Comparing Two Themes

The White Uniform - The theme of The "White Uniform" is that people only judge based on what they see, not what they know. The Lady says that people will be able to distinguish her from everyone else because she has "class", but when she decides to switch clothes with the Maid no one can tell that she is the actual Lady. The people who come up to stop them from fighting only see a woman wearing a maid's uniform and one wearing a terry cloth. They don't see the people, they see what they are wearing. Most people only look at the surface and see only what they want to see. If they happen to wear a maid's uniform, then they must be a maid, no doubt about it. No matter what we think of people, they will most likely base all of our actions on how we look instead of the logical choice of waiting to see how we act. The reason people dress fancy (suits mostly) is because they know that first impressions are everything, and first impressions are born from what we wear.

Trifles - The theme of "Trifles" is to not assume what we do not know and not to overlook anything. In "Trifles" the Sheriff and County Attorney both assume that Mrs. Wright killed her husband, and so does Mr. Hale. The women, on the other hand, both think that she is innocent, and they unwittingly search for clues to prove that their thoughts are correct. When they do happen to find something that the men fail to notice, they look for a way to link it to Mrs. Wright's innocence. In most cases this works, but sometimes they inadvertently find a possibility that proves that she is guilty, such as the dead bird they find stashed in the box, which holds many possibilities for both sides. On one end, John could have killed the bird and she just wanted to bury it out of sadness. Or, she could have killed it out of anger at the way John has been bringing her down all these years, and then after, she could have snapped and killed John outright. Or perhaps there is a third or fourth reason that I haven't listed.

The difference between "The White Uniform" and "Trifles" is that one story deals with the phrase "judging a book by its cover", and the other story deals more with the differences between men and women. The two stories aren't very similar, with two very diverse themes.