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Of the story’s three female characters, Mrs. Hale is the strongest, most confident, and best able to speak her mind and act on what she thinks. She is not at all dominated by her husband, although it seems to suit her to let him think he’s in control. In fact, she is critical, though always silently and never in a way he would detect, of some of his immature behaviors, including a tendency to talk too much and to play the fool if it will get the other men’s approval. She seems to regard him with a fond indulgence, and she does not rely on him for her own sense of self-worth.
She possesses this sense of self-worth due to her competence and pride in her abilities as a farmwife, housekeeper, and mother. She holds herself to high standards. When called away from her morning chores, she looks at the unfinished work in a “scandalized sweep of her kitchen.” Even in a time of crisis, Mrs. Hale wants to get her work done, and well. Because her work matters to her, she assumes that it matters to Minnie, too, and sympathizes with Minnie, whose kitchen is in disrepair, down to the battered rocking chair she sits in while sewing.
Mrs. Hale, in contrast to Mrs. Peters, is a large, robust woman with a quick mind and a willingness to say what she thinks. Her sympathy extends not only to Minnie, but gradually to Mrs. Peters as well, as she attempts to draw the timid woman out, speaking gently to her and helping her to confront the terrible conclusion about what happened between the Wrights. It is fitting that the story’s final line, with its double meaning of “knot it,” comes from her, not from the “facetious” county attorney or bumptious sheriff. Glaspell puts this clever phrase with Mrs. Hale to emphasize the idea that the female characters understand what the male characters do not: “knot it” refers not only to a quilting technique but also to Minnie’s act of tying and then tightening a knot around her husband’s neck as he slept.
