Morality In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery seems to suggest that people who embed rituals deeply into their beliefs, without critical thought, can be blind to the flaws of their tradition until they are the victims. As farfetched as the wide acceptance of ritual killing may seem, one can easily relate to the mentality that the villagers have towards the importance of tradition, and how difficult it is to question one’s beliefs. Careful attention to the details of character and conflict can help reveal the central idea of the story.

A number of details about the ritual of the lottery show how deeply embedded this tradition is. The people of the village, who take on the role of the protagonist, view an old, worn down black box containing slips of paper

(Man vs. society)? This is exactly what happened with Tessie Hutchinson. When Bill Hutchinson, Tessie’s husband, discovers that he won the lottery, Tessie immediately begins to say that the lottery was not conducted fairly. Instead of the villagers showing support to Tessie in this dark moment, the villagers turn on her, and tell her to “be a good sport” (642). Even Tessie’s own husband tells her to shut up. When the lottery is redone, Tessie discovers that she is now the winner. When Mr. Summers asks Bill to present Tessie’s slip, “Bill Hutchison went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand” (643). Bill is making it obvious to Tessie that she angered him with her opposition to the lottery. When it is time for her to be stoned by the villagers, not even her family will hesitate to throw

Jackson adds, “Although the villagers forgot the ritual and lost the original black box, they still remembered to use stones” (643). The villagers have foolishly let random aspects of the ritual fall at waist side, yet they cling to one aspect of the ritual, the murder. The villagers are hypocrites who do not want to “upset as much tradition as was represented by the box” (639), but forget everything else. As the crowd of villagers closes in on Tessie, she shouts, “It isn’t fair, it isn’t right” (643). This dramatic cry functions as the epiphany. As Tessie’s life is about to end, she receives a sudden clarity and realizes the true nature of the lottery. The greatest victim of blindly followed rituals, are the people following the ritual