As the protagonist of the story, Mrs. Grimes is the person to whom the title refers. She has been treated poorly all her life, and her death is as unceremonious as the beginning of her life. Abandoned by her mother in early age, and with no known father, she finds herself as chattel for the local German farmer. From there, she is “got” by Jake Grimes by fighting the farmer, as if she is nothing more than a commodity.

Her marriage with Jake is just a continuation of her experience with the farmer, in the sense that she is ordered about, even by her son once he is old enough. Her only chance to have some feminine communion is squashed after a daughter dies. With no seeming hopes for anything else, she becomes a silent person who doesn’t engage in any social behaviors, except for an occasional muttering to herself around the farm. She has no identity outside of being a nurturer for those around her. To her, animals hold a higher place than men, as is noted in Part 2 when a list of those she feeds is stated as such: “Horses, cows, pigs, dogs, men” (Part 2, Paragraph 15).