When Mrs. Hale realizes how much suffering and abuse Mrs. Wright experienced in her relationship with her (now dead) husband, she uses a hyperbole to capture her guilt for not checking in on her neighbor, as seen in the following passage:
“Oh, I wish I’d come over here once in a while!” [Mrs. Hale] cried. “That was a crime! That was a crime! Who’s going to punish that?”
"We mustn't take on," said Mrs. Peters, with a frightened look toward the stairs.
"I might 'a' known she needed help! […] We all go through the same things—it's all just a different kind of the same thing!”
Here Mrs. Hale hyperbolically refers to her behavior as “a crime,” exaggerating in order to underline how her lack of camaraderie with Mrs. Wright may have led the woman to feel more isolated in her marriage with the abusive Mr. Wright, ultimately leading her to kill him.
It is notable that part of Mrs. Hale’s anger at herself is her understanding that women “all go through the same things—it's all just a different kind of the same thing.” This shows how Mrs. Hale is not just upset that she couldn’t help Mrs. Wright before she was pushed to the point of killing her own husband, but she feels frustration over the fact that she herself could have benefited from Mrs. Wright’s friendship (as they could have supported each other through their respective struggles). This shows how widespread female subjugation was in early 20th century American life, and also demonstrates how Mrs. Hale experiences a sense of loyalty and solidarity with Mrs. Wright despite the fact that she just murdered a man.
