Mrs. Mallard to Mrs. Hutchinson

¶ … Mrs. Mallard to Mrs. Hutchinson

Mrs. Mallard in "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin and Mrs. Hutchinson in "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson are both housewives who do what is expected of them. Neither of them is willing to speak up and say, "I don't want to do this anymore." Mrs. Mallard hates married life and wants freedom, ("She said it over and over, 'Free, free, free!'"), but she doesn't dream of getting a divorce. Mrs. Hutchinson always participates in the Lottery and doesn't mind as long as nobody in her family draws the paper with the black dot on it. It is not until she realizes that someone in her family will die that she says, "It wasn't fair."

Both women just go along with the way things have always been until shocked by circumstances. In Mrs. Mallard's time, a divorce is hard to get, and a divorced woman is stigmatized by society. She doesn't admit even to herself that she wants to be free until she's told that her husband is dead. Likewise, Mrs. Hutchinson's village believes that the Lottery every year is necessary for good crops. She not only cooperates and participates willingly, but when she is late getting there, she even jokes about it. "Wouldn't have leave m'dishes in the sink, now, would you, Joe?' And soft laughter ran through the crowd..."

Each woman's attitude toward life reverses upon learning the news. Mrs. Mallard goes from depression and wishing to die to happiness and hoping for a long life. "Spring days, and summer days, and all sorts of days...would be her own. She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long." Mrs. Hutchinson goes from liking her neighbors and chatting cheerfully with the other women to fear of them and desperate pleas. "I tell you it wasn't fair. You didn't give him time enough to choose. Everybody saw that."