Trifles Mrs Hale Character Analysis

Susan Glaspell is an American Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who composed the play “Trifles” in 1916. The play was centered around the death of Mr. Wright who was strangled to death with a rope in his farmhouse. As Mr. Hale, Mr. Peters, and the county attorney seek to find evidence to convict Mrs. Wright, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters utilize what the men refer to as “trifles” to conduct an investigation while packing necessities to keep Mrs. Wright company while she is in jail. From my interpretation, “Trifles” portrays how women and men utilize their brains in different ways. Men were portrayed as blocking out unrelated information and distractions that could potentially lead to an undiscovered motive to solving the crime. “You’re convinced …show more content…
Hale’s role serves as a stepping stone to solving Mr. Wright’s murder. Her character represents everything that a jury member should. She is non-judgemental, cooperative, and loyal. In addition, she is the protagonist as she is the guide mentor whose actions determine the events of the play. With that being said, despite that Mrs. Hale was oppressed due to her gender in the early twentieth century, she managed to utilize her observant and sympathetic attributes to unravel the cause of Mr. Wright’s …show more content…
Hale’s observant attribute, she embodies sympathy which appeals to the audience’s pathos. Her ability to sympathize with Mrs. Wright is a turning point for her in the play where she starts to experience change when she has an epiphany about the life of Mrs. Wright. “I could’ve come. I stayed because it weren’t cheerful-and that’s why I ought to have come. I-I’ve never liked this place. I wish I had come over to see Minnie Foster sometimes. I can see now-,” (1611) stated Mrs. Hale. Mrs. Hale knew what a horrible man Mr. Wright was and how he oppressed his wife. She knew how Mrs. Wright was once a cheerful woman when she would sing on the choir; however, her husband had isolated her from the world and she did not have the freedom to explore her hobbies. While referring back to her observance of the bird, Mrs. Hale was able to sympathize with Mrs. Wright although she had not experienced anything so drastic. “If there’d been years and years of nothing, then a bird to sing to you, it would be awful-still, after the bird was still,” (1613) said Mrs. Hale. Mrs. Hale realized what it would have felt like to be alone and to lose the one thing that had kept her company for years and gave her joy. She realized that she would be devastated and would not know how she would