Read the excerpt from part one of trifles.

sheriff (unbuttoning his overcoat and stepping away from the stove as if to the beginning of official business).

what is the primary purpose of these stage directions?
to show interactions between characters
to direct actions that take place onstage
to describe a character’s appearance
to indicate a character’s tone of voice

The primary purpose of these stage directions is to direct actions that take place onstage

Explanation:

The stage direction clearly describes how the character moves and acts, it also shows the attitude the character most show, then it has the intention of directing actions that take place onstage, this instructions do not mention anything about the way of talking or looking of the character or the presence or interaction of other which makes the other options incorrect.

1.   in sonnet 18, the speaker wants to describe the beauty of his love, but can’t find the words to do so. the speaker says “then in mid-utterance the lay was lost” when he tries to think of the words to describe his love’s beauty.   through his defeat of finding words to describe his love, he shows his love for her.

2.   instead of describing how perfect his love is or comparing her to other beautiful things, he says she is average and there is nothing special about her.   at the last 2 lines of the poem, the volta changes the poem by saying that even though his love is average in beauty, his love for her is special and unique. so instead of praising her throughout the whole poem, he contrasts her average characteristics with his special love for her.

3.   the beloved asked the speaker to describe how he feels about her. she begins to describe what she feels but "drop the torch" and says that she can't do it because the words "hid in me out of reach." the the speaker says "nay, let the silence of my womanhood command my woman-love to thy belief" and that her silence will have to be the answer to his question.