Trifles

Characters

Mrs. Hale

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Characters Mrs. Hale

As Minnie’s neighbor and longtime acquaintance, Mrs. Hale provides the clearest insight into Minnie’s motives and state of mind. Early in the play, she is a quiet bystander as the men initiate the investigation. However, when the men begin making patronizing comments about Minnie’s housekeeping, Mrs. Hale speaks up to defend Minnie, prompting the County Attorney to joke that Mrs. Hale is “loyal to [her] sex.” This characterization turns out to be very much true. As a farmer’s wife like Minnie, Mrs. Hale deeply resents the men’s dismissive attitude toward all things related to housekeeping, which they consider to be “trifles.” For example, while the men mock Minnie for worrying about her canned fruit, Mrs. Hale empathizes with Minnie because she knows how much work goes into canning.

Mrs. Hale’s knowledge of housekeeping and her empathy for Minnie allow her to quickly spot clues that the male characters overlook or dismiss. She immediately understands that the poor stitching in a section of Minnie’s quilt signifies a sudden nervousness on Minnie’s part. She also readily intuits what happened to Minnie’s canary after Mrs. Peters discovers the mangled birdcage and the dead bird. Although this evidence implicates Minnie in the murder of her husband, Mrs. Hale does not point out the obvious parallel between the strangulation of the bird and the strangulation of John Wright. Instead, she likens the killing of the bird to John Wright’s metaphorical “killing” of Minnie Foster, whose singing he silenced. For Mrs. Hale, John Wright is the real criminal, and she views his oppression of Minnie as consistent with the generally oppressive treatment of women within a male-dominated society. She also regrets her own “crime” of failing to visit Minnie to provide moral support. Unsurprisingly, Mrs. Hale decides to conceal the evidence from the County Attorney and the Sheriff, perhaps making it less likely that Minnie will be convicted of the murder.

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