"Just be YOURSELF...", we have all heard this saying before, in various situations and circumstances. However, being an abstract concept, actually being "yourself" involves a unique journey, an undertaking full of emotions, self-analysis and the final realization of who you are. Internal and external influences affect how a person sees himself. Two dramatic characters, a man and a woman, go through mirrored journeys of self-recognition that lead them each to their own identity... and to pay a price to obtain this right. Susan Glaspell's "invisible" character in Trifles, Mrs. Wright, was a young girl of beauty and talent. Becoming "Mrs. Wright" changed her life and destiny, unwillingly. That is, marriage to John Wright transformed Mrs. Wright from a social butterfly to a prisoner of her own home. Mr. Wright limited communication between her and her friends and even with each other. He thought all people "talked too much." The couple had no children that Mrs. Wright could care for or converse with. Slowly, she lost herself: a vibrant, vocal woman. His only comfort came in the form of a singing bird. Mrs Wright was able to relate to the bird, because she herself was in a "cage". However, complications emerge when her husband's strangulation and killing of the bird shatters her moments of happiness. The only symbol of who she was was taken away from her... again. Every person reaches a point where they react unpredictably when pushed over the edge. Mrs. Wright, at this moment in her life, recognized the need to resolve the crisis that was erupting within her... to remain in her current situation as her husband determined her "to be", or to attempt to change her state ... .center of the sheet......the shepherd who "eliminated" the child Oedipus on the instructions of his natural parents was the same. His revelations regarding Oedipus' undeniable identity as a child and as a man at the crossroads were finally cast upon the grieving Oedipus. He is her father's murderer and her mother's husband. Every time Oedipus attempts to gain freedom from his true self, he brings upon himself increasing complications. King Oedipus finally clearly understands the harsh truth that the past he was fleeing from is the future he must now accept... or dare he deny its existence? King Oedipus chooses to end his ordeal at the hands of the citizens of Thebes. However, Queen Jocasta cannot bear to face this reality and commits suicide. The inevitable price that Oedipus had to pay for being himself, according to the vision of the gods, was his life and that of his parents..