Question

Read the following scene from Trifles.

Answer 1

Hearing allows listeners to associate a voice with each of the characters. This helps the listener understand and interpret the scene with more fluidity rather than needing to figure out who is speaking while only reading.

Answer 2

What is one possible advantage of hearing the characters’ voices as opposed to silently reading the scene?

Hearing allows listeners to interpret the body language of each of the characters.

• Body language is a type of nonverbal communication that can help listeners in understanding the facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and use of space of the characters. This is a less abstract process that can help us in connecting to the story in a different way. Getting the direct meaning from the characters while hearing them gives us a better idea of the beings around them in relation to the space. In this process the reader naturally tries to incorporate the body language of the character, this is that the reader “becomes” the character.