How we cite our quotes: (Line)
Quote #4
MRS. HALE: [...] I wish if they're going to find any evidence they'd be about it. I don't like this place.
MRS. PETERS: But I'm awful glad you came with me, Mrs. Hale. It would be lonesome for me sitting here alone.
MRS. HALE: It would, wouldn't it? (97-99)
Mrs. Wright's loneliness and isolation was so off the charts that it's almost like a ghost that haunts the place. A real ghost might even be preferable to the cloud of sadness that hangs over it all. In this moment in the play, Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale take comfort in what almost feels like a haunted house. It's pretty awesome how Glaspell creates such an intense atmosphere with nothing more than the way that the characters interact with each other.
Quote #5
MRS. HALE: [...] But I tell you what I do wish, Mrs. Peters. I wish I had come over sometimes when she was here. I—(looking around the room)—wish I had.
MRS. PETERS: But of course you were awful busy, Mrs. Hale—your house and your children. (99-100)
Check out how Mrs. Peters doesn't mention Mr. Hale in her description of Mrs. Hale's life. Is Mrs. Hale just as distant from her husband as Mrs. Wright was? Is this a world where husbands and wives are just expected to be isolated from each other? Sounds like a good marriage counselor could've mopped up in this town.
Quote #6
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) (108)
Ah, man. As if Mrs. Wright's isolation situation couldn't get worse. On top of her husband being totally closed off, the Wright house is also geographically isolated. It's down in a little valley and cut off the road. Mrs. Wright was totally cut off from the outside world.