Mr. Hale says that women are “used to worrying over trifles.” This significant quote identifies the way the men in this short story perceive the interests and concerns of the women. The men see women as engaged only with insignificant things, such as the canning jars of fruit that Minnie Wright is worried will have been ruined in her absence after her arrest, and the quilt that Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale decide to bring to Minnie at the jail to keep her busy. Trifles, a term misapplied by the men to everything that interests women, symbolize the blindness of the men to the importance of these very things. It is the “trifles” that reveal the motive behind Minnie’s crime, the piece of important evidence that the men seek. Because the men discount both the women and the women’s interests as “trifles,” they overlook the things that could reveal the truth about Minnie, her situation, and her actions, as well as the truth about sexism in their society.