Trifles

The three men uniformly treat Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale with indulgent condescension, as they make gentle fun of the women for worrying about "trifles." The men do not blame the women for what they perceive as incompetence precisely of the wives' gender. However, by the end of the play, the women have succeeded more fully than the men have in pursuing evidence for the murderer, and the men do not have the instincts necessary to discover their wives' subversion of their authority. Henderson touches upon key subjects that might lead him to the murder but in the end regards them as insignificant, and he mistakes Mrs. Peters as "married to the law" and absolves her of possible complicity.