"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson: Analysis of Tessie Hutchinson's Character

Introduction

'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson is set in a small fictional town in New England and begins on the summer of 27th June. It opens with the townspeople gathered in the town square carrying out a lottery. Shirley explains how this has been a usual practice in the local towns, whereby, people gather annually to conduct a lottery. The events appear to be really festive at first but then it becomes clear nobody wants to win the lottery at all. One particular woman, Tessie Hutchinson, seems to be so unbothered with the tradition and does not show interest to it at all until a member of her family; her husband, selects the dreaded mark. She then protests the unfairness in the game. Most times, human beings’ true character is influenced by traditions and socialism until we experience a situation that threatens our life, we will never know a person’s real character and attitude. This essay on 'The Lottery' by Shirley Jackson providea an analysis of the main character of the short story, Tessie Hutchinson, and her behavior throughout the plot. By exploring the dangers that arise when individuals are confronted with situations that challenge their survival and societal norms, we can gain insights into the complexities of human character and the consequences of blind conformity.

The Lottery by Shirley Jackson: Summary

In the small, seemingly idyllic town, the villagers gather on a sunny summer day for an annual event known as 'The Lottery.' As the community members assemble, tension and unease permeate the air. The lottery is a long-standing tradition, carried out with fervor and adherence to the customs of the town.

The story focuses on one family, the Hutchinsons, and more specifically, Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson. As the lottery commences, the town's residents draw slips of paper from a black box, with the hope of avoiding the dreaded marked paper, which signifies the 'winner' of the lottery.

As each person unfolds their slip, Mrs. Hutchinson is dismayed to discover her slip contains the black mark. Her protestations begin to draw attention as the villagers close in around her. The once-friendly atmosphere turns hostile, and the villagers begin to pelt Mrs. Hutchinson with stones in a ritualistic act of sacrifice.

Analysis of the Character of Tessie Hutchinson

Everyone in the village had already arrived on time in the annual lottery event and Tessie is the only one who shows up late. She is tardily dressed and doesn’t show any remorse arriving at the event late. Her claim was that she had totally forgotten about the event doing house chores. This seems to be rather very unusual since this is the only event in the village that everyone dreads the time it will come. Making it very difficult to forget that it is happening in the first place. Tessie is seen to be worthy of punishment with this type of action; tardiness and lateness, she is made to come out as guilty of committing a terrible crime and deserves to be reprimanded. Subconsciously the people have marked her as the one who is not entirely part of the group since she does not show respect to their tradition (Griffin.1999).

Tessie’s has a rebellious nature and appear to be dominating in her own way. Arriving late at the annually anticipated event claiming to forget is a clear sign of rebellion from Tessie. Her reason does not see truthful but the crowd humors her and they seem intimidated by her a little. From the story, it is clear to say that she is dominating and the “head” of the household. When the men are representing their households in the drawing, other women stay quiet as they wait for their husbands to go ahead and participate, when its Bill’s turn, Tessie orders him to get up there and do so. This also shows how she was eager and wanted to get done with the ceremony as a whole (Brown .et al 1986). But when Bill picks the marked paper, and she is the one to be sacrificed, she uses the same eagerness to try and get herself out of the situation.

The hypocrisy in Tessie’s character comes to play when she clearly sees the event as unfair. Tessie had participated in the previous lottery events and had not ones deemed it unfair. When her family was the one on the hook for this one, she felt that it was not right at all. This clearly depicts how human behavior keeps on changing when a situation is not favoring them. She wants her husband to be given a chance once again to draw but they all had the same chance, just that he was the unlucky person to have picked the marked paper. If Tessie had been at the forefront in protesting against this malicious tradition from way back, then she would have the right to say the event is unfair. The people would probably agree to listen to her. However, now that she actively participated in this blind tradition before, the villagers didn’t see the reason she claimed it was unfair. The same way they stoned the previous victims is the same way they had to stone her to death.

Conclusion

The lottery reveals how Tessie is a self-centered woman. When she is the one chosen to be stoned as a sacrifice, she immediately starts to protest. She offers Don and Eva to also take their chance just so as to increase her chances of not being that year’s scapegoat. She is determined to drag more people down into danger as long ass she gets to escape in the end. This series of the event reveals how human beings will not mind dragging other people to suffer on their behalf.

Understanding human actions is not an easy task because people act differently when faced with different situations. This makes human behavior susceptible to change throughout, and these actions can have a lasting boomerang effect on us.

References

1. Brown, Bill, et al. 'The Censoring of' The Lottery'.' The English Journal 75.2 (1986): 64-67.
2. Griffin, Amy A. 'Jackson's The Lottery.' The Explicator 58.1 (1999): 44-46.