Because the play revolves around the investigation of a murder, it is characterized by a tense and foreboding mood. While suspense is prevalent throughout the entire play, the tension culminates when the two women find a dead bird hidden in Minnie's knitting box. The horror of the scene is driven home by Mrs Peters:
"Somebody—wrung—its—neck."
The pauses indicated by the dashes create a sense of suspense and gradual realization, ultimately emphasizing the awful implications of this new piece of evidence. The bird's wrung neck parallels John's own death by strangulation, a damning connection that is underscored by Mrs. Peter's staggered delivery.
As the play progresses, the mood shifts from one of suspicion and suspense to one of empathy and understanding for Minnie, as well as frustration with the men who easily dismiss and condemn her. As the two women begin to piece together what happened, they see how John's mistreatment of Minnie falls into a recognizable pattern. Mrs. Hale states:
"I might have known she needed help! I know how things can be—for women.... We close together and we live far apart. We all go through the same thing—it's just a different kind of the same thing."
Here, Mrs. Hale suggests that Minnie's neglect and isolation were a function of her gender, and the cruelty that men often mete out to women. Mrs. Hale understand how oppressive domestic responsibilities can be for women, and this shared understanding breeds new empathy for Minnie's plight and potential crime.
By the end of the play, this empathy is deepened as the women sense that the men neither understand nor respect them or Minnie and view their occupations and concerns as "trifling." Even when they discover the dead bird—a central piece of evidence—Mrs. Peters says:
"My it's a good thing the men can't hear us. Wouldn't they just laugh!"
The women's reflection on shared experience, combined with the obvious antipathy and arrogance of the men, result in an empathetic and defensive mood. Glaspell pits the women against their male companions and uses this divide to illustrate the larger power imbalances between the genders in the early 20th century.
