9.3: Interpreting a Source Text: A Production of Trifles
Question 1 • MO-English Language Arts 11 B-CR
Read the following scene from Trifles.SHERIFF. Nothing here but kitchen things. (The County Attorney, after again looking around the kitchen, opens the door of a cupboard closet. He gets up on a chair and looks on a shelf. Pulls his hand away, sticky.) COUNTY ATTORNEY. Here’s a nice mess. (The women draw nearer.) MRS. 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. SHERIFF. Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin’ about her preserves. What would be one advantage of reading this scene as opposed to watching or listening to it?
Answer
A
Readers do not have to worry about visualizing the characters’ appearances.
B
Readers can creatively interpret and visualize stage directions in their minds.
C
Readers do not have to imagine the sounds that accompany characters’ actions.
D
Readers can focus on the words, rather than the actions, of the characters.
Explanation
When reading a play, you can use the stage directions—such as the attorney climbing onto a chair and pulling his sticky hand away—to imagine how the scene looks. This gives readers room to visualize the action in their own way. Choice A, that readers can creatively interpret and visualize stage directions in their minds, describes this advantage.
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