How Does Tess Hutchinson Play In The Lottery

“The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson takes place in a small town where the villagers follow a tradition called the lottery that they believe will give them a good farming season. Whoever wins this lottery will be stoned to death by the other townspeople as a sacrifice of sorts. The main character, Tessie Hutchinson, plays a huge role in the many deeper meanings portrayed throughout the story and ends up being the winner of the lottery. While Tessie is not given a physical description, it is known that she is a housewife and has two children with her husband, Bill Hutchinson. Throughout the story, Tessie is first shown to be a follower who is blindly obeying tradition; and as the story progresses and her family is chosen, she rapidly becomes

She shows up late to the gathering in the town square and is seen joking with others and seeming unconcerned with the circumstances. Tessie appears to be a stereotypical housewife only concerned with housework, "Wouldn't have me leave m'dishes in the sink, now, would you. Joe?,"(Jackson 5). This whole demeanor changes rapidly when her husband draws the slip of paper with the black dot meaning that her family would all have to draw to see who would be stoned. Tessie immediately protests claiming that it is “unfair” and exclaiming, "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!"(Jackson 8). This brings the reader’s attention to Tessie, and she is established as the protagonist of the story and she shows that she is actually a rounded, dynamic character. Her development leads her to fight against the townspeople but also the lottery, which is the true antagonist of the story and a reflection of the violence of human

She is indifferent to participating in the lottery with the rest of the town. When her family is chosen and she is at risk however, she does an immediate one eighty, declaring multiple times that it is not fair and demanding that they start over. This shows how hypocritical she is in the face of danger. The townspeople solidify this idea when they respond to her protests stating “‘Be a good sport, Tessie.’ Mrs. Delacroix called, and Mrs. Graves said, ‘All of us took the same chance’”(Jackson 8). Until Tessie was directly affected by the circumstances, she did not care. Despite this hypocrisy, Tessie is still viewed as one of the few voices of rebellion in the story. The only other voice of rebellion that the reader sees is Mr. Adams, who simply brings up the fact that other towns are abandoning the lottery. Other than the few statements he makes, Tessie is the only one who truly challenges the concept of the lottery, although she only confronted it in an attempt to save