BThe unfinished housework becomes the evidence, placed where the men do not think to look CThe kitchen is only a backdrop; the play's important events take place upstairs, where the audience sees them DThe mess proves at once that Mrs. Wright is guilty, so the play has no mystery for the audience

12. Question 12 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    In the same stage direction, the men "go at once to the stove," while the women "have come in slowly, and stand close together near the door" (Excerpt 4, paragraph 1). What does this choice about how the characters are introduced establish?

    AThe women are guilty of the crime and are afraid to be questioned, so they stay near the door BThe men are cold and tired after the drive, which is why they will make mistakes in the investigation later CThe men claim the room while the women hold back together, setting the groups apart at once DThe women do not know each other, so they stand by the door waiting to be introduced

13. Question 13 of 20 · Short Answer

    Mrs. Wright, the woman accused of the murder, never appears on stage. In Excerpt 4, the audience first meets her through Hale's account: "there in that rocker--(pointing to it) sat Mrs Wright" (paragraph 12). Explain the impact of Glaspell's choice to keep her offstage.

    Show model answer

14. Question 14 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Hale says John Wright "put me off, saying folks talked too much anyway, and all he asked was peace and quiet," and the County Attorney answers, "Let's talk about that later, Mr Hale" (Excerpt 4, paragraphs 10-11). What is the impact of this exchange?

    AGlaspell drops the first hint about the Wrights' marriage and has the investigator brush it aside, showing what the men will overlook BGlaspell shows that the County Attorney has already solved the case and does not need Hale's story CGlaspell reveals that Hale killed John Wright in an argument over the party telephone DGlaspell makes John Wright sound cheerful and talkative, which misleads the audience about him

15. Question 15 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Mrs. Peters' first words are "I'm not--cold" (Excerpt 4, paragraph 3), spoken "after taking a step forward" when the County Attorney invites the women to the fire. What does this choice suggest about her?

    AShe is annoyed at the attorney and refuses to stand anywhere near him or the stove BShe has been in the kitchen before and is used to how cold the farmhouse gets CThe broken line hints that her discomfort in the house has little to do with the temperature DShe is warmly dressed and simply prefers to stay where she is standing

16. Question 16 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Hale says, "Well, women are used to worrying over trifles" (Excerpt 5, paragraph 6). What is the impact of Glaspell's choice to put the play's title in this line?

    AThe title comes from the play's wisest character, so the audience should agree that the kitchen is unimportant BThe title shows that the play is a light comedy about housework with no serious conflict CThe title comes from a dismissive remark, inviting the audience to question the men's judgment DThe title tells the audience that Mrs. Wright's preserves are the murder weapon

17. Question 17 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    After Hale's remark about trifles, the stage direction says, "The two women move a little closer together," and after the County Attorney's compliment, "the women do not unbend" (Excerpt 5, paragraphs 7-8). How do these stage directions develop the characters?

    AThey show that the women are cold in the unheated farmhouse and move toward each other for warmth BThey show that the women are about to leave the house and go home CThey show that the women are pleased by the County Attorney's gallantry DSilently, the women draw together against the men's condescension, beginning an alliance

18. Question 18 of 20 · Short Answer

    The County Attorney wipes his hands, finds "Dirty towels!" and asks, "Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?" Mrs. Hale answers that "Men's hands aren't always as clean as they might be" (Excerpt 5, paragraphs 8-11). Explain how Glaspell uses the setting to develop the conflict between these characters.

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19. Question 19 of 20 · Multiple Choice

    Which choice do Joyce and Glaspell have in common in these excerpts?

    AEach opens with the central woman speaking directly to the audience about her own feelings BEach shows a central woman only through observers, which reveals the observers as well CEach is narrated by an adult who looks back on events that happened in childhood DEach ends with the central woman explaining her own actions in her own words

20. Question 20 of 20 · Short Answer

    Choose one author's choice from "Araby" and one from "Trifles" (about setting, the order of the action, or how a character is introduced) that this page has not already analyzed in the worked examples, Guided Practice or questions 2-18. For each, name the choice, describe an alternative the author could have made, and explain the impact of the choice the author actually made.

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These standards connect to RL.11-12.3: prerequisites to review first, parallel standards at the same level, and next steps that build on it.

Standard text: Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy. © Copyright 2010. National Governors Association Center for Best Practices and Council of Chief State School Officers. All rights reserved.