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Situational Irony In The Lottery

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What is the best tool to show contrast between how things appear and how they are in reality? Irony helps to reveal a reality that is different from what appears to be true. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy is a narrative poem taking place over the course of a young girl’s life. “Ballad of Birmingham” is a poem written by Dudley Randall and occurs during the Civil Rights movement. “The Lottery” is a short story that takes place in a New England town written by Shirley Jackson. “The Necklace: written by Guy de Maupassant is a short story that occurs in the late 1800s in Paris. Verbal irony is when someone says something but means the opposite. Situational irony is when the outcome of a situation is the opposite from what was expected. Dramatic …show more content…

The short story begins with a small town’s tradition of gathering for the drawing of names from a lottery. Family names from the village are pulled from the box and the head of the family draws a slip of paper. Bill Hutchinson unknowingly draws the chosen paper but his wife Tessie protests, “‘I tell you it wasn’t fair. You didn’t give him enough time to choose. Everybody saw that’” (Jackson 5). After her protest Mrs. Delacroix tells her to, “‘Be a good sport, Tessie” (Jackson 5). Everyone in the Hutchison family then has to pick from a smaller group of papers. Bill and the Hutchison children all draw blank papers but then, “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. It had a black spot on it” (Jackson 7). All the villagers clear from where Tessie was standing and begin to throw rocks at her. In her last moments, Tessie screams, “‘It wasn’t fair, it isn’t right’” (Jackson 7). Situational irony is utilized in this story to surprise the reader with the outcome of the lottery. The whole idea of a lottery is to win a prize, but in reality, the winner is stoned to death. Tessie is unaware that her prize for winning would be death. She was the only one who protested the lottery and the only one that was subsequently stoned to death. Verbal irony is used to show that the villagers did not take the lottery seriously unless they were the family that was chosen. Mrs. Delacroix’s sarcastic comment illustrates that if the villagers were not chosen, they had no opposition to the lottery. The townspeople used sarcasm to lighten the mood when in reality they were about to stone Tessie to death. Situational irony teaches that some decisions lead to detrimental

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Tessie Hutchinson is the only villager who protests against the Lottery. When the Hutchinson family draws the marked paper, Tessie exclaims: “It wasn’t fair!”. But her fight is not supported by her family and people around. Her voice is ignored even her husband asks her to be quiet. This refrain continues as she is selected and subsequently stoned to death, but people are always selfish.

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Tessie Hutchinson was forced to partake in the lottery against her will. Many times she exclaimed how she thought it was unfair. Tessie screamed, “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (Jackson 7). The author goes on to say that the townspeople began to advance on her, and they got their stones ready. This was one of the many times Tessie explained how she thought that the lottery was unfair, and that it wasn’t necessary.

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The lottery itself serves as a prime example of situational irony since it typically implies winning something desirable. However, in this twisted tradition, "winning" the lottery translates to becoming the sacrificial victim. The story's climax, where Tessie Hutchinson, initially an enthusiastic participant, becomes the unfortunate "winner," shocks the reader and emphasizes the underlying cruelty that can exist within seemingly ordinary individuals. This situational irony acts as a critique of mindlessly adhering to harmful customs and highlights the potential for savagery within

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“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

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Since the lottery is randomized, everyone has an equal chance at being slaughtered even though most of them have done absolutely nothing to really deserve it. Tessie is a housewife that is well known in the community and her own friends and family still relentlessly stone her to death. At once all of her family has revealed their papers, and it leaves her paper to reveal the single black dot of death that everyone in the village is fearful of. Assuming that since she is “marked for death”, she deserves to die. They start acting, as though the person that she was once before no longer exists, and she is is not even a human being anymore once that is revealed.

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The Lottery is a nondescript town with approximately three hundred people. On a clear morning, June 27, the townspeople, starting with the children, begin to assemble for the lottery at 10. Everyone that is the age 16 and over draws a piece of paper. Tessie draws the one with the black dot. The children and the adults get stones, and then stone Tessie to death.

