Comparing The Female Protagonists In The Lottery And The Yellow Wallpaper

In “The Lottery” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” there are many similarities and differences that tie the stories together. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the female protagonist, Tessie Hutchinson, is living in a town filled with men who have power over the women. The town holds a lottery every year to see who gets stoned. The thing is, only men can draw the papers, women can’t. If you draw a paper with a black mark on it, then you are the chosen stone. In the end, Tessie does a redraw since her husband was supposed to die and she gets the paper telling her she is going to get stoned. She is anxious and scared, but she knows she can’t get out of it. In “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the female protagonist, who is the unnamed

The only difference is that one feels victorious while the other isn’t. Tessie Hutchinson is not victorious after standing up for herself against the men in the town. She got them to redraw the papers again after her husband was supposed to be the one stoned, saying it wasn’t fair. Then as Tessie was going to be stoned after she drew the paper, she kept repeating it wasn’t fair again. This time, it meant something completely different. It wasn’t fair that anyone had to be stoned. It wasn’t right, and it was inhumane. The narrator states, “Tessie Hutchinson was in the center of a cleared space by now, and she held her hands out desperately as the villagers moved in on her. It isn’t fair, she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head” (Jackson 7). This proves that Tessie was stoned by the villagers. She was the center of attention and people were encouraging each other to stone her. Even though Tessie said it wasn’t fair, the townspeople ignored her and still stoned her. The unnamed narrator was victorious in standing up for herself against her controlling husband. After she tore down the wallpaper in the nursery, she felt free from her

She was adamant about getting out of the room in which she succeeded in doing so. The unnamed narrator kept telling her husband she wouldn’t be trapped again, no matter what her husband and the housekeeper did. She may not really be free, but she feels like she freed herself from her husband when she tore down the wallpaper. In conclusion, the stories represent a patriarchal society in which the female protagonists struggle. In “The Lottery” and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the female protagonists felt trapped and controlled by the men in their lives. Tessie Hutchinson felt trapped because of the men running the lottery in her town and the unnamed narrator felt trapped in her marriage. The women have their own thoughts on how they should go about being trapped in their situation; Tessie stands up for herself while the unnamed narrator keeps quiet about it. At the end of the story, Tessie is not freed and the unnamed narrator feels free, but she really isn’t. No woman should ever have to go through anything like these characters did. Patriarchy is a serious issue and has been for a while. These stories can teach readers what it is like for women to live in a patriarchal