Isolation In Susan Glaspell's Trifles

Susan Glaspell’s Trifles explores the loss of companionship and the psychological effect that isolation can have on a person through the quiet conversation of Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters. Glaspell writes, “MRS. HALE [Not as if answering that.] I wish you'd seen Minnie Foster when she wore a white dress with blue ribbons and stood up there in the choir and sang. [A look around the room.] Oh, I wish I'd come over here once in a while! That was a crime! That was a crime! Who's going to punish that?” (Glaspell) This quote illustrates for the reader the effects that prolonged isolation has had on Mrs. Wright. We are able to see a different version of her, one which was outgoing and gregarious. It is hard for even Mrs. Hale, who has known Mrs. Wright her whole life,
Mrs. Hale is not so different from Mrs. Wright having both grown up together and lived in the same town. The real difference lies in the people they surround themselves with. While both women are married Mrs. Hale has children and also a group of friends. Mrs. Wright only has Mr. Wright, a cold and hard man, and a little songbird. Glaspell then writes, "MRS. HALE [Her own feeling not interrupted.] 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." (Glaspell) Mrs. Hale is now able to understand Mrs. Wright and what it was that drove her to commit murder. It is through this comprehension that compassion for Mrs. Wright's situation is born. Mrs. Hale is only now able to truly fathom the hopelessness of Mrs. Wright's isolation and the horror she must've felt at the birds death. With having only a tiny bird to bring light into your otherwise gloomy life it is very easy to see how someone might form an unnatural attachment to it. Then to face your isolation alone without even the tiny bird you called your friend would be