The YouTube video "Palakasan 2013: CASS Chamber Theater (The Lottery by Shirley Jackson)" the play was made by a group of students in 2013. This play highlights how traditions can leave us as mindless people, obeying the rules for the sake of “keeping it alive”. It leaves a message that even in our world today, there are still traditions that we follow that have lost their true meaning. At first glance, the space for the play looked like a black box instead of a village with townspeople, but after getting immersed in the play, the scene transforms into a bustling town with children playing nearby. Inside the set, a handful of actors take part in the play. At the start, a disturbing scene takes place wherein an unknown lady pleads “This isn’t …show more content…
Suddenly, the scene shifts, and the lights light up, revealing an innocent scene of children laughing, chatting, and playing, a contrast from the one seconds ago. According to HCI Lighting (n.d),” Psychologically, dimming or flickering lights can tap into our natural fears. Throughout our history, humans have been wary of the dark because we can’t see what’s lurking in it. Filmmakers use this fear to make their scary stories even scarier.” As seen in the first part of the play, the only light source we are given is a spotlight, highlighting the woman in the middle which leaves us anxious, worried, and afraid of what lurks in the dark. The play, excellently took advantage of dark lighting to heighten the audience's feeling of anxiousness and uneasiness which in this case, showed how dark and disturbing the tradition of this village is. According to Kellog Insight (n.d), …show more content…
Although the play did not stay true to the original story (as seen in the first part of the scene), they did do justice and made up for it with the brilliant coordination of lights alongside the exemplary acting of the actors. Concerning acting, there were some key moments wherein there was “dead air” leaving a few seconds of awkwardness and a lack of emotion displayed. When Mrs. Hutchinson was defending her husband, we can see that there were times when Mr. Hutchinson stood idle and displayed no emotion towards the crowd or his wife. Displaying even a slight emotion of annoyance or physical constraint would have been suitable for this scene. On the other hand, I do commend the lack of emotion displayed by the actor Mr. Hutchinson when this time his wife was the one who got the winning paper. It displays a lack of interest in saving her wife and shows the true cruelty of the tradition as even he would go to such lengths to keep the tradition going. All in all, the production elements tether perfectly to the story of the play, vividly displaying emotions while somewhat staying true to the story. In conclusion, the actors, the lighting, the background, and all of the other elements worked nicely. The emotions the performers portrayed were great and effectively blended with one another, doing the book justice while adding their
Tradition is a central theme in Shirley Jackon's short story The Lottery. Images such as the black box and characters such as Old Man Warner, Mrs. Adams, and Mrs. Hutchinson display to the reader not only the tenacity with which the townspeople cling to the tradition of the lottery, but also the wavering support of it by others. In just a few pages, Jackson manages to examine the sometimes long forgotten purpose of rituals, as well as the inevitable questioning of the necessity for such customs.
It was good setting to get the attention from the audience and also a way to move around or change settings of the play. Although I love this play my small critic for this play was the players. Some others actors had understandable accents but others didn’t. For example, the brother of the servant his accent was confusing because he kept switching his accent from different country languages. This play was really nice it had a little of bit of everything drama, comedy, romance, betrayal. What like about this play it was how they used the dramatic structure the inciting incident and the climax. The inciting incident for this play of musical comedy murders of 1940 was guessing who the killer of the play was because there was tension building up not knowing who the murder was. The climax for this play would be for me finding out who was the murder and just being in shock how everything had change into a new scenario. Overall it was amazing show how it developed and how well an organized transition the play
The use of lights throughout the play did not vary often. Throughout most of the play, bright overhead lights portrayed the play’s main set room: a small town beauty salon. The lights created an atmosphere that was not only cheerful, but also warm and inviting. On each side of the stage, warm, more natural lighting was used to make the small outdoor areas more realistic. Lights were also used to convey
The setting gives the reader a sense that terror awaits. This story shows this by talking about the lighting
Shirley Jackson wrote many books in her life, but she was well known by people for her story “The Lottery” (Hicks). “The Lottery” was published on June 28, 1948, in the New Yorker magazine (Schilb). The story sets in the morning of June 27th in a small town. The townspeople gather in the square to conduct their annual tradition, the Lottery. The winner of the lottery will stoned to death by the society. Although there is no main character in the story, the story develops within other important elements. There are some important elements of the story that develop the theme of the story: narrator and its point of view, symbolism, and main conflict. The story “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson, argues practicing a tradition without understanding the meaning of the practice is meaningless and dangerous.
