Isolation In Minnie Wright's Isolation

Minnie Wright was isolated from almost everyone throughout the course of her marriage. The main time Minnie was isolated is during the day while her husband was working. “‘Not having children makes less work,’ mused Mrs. Hale, after a silence, ‘but it makes a quiet house-and Wright out to work all day’” (Glaspell 511). Being the only person ever inside of a house is very lonely, and it was rare for a woman to ever even leave the house. “Furthermore, [John] refuses to have a telephone; and, as we also learn, he has denied his wife access to even the minimal contacts that town life might afford women at that time, such as the church choir in which Minnie had sung before her marriage. Minnie Wright’s emotional and spiritual loneliness, the result of her isolation, is, in the final analysis, the reason for her murder of her husband” (Hedges 94).

However, even being around John was not necessarily a pleasant experience for Minnie. This is shown through Mrs. Hale’s description of John, “‘and no company when he did come in. Did you know John Wright, Mrs. Peters? … ‘But he was a hard man, Mrs. Peters. Just to pass the time of day with him-.’ She stopped, shivered a little. ‘Like a raw wind that gets to the bone’” (Glaspell 511). So even the one constant, daily interaction with another human Minnie was able to have was with a hard man who did not care about her or her wellbeing. Even the house itself was described as a lonesome place when by Mrs. Hale when she said, “I’ve never liked this place. Maybe because it’s down in a hollow and you don’t see the road. I don’t know what it is, but it’s a lonesome place, and always was” (Glaspell 511). No matter what she tried to do, Minnie was never able to escape her isolation because it was embedded into every single aspect of her