Who are the minor characters in "Trifles" by Susan Glaspell, and what is their role in the play?

In Susan Glaspell's play titled, "Trifles," the minor roles are
those of the men. This would include the County Attorney, the Sheriff, and Mr. Hale. Though minor
characters, their roles are important for several reasons.

The men
create the depth of the conflict in the story. Although we never meet Mrs. Wright, who has been
accused of killing her husband as he slept, the men arrive at her home looking for evidence with
which to convict her. In this case, the men are present for the simple purpose of feeding the
plot. And as the story progresses forward, the women come to resent what the men are trying to
do.

The men are also present in that they are the ones that set the
mood of the story in terms of the sense of "trifles." Mr. Hale refers to the serious concerns of
the housewife as "trifles," meaning trivial, unimportant
things.

COUNTY
ATTORNEY. I guess before we're through she may have something more serious than preserves to
worry about.

HALE. Well, women are used to worrying over
trifles.

Others of them are critical
that the house is not very clean...

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COUNTY ATTORNEY (with the gallantry of a young
politician). And yet, for all their worries, what would we do without the ladies?
(...Starts to wipe [his hands] on the roller towel, turns it for a cleaner
place.) Dirty towels!...Not much of a housekeeper, would you say,
ladies?

MRS. HALE (stiffly). There's a great
deal of work to be done on a farm.

and
not nicely decorated...

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COUNTY ATTORNEY. No--it's not cheerful. I shouldn't say
she had the homemaking instinct.

MRS. HALE. Well, I don't know as
Wright had, either.

The men also joke
about the quilt Mrs. Wright is making, as if they would know anything about it. In fact, Mrs.
Peters and Mrs. Hale become defensive and angry at the men for their lack of understanding and
their overall insensitivity to the plight of the common housewife, which is what
they are.

This is the third most important
reason the men are present: they bring to light for Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters, and for the
audience, how difficult it is for a woman to run a house and make it a home. It shows that men
have a great deal to say about things they know nothing about, and appear to have little
appreciation for the work that women do that benefits them the
most.

By the end of the play, there is a new sense of solidarity
between the women, and a desire to help Mrs. Wright in any way they can, not just by taking some
of her things to the jail, but also by preventing the men from finding any more evidence that
might convict her.