Patriarchy In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

Shirley Jackson’s 1948 story of “The Lottery” describes an annual event in a small town with a population of about 300 people. This mysterious traditional event brought together men, women and children in one huge gathering to sacrifice an individual in the hope of a prosperous crop harvest. They assembled in the town center to draw pieces of paper from the black box and ironically, whoever who picked the “winning” piece of paper containing the black dot was stoned to death. In this particular event, a wife and mother “Ms. Tessie Hutchinson” faces the inevitable death. Shirley Jackson uses the stoning of Ms. Tessie Hutchinson to inform the reader of the oppression of women by patriarchy.

Patriarchy is defined as a social system in which males hold primary power and predominate in

roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property (Wikipedia). Male dominance is evident throughout the “The Lottery”. Whittier states, “The ritual of the lottery itself, like the society it seems to preserve, is patriarchal” (354). From the beginning of the story gender differences between male and female are identifiable. The event begins with the assembly of children who are out of school for the summer, and “the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on most of them; they tended to gather together quietly for a while before they broke into boisterous play, however as the boys gathered the stones, the girls stood aside talking among themselves and looking over their shoulders in the dust” (304). In such a society dominated by men, could this be a case of intimidation that the little girls would not play freely like the boys?. Among the older women, one would expect that at a social gathering they would be dressed in their Sunday best, gossiping and ‘being loud’, instead they appeared in faded house dresses and sweaters and stood quietly by their husbands.
Male domineering is clearly conspicuous in this small town.

Fritz Oehlschalaeger states, “ A conflict between male authority and female resistance is subtly evident throughout the story”(259). On the day of “The Lottery”, the women arrived shortly after the menfolk, and stood by their husbands (305). When Ms. Tessie Hutchison picked up her paper, she did not want to open it, but her husband Bill Hutchison forced the slip of paper out of her hand. “ Bill Hutchison held it up, and there was a stir in the crowd” (310). Bill’s behavior shows a society bound by tradition, as a husband one would expect that he would be devastated by the fact that his wife was going to face death, but instead he adheres to the norms of the society. Male domination is also depicted in the roles undertaken by men during “The Lottery”. Mr. Summers and Mr. Graves are in charge of the black box and conducting the event, the men pick up the slip of paper before the women, and the women are not supposed to pick the slip of paper for their absent husbands. Mrs. Dunbar offers to pick the slip of paper for Mr. Dunbar who has a broken leg, but Mr. Summers responds “Don’t you have a grown boy to do it for you,

Janey?”(307).
Oeshlschiager argues that the women were resistant to this tradition based on Mrs. Adams response, he states, “Mr. Adams makes no response, but his wife does, pointing out to the Old Man that some places have already quit lotteries, an oblique but nevertheless real gesture of resistance”(260). Jackson creates a defiant character in “Ms. Tessie Hutchison” to represent the uprising of women against traditions and patriarchy. Ms. Hutchison character rebels the concept of an inferior and selfless woman. She arrives late and openly expresses her opinions. When it was her turn to pick up the slip, “ she hesitated for a minute, looking around defiantly”(309). Bill her husband at one-point shuts her up. In this era, women did not voice their opinion. Tessie Hutchison character is compared Anne Hutchison. Oeshlschiager writes, “ The name of Jackson’s victim, Tessie Hutchison also links her to Anne Hutchison, whose Antinomian beliefs, found to be heretical by the Puritan hierarchy, resulted in her banishment from Massachusetts in 1638” (261). This analogy illustrates the fight for women’s rights by both women, and the extreme outcome of such efforts due to patriarchy.
Feminist theory focuses on aspects of “our culture that are inherently patriarchal (male dominated). It describes how women are oppressed by patriarchy economically, socially, and psychologically. In every domain where patriarchy reigns, a woman is other: she is marginalized, defined only by her difference from male norms and values”
(Purdue OWL). Jackson uses the feminist approach to help the readers understand the setting and historical era in which these event happened.