life when the district attorney laments the state of the house implying that Minnie does not work hard enough at home. Phrases such as

there's much to be done in a farm

and

Farmer's wives have their hands full...

are often expressed in defense of women just like her and Minnie.

This tendency to defend herself "stiffly" from the jabs of the men makes Mrs. Hale a woman that, in comparison to Mrs. Peters, seems more free of thought and speech, regardless her being less "sophisticated" than the other woman.

Mrs. Hale displays a strong sense of loyalty toward Minnie Wright also because, as a fellow farm wife, she knows that farming is a thankless job, often accompanied with terrible isolation. Knowing this makes her feel guilty about not having "been there" for Minnie when the latter needed it the most. Hence, Mrs. Hale had sensed that something terrible was going on in the Wright household; yet, as her obedience as a wife dictates, she chose to stay "out of it".

In the end, Mrs. Hale is willing to stop at nothing to defend Minnie. From putting the circumstantial evidence together, to the surreptitious "fixing" of the erratic stitching, we see an understanding, and extremely loyal woman. The toughness of the farm life, her strong grip on reality, and the realization that women DO have limits is what makes the substance of Mrs. Hale as a very influential character in the play.

The suspect of the murder of her husband, Mrs. Wright seems to have greatly changed from her youth thirty years ago in which she has been described by Mrs. Hale as "...one of the town girls singing in the choir," a lively girl who "used to wear pretty clothes." Clearly, the alienation and repression of her life on an isolated farm has repressed the former Minnie Foster. 

As the County Attorney and Sheriff search for a motive for the murder of Mr. Wright, their wives look for an apron to send along to Mrs. Wright who is in jail. However, as the two women wait on their husbands, they come across some odd things. For instance, Mrs. Peters discovers that Mrs. Wright was making a quilt, while Mrs. Hale notices that although other squares are sewn neatly, there is a piece on which Mrs. Wright was working that is "all over the place" as though she did not know how to sew. From this stitching, Mrs. Hale deduces that Mrs. Wright must have been very nervous.  Then, when she finds a bird cage in a cupboard, Mrs. Hale recalls that a man had come around last year selling canaries.  But, then the women notice that the door of the cage has one hinge pulled apart.  They speculate that Mrs. Wright must have purchased a canary in her loneliness , for Mr. Wright has been "a hard man, [L]ike a raw wind that gets to the bone."

Upon further reflection, Mrs. Peters surmises that Mrs. Wright is much like a little bird herself--"real sweet and pretty, but kind of timid, and--fluttery." Now, the women wonder where the bird is; but they soon discover it in the sewing box with its delicate neck rung just as Mr. Wright has had his neck wrung and twisted. The women look at each other, and in this glance, there is "comprehension, horror, and understanding." When the County Attorney and Sheriff Peters reappear, the women come to her defense and reveal little other than the supposition that Mrs. Wright intended to "knot" her quilt. 

Clearly, the women come to realize that Mrs. Wright could not endure the terrible silence after the death of the one joy she had was killed, so she retaliated and killed Mr. Wright.

In the play Trifles  there is much conjecture to be made upon the character of Mrs. Wright, on one hand,  because she does not take active participation in the play and, on the other hand, because the motive for her crime is also learned by inductive and deductive analysis. The little information that we can gather comes from Mrs. Hale, who used to know the former Minnie Foster since before she had become Minnie Wright, at about twenty years prior.

From the description, we learn that Minnie Foster is your typical country-bound woman who carried on with the traditional activities that take place in remote and isolated places. We know that she "sang beautifully", and was apparently well-known among the other girls for Mrs. Hale seems to have a cherished recollection of Minnie Foster's ribbons, and flowers in her dress. Minnie was apparently also quite active in the community, as she is considered to be lively before her marriage.

From this information the reader can infer that Minnie Foster entered the marriage state automatically and without giving it much thinking. As Mrs. Hale later points out about the women of her society,

(women) all go through the same things--it's all just a different kind of the same thing.

It is safe to conclude that Minnie perhaps became married because, as with other women, any other options to do something else elsewhere were null.

It is said that, shortly after her marriage, Minnie foster adopted the attitude of a battered woman. It was evident in her lack of upkeep in the home, in herself, and even in her stitching. A busy farm wife who is in her right mind would have made her home her primary responsibility, ensuring that all was in place, and that every need within the household is looked after.

Contrastingly, Minnie Foster's state of mind begins to deteriorate, becoming even more evident in the lack of affect of her demeanor, in her abandonment of the "joys of the home", and in what seems to be a daily battle of survival which, with her stitching, she tries her best to tolerate. Now, as the women saw, the stitching's crazy patterns denote an equally disturbed brain; one which can only be ill with the battered-woman syndrome that led Minnie to snap when she could take it no longer.

It is implied in the play that the canary served as Minnie Wrights only companion; that a peddler was selling them "cheap" and that, perhaps, this was the only nice sound that was heard in the home. When John Wright comes that one day and takes the canary out of its house just to wring its neck, Minnie Foster has finally "had it"; it is time for her to take action, but the action that she takes carries with it so much anger that it ends up in death.

After the incident, Minnie is found by Mr. Hale

...rockin' back and forth. She had her apron in her hand and was kind of -- pleating it

She is also described as "queer", "done up", and not quite rational. She merely says to Mr. Hale that her husband is dead, and points at his location. For all we know, Minnie has lost her mind

..she started to laugh, and then she stopped and looked at me -- scared

All of this is evidence of a woman whose spiral into depression as a result of abuse has ended up in a really bad tragedy.