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While her bloody head leaks in shame. Unfortunately, the victim of this year's lottery is Tessie the wife of Bill Hutchinson. Tessie was the victim who never challenged the idea of the lottery. One of the ideas the author was trying to get across was that you should always speak

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Irony is often used in literature to illustrate certain situations to the audience. In some pieces of literature that might be pointing out an unjust system, in others that might be to add a comedic effect, but whatever situation the author wants to illustrate, irony is very beneficial. Through small and witty, one-liners, or a bigger dramatic irony situation contrasting two very different situations, irony can be very beneficial for the reader to understand the story. Both “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins have a corrupt dystopian society. Through the use of irony, the author can portray the corruptness to the audience.

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The short story “The Lottery” is written by Shirley Jackson. This story takes place in a small village where everybody knows each other. In this story all the villagers gather around town for their annual lottery. Everyone in the village is compelled to follow this tradition even if the outcome ends up with someone dying. In “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson uses conflict, theme, and irony to develop this suspenseful short story.

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Irony is a technique that involves surprising, interesting, or amusing contradictions or contrasts ( Glossary... Pg 1). The greatest example of irony happens when it turns out Armand is the one that comes from black heritage. He learns this when he “finds a letter from his mom to his father explaining how he is black” turning the main plot of this story around (Chopin... Pg 5)

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Dramatic irony is usually an over the top, tragic form of irony. Both Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” are great examples of an ironic situation. Every expresses the common theme in their own way. Although both of these literally pieces provide us with the theme of irony, Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" gives the reader a sense of suspense with the irony that proves to be more effective. Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" emphasizes on how a man’s thoughts and perception can affect oneself and other’s lives.

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Tessie being selected as the winner means she gets stoned, and one of her final quotes helps understand the meaning behind her character. In her words “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” “(Jackson 8). These words spoken by Tessie as she is about to be stoned highlights the same illogical nature of violence that the winners of the lottery’s before faced. That fact she is being selected simply because she happened to draw the marked slip underscores the senselessness of the violence to come.

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550 Words | 3 Pages

Another quote to suggest the crowd grew nervous was when Mr. Adams was called upon, “They grinned at one another humorlessly and nervously”. She described what the characters were doing and not what their thoughts or intentions were. Shirley Jackson intensified the feeling when Tessie hysterically protested Bill’s “winning” selection, by withholding information until the last possible second, she builds the story’s suspense and creates a shocking, powerful conclusion. In conclusion, The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson builds up suspense by foreshadowing the horrible moment through the children who felt uneasy and collected rocks, creating a character that stands out from the crowd, Tessie Hutchinson, the person who saved her husband but could not save herself. More importantly, withholding the true nature of the story until the end, leading to the tragic death of Tessie

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Silence Walking out into my relative's living room, the hushed laughter and conversation died away as my face came into view. Margie smiled, laying out my breakfast choices before retreating to the study, while Paul sat with his back towards me reading the newspaper. All that was heard was the clinking of my spoon and the occasional rustle of the newspaper, the tension quickly becoming so great that the walls might crack and the windows threatened to shatter. As the others woke from their sleep, the house became louder, filling with with the chaos and noise that always seems to follow my family. Still, my uncle sat, silent, preoccupied by today's biggest story.

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She realizes that this is an unpleasurable and outdated tradition and should be forgotten only because she got chosen. However, if her family’s name wasn’t drawn, she would have blindly followed the ritual, thrilled to have escaped a gruesome, sacrificial death. As a reader it is easy to empathize for Tessie since she or others don’t have a voice in their community or are even able to look at the bigger picture and see that the lottery is unnecessary. Not only does the dramatic irony of the lottery allow the reader to understand Tessie’s view, it creates a similar feeling towards Bill Hutchinson. For example, “Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand.

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