Dramatic Irony In Shirley Jackson's The Lottery

“The Lottery” is a short story written by Shirley Jackson. It is about an annual lottery in which the winner shall be executed. Problems arise when the winner does not agree with the decision. It all goes downhill from there. Shirley Jackson uses literary devices such as symbolism, tone and irony which make the story more detailed and entertaining.

First, Romeo acts on how he’s feeling at that moment. Then, Juliet is so self-conscious that she threatens to kill herself over a guy she barely knows and just met. Finally, they both take an irrational risk by going behind their parents backing by getting married, knowing the consequences. Adolescent brain development is explaining the way adolescents brains work and develop, “Romeo and Juliet” is just an example of how adolescent brain works and some of the things that it may

Abigail also tries to get John to acknowledge that he, at least, used to lust for her by calling him out on, “sweating like a stallion whenever I come near,”. The second sin that Abigail commits is Envy. Envy is defined as the desire to have an item/experience that someone else possesses. In Abigail’s case, she envies Elizabeth for being John’s wife. “It is her dearest hope, John, I know it.

Irony plays a major part in the short story "The Lottery". A piece of irony would be the fact that the actual lottery is supposed to be a good thing. In this short story "The Lottery" winning is a bad thing,(which would be situational irony) if they win the lottery they will get stoned to death. The last Paragraph on the fifth page, "It isn't fair she said. A stone hit her on the side of the head."

A good first example of this is when Romeo first sees Juliet. It is made clear how recklessly impulsive his personality is from how he automatically falls in love with her at first sight, though he just got his heart broken by someone else. Romeo sees Juliet at a ball and is amazed by her beauty. For Romeo, laying eyes upon Juliet at the Capulet’s ball is love at first sight. He proclaims his interest in her by stating, “O, she doth teaches to burn bright!

Throughout “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the town participates in a lottery, where the person chosen has stones thrown on them. People in the village unfortunately get lucky in the draw, and some fortunately do not. As soon as the villagers show up in that town square, as soon as they participate in society at large, they are left open to the chance of catastrophic failure. The theme of the lottery is not only life’s choice, but also the sudden unexpected nature of death. Another representation of symbolism would be through the use of objects.

The use of strong adjectives such as Delia Jones’ humming a song in a mournful key” (PG), Skyes “…snorted scornfully,” (PG) the “black box grew shabbier”(PG) sets a tone that the reader will use to follow thorough each story. As both stories reflect upon the simple lives of the character of the era, they both paint a picture of two individuals in an unfavorