In the plays Trifles and Still Stands The House there are similarity’s that can be picked out as well as differences. The plays show a similar theme of isolation and loneliness between the character Ruth and Minnie, but the difference between the two is how they choose to handle the isolation and loneliness. Ruth from the play Still Stands The House, lives with her husband Bruce and his sister Hester, who she has tried to make a friendship with but just gets a cruel attitude back, in their fathers old house that is placed to far in to the country, to far away from the town. Ruth misses the interactions that she gets with other people and the comfort of friends, her only comfort is hyacinths that she was Nursing. Similarly to Minnie Wright from the play Trifles, feels isolated and alone. Based on the introductory of the setting, “The kitchen in the farmhouse was gloomy”, describes the very little cheerfulness that was brought to the house. Mrs Hales says that she hasn’t seen Mrs Wright in a year or more, indicating that she doesn’t get many visitors to the house.
She was completely alone, with no children or visitors and only her stoic, moody husband that provided very little company. Each play is different and each character is different. The difference between Ruth and Minnie is the way the dealt with their isolation and loneliness. To deal with her isolation and loneliness Ruth persuaded her husband to sell the farm and move closer to town. Living so far away from town has brought on extreme feelings of loneliness.
As Ruth feels alone in the house, even with Hester and Bruce being their, she doesn’t have connection with anyone in the house, as she becomes distant from her husband. Hester says, “We’re not a family,” which makes her feel really out of place in the house hold. She wanted to raise their child in a less isolated place, Ruth says, “It wouldn’t be so lonely there, so cruelly lonely.” With the new land she new that it would be easy to grow something, unlike Bruces fathers land. Which had made it easier for Bruce to sign the papers to sell.
Compared to Ruths way for dealing with her isolation, it would be said that Minnie to an extreme route in curing her isolation and loneliness. Mrs Wright felt that the only way to free herself from the neglect and isolation would be to kill her husband. With the lack of empathy that she felt from his death, it was clear to the other women the unhappiness she felt at the hands of her husband. In conclusion, even thought the plays are tell different stories, there are many similarity and differences that become present in the plays.
Specifically, the characters Ruth and Minnie, with the trouble of being so far away from society, but how the handled their situations is where they are different.
