Comparison concepts and applications

¶ … Lottery and "The Story of an Hour"

Both "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson and "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin depict female protagonists who make bad decisions to live passively in social environments that ultimately end up engineering their destruction. In the case of Jackson's narrative, the central character is stoned to death by the various members of her small town, simply because her name is chosen by lot, as is the custom in her town on a yearly basis. If a citizen's name is not chosen to die, the townspeople believe terrible things will happen: "They'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live that way for a while. Used to be a saying about 'Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.' First thing you know, we'd all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There's always been a lottery,' he added petulantly" (Jackson, 1948).

Tessie Hutchinson was willing to participate in the barbaric civic rituals of her town when she was not the scapegoat and victim. She chose to live amongst the people of the town, and participated in the lottery herself. But because she did not resist her society's conventions, she dies by them. The same is true of Kate Chopin's protagonist in "The Story of an Hour." The story tells the tale of a married woman with a weak heart. When learning of her husband's demise, Mrs. Mallard suddenly feels as if a weight has been lifted from her shoulders. "Free," she whispers because she is finally free to live as she pleases, without being protected as if she were a child (Chopin, 1894). Although this wife may have a weak heart, the life she has been condemned to in her husband's house is really no life at all, because she has been so overprotected. Like Tessie Hutchinson, she has accepted the conventional notions of her society without question. A woman must be cared for by her husband, even though this life is so unpleasant she would rather her husband were dead, than to continue to live with him.

Love and finding solace in obeying the conventions of her society is not as important as self assertion, the woman believes, deep in her heart. She is excited by the idea of an independent life without her husband. "There would be no one to live for during those coming years; she would live for herself. There would be no powerful will bending hers in that blind persistence with which men and women believe they have a right to impose a private will upon a fellow-creature" (Chopin, 1894).

But while Chopin's protagonist seemingly instinctively seeks freedom and independence, the townspeople of Jackson's tale seek community and convention, even when they could freely choose to leave the town or abandon the lottery, to allow every citizen to live without fear. It is an unquestioned part of their culture: "The lottery was conducted -- as were the square dances, the teen club, the Halloween program -- by Mr. Summers, who had time and energy to devote to civic activities" (Jackson, 1948). And when Mrs. Hutchinson complains about being the victim of the lottery, her complaint is not that it is wrong -- how could she say so, given that she could have left the town -- but that it is not fair. Community values blind the town, and even in death, unlike Mrs. Mallard, Mrs. Hutchinson cannot see the wrongness of the lottery, only the unpleasantness of her death.