One main theme in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” is tradition nonetheless. Although tradition is most commonly thought to be somewhat of a social glue that holds families and communities together, Shirley Jackson reveals a whole new side consisting of the dangers following traditional practices. The lottery is normalized as being an early summer ritual that proves to be consistent and promising in a plentiful harvest, as mentioned by Old Man Warner. The real purpose of the lottery is never fully explained, but it is still conducted every year without suggestion of discontinuation. There proves to be a pattern of tendency to be trapped by tradition.
In conclusion, Jackson’s story is one warning of the dangers of blindly following tradition and the randomness of prosecution. The author indirectly hints to the true nature of the lottery through the use of objects, settings, and symbolism. The residents of the village learn from a young age to essentially disregard reasoning when carrying out the Lottery in order to preserve tradition. Throughout the story, the villagers do not dare cross the line of questioning the ritual because that is all they know. Just like in real life, most do not question the significance of tradition until it is often too late. The lottery is an extreme example of what can happen if traditions are not examined critically by new generations.
There is a Lottery going on today and we all hold a ticket. In “The Lottery” Shirley Jackson is asking people to stop for a moment and take a look at the traditions around them. Shirley Jackson uses symbolism to show that traditions today are sometimes as misguided as the tradition of the lottery in that small town in Somewhere, USA.
“ The Lottery”, written by Shirley Jackson, shows the corruption in a village whose people treat life with insignificance. Through the use of literary devices, Jackson portrays how practices in traditions can be barbaric;ultimately, resulting in persecution.
In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, tradition is seen as very high and something to be respected not to be messed with. Although, the lottery has been removed from other towns, the village where the story is set in still continues to participate in the lottery. It is almost as if the other towns realized the lack of humanity in the tradition. However, the village still continues with the lottery even though the majority of the ritual has been lost or changed. The oldest man in the village complains about how the lottery is not what it used to be. There are hidden messages in “The Lottery” that reflects today’s society that the author wants to make apparent and change, such as, the danger of blindly following without any knowledge, the randomness
This play shows the importance of the staging, gestures, and props making the atmosphere of a play. Without the development of these things through directions from the author, the whole point of the play will be missed. The dialog in this play only complements the unspoken. Words definitely do not tell the whole story.
The short story “ The Lottery ” the author Shirley Jackson uses symbolism and imagery to develop a theme the brings forth the evil and inhumane nature of tradition and the danger of when it’s carried out with ignorance.
We do not really ever wonder about some of the things that our grandparents and parents have taught us, but most likely, those things are traditions. Traditions are passed down from generation to generation and we never think twice about the traditions that we take part in. We do not know why we make up stories about a man who falls down your chimney every year, or a bunny that leaves eggs around the house. We take part in these traditions because we always have, and we do not have any reasons why not to. “The Lottery” is a great example of how people react to traditions. Shirley Jackson reveals in “The Lottery” that many people can be afraid to break the traditions that we have, no matter how bad they are, using indirect characterization, symbolism, and situational irony.
Everyone has their own way of solving problems; however, ritual is a form that people doing one thing in the same way. It defines as “the prescribed form of conducting a formal secular ceremony.” However if the meaning of ritual is mistaken, the consequence could be unpredictable." The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson gives us a lecture about a tortuous ritual. The story takes place in a small village with 300 citizens, they gather for a yearly lottery which everyone should participate. The story leads to a horrific ending by people forgetting the concept of ritual.
Would you believe that there was once a village where everyone would partake in a terrible event, but think it was innocent because of how they blindly followed a tradition? The short story, “The Lottery,” by Shirley Jackson communicates this theme by showing how the villagers participate in a lottery every year. In life, there are people who follow tradition because the have to, or they are used to following without question. The author, Shirley Jackson was born on December 14, 1916 in San Francisco, California. In 1937, Shirley Jackson attended Syracuse University where she began to write short stories. She was famous for the short story, “The Lottery,” and her best seller novel, “The Haunting of Hill House”. Shirley Jackson was famous for writing in a supernatural genre. Later on, she married a Jewish man and moved into a conservative neighborhood. She died on December 14, 1916 in North Bennington, Vermont. “The Lottery” is a profoundly ironic story where the winners really lose. The village has its own unique lottery. The winner of the game has a card with a black dot. This means the surrounding villager will stone them to death! Shirley Jackson develops her theme of the danger of blindly following tradition in her short story, "The Lottery" through the use of symbolism, mood, and irony.