When an acquaintance, or a family member passes away, most people feel guilt for things they should have done differently. They feel guilty because of time they wish they had, but can never get back. Time that you will never get back with that person. In reality time is lost to the person who has died, but for the living, all that is left is remorse, and guilt.
In the play “Trifles” Susan Glaspell tells a story of the death of Mr. Wright, along with Mrs. Wright’s emotional withdrawal from normalcy. It also tells a tale of the women around her, and the sadness they felt for Mrs. Wright, and the sadness they felt for not being more caring to her. Memories missed with Mrs. Wright gnawed at Mrs. Hale, because she felt she could have been a better
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Hale’s defense of Mrs. Wright, is because of her guilt towards not being a better friend. Her conscious decisions to stay away from Mrs. Wright haunt her, and make her feel horrible about choosing to keep a distance to make herself feel more comfortable. “MRS. HALE: I could’ve come. I stayed away because it weren’t cheerful—and that’s why I ought to have come. I—I’ve never liked this place. Maybe because it’s down in a hollow and you don’t see the road. I dunno what it is, but it’s a lonesome place and always was. I wish I had come over to see Minnie Foster sometimes. I can see now—[Shakes her head.]” (Glaspell, 751) This part of the play shows she made a conscious decision to steer clear of Mrs. Wright and is something she regrets a lot.
Mrs. Hale feels inclined to defend Mrs. Wright when the Sheriff and the county attorney are talking bad about her cleanliness of the house. As the sheriff and the attorney keep making snob remarks about the tidiness of the kitchen, “There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm.”(Glaspell, 747) When Mrs. Hale stated this it was in defense of her friend that could not defend herself at the time. And more importantly because she feels bad about not being around more for her friend, to possibly help in