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Tess Hutchinson Character Analysis Essay

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Recommended: Analysis of Shirley Jackson's The Lottery Essay

Character Analysis of Tessie Hutchinson in “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” accounts the sacred primitive tradition of the lottery in a rural community where the nominated individual is stoned to death by their fellow citizens. In “The Lottery”, Jackson characterizes Tessie Hutchinson through juxtaposition, diction, and imagery. The characterization of Tessie Hutchinson reveals her insurgent, dominating, and egotistical identity. Tessie Hutchinson’s insurgent ways is primarily revealed through juxtaposition. The juxtaposition begins when “The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o’clock.” where women wore “faded house dresses and sweaters, came shortly …show more content…

Upon the revelation that the Hutchinson household has been selected for the lottery, Hutchinson’s attitude automatically shifts. The confidence she once had to be late to the lottery, show up not dressed to society’s standards and dominate her husband leaves the second she realizes she is at risk. She immediately ridicules Mr. Summers for not giving her husband enough time to select his paper despite his years of experience conducting the ritual. In her manic state she attempts to save herself at her own daughters risk when she yells “There’s Don and Eva… Make them take their chance!” (Jackson 4). Tessie puts her own daughter under the bus in attempt to save herself. It is revealed that Tessie knew it was not a possibility when Mr. Summers asserts that is not an option and that Hutchinson “know(s) that as well as anyone else.” (Jackson 4). The clarification and correction by Mr. Summers emphasizes Tessie Hutchinson’s egotistical persona and reveals her dramatic attempt to save herself at the risk of losing her own daughter. Shirley Jackson characterizes Tessie Hutchinson as an insurgent, dominating, egotistical person in her short story, “The Lottery”. Jackson successfully creates this image through diction, imagery, and juxtaposition. Tessie Hutchinson is a member of the village that rebels against society’s standards and expectations, dominates her husband, and only cares about

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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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“The Lottery”, a short story by Shirley Jackson, is about a lottery that takes place in a small village. The story starts off with the whole town gathering in the town square, where Mr. Summers holds the lottery. Once everyone gathers, every family draws a slip of paper out of an old black box, and the family with the black mark on their paper gets picked. After that, each family member older than 3 years of age re-draws a slip of paper again and this time, the person with the black mark on their paper gets picked as the “lucky winner” of the lottery. In this short story, after the Hutchinson family gets drawn, Tessie Hutchinson is declared “winner” of the lottery, with her reward is being stoned to death.

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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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