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Mrs. Martha Hale
A farmwife, married to Mr. Hale, and former friend of Minnie Foster Wright. Mrs. Hale takes pride in her housekeeping and is generally a confident and competent woman. She and Minnie Wright were friends as girls but have mostly lost touch over the years, a situation Mrs. Hale regrets. Of the story’s two main characters, she is more strong-minded and is able to persuade Mrs. Peters to act as an ally to Minnie Wright.
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Mrs. Peters
The timid wife of Sheriff Peters. Mrs. Peters has known Mrs. Hale for only about a year and is at the Wrights’ home because her husband requires her to be there. Quieter and less self-assured than Mrs. Hale, Mrs. Peter is described by the male characters as being married to the law and loyal to her husband. Yet her sympathy for Minnie Wright grows as she and Mrs. Hale piece together clues about what happened to John Wright and why.
Read an in-depth analysys of Mrs. Peters.
Mr. Henry Peters
Henry Peters, the sheriff who takes part in the investigation of Wright’s death. A large man with a loud voice, Mr. Peters conveys the impression that he is in charge. Friendly to those he regards as good citizens, Sheriff Peters is a man who feels his own importance and chafes at being cut off by the county attorney, a much younger man, when he talks. Mr. Peters dismisses the women’s insights about Minnie Wright, as do all the men on the scene.
Mr. Lewis Hale
The farmer who first learns of Wright’s odd manner of dying. He and his son, Harry, are the first to see Wright, murdered in his bed, and to notice Minnie Wright’s oddly distant behavior. He alerts the authorities and, at the house during the story’s action, enjoys telling his part of the events at some length. He, like the sheriff, is cut off by the earnest young county attorney because he tends to ramble in his explanations. An easy-going man, he is easily influenced by Mr. Henderson and Mr. Peters to take a dim view of Minnie Wright.
Mr. George Henderson
The young county attorney who investigates Mr. Wright’s murder. An elected official, Mr. Henderson is careful not to offend and eager to prove himself in his position. His speech and actions are brusque and business-like, and he is quickly annoyed by what he perceives as lapses in protocol. Mr. Henderson seems observant and careful, yet his biases about what matters at a crime scene prevent him from seeing the clues that the women notice, and he decides to remain at the Wright house feeling that he and the sheriff have overlooked something important.
Minnie Wright
Wife and suspected murderer of John Wright. Minnie Wright never appears in the story and is being held in the county jail. Other characters’ comments and the state of her kitchen, however, reveal much about her life. Married to a cheap and irritable man, and having no children of her own, Minnie Wright had little to be happy about even before the events that led to her arrest.
Read an in-depth analysys of Minnie Wright.
John Wright
A farmer and the husband of Minnie Wright. Wright is found strangled in his bed; the investigation of his death drives the story’s plot. What readers know about Wright comes from hints and suggestions, especially those that Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale reveal in their conversation, that he was a hard man and an unkind husband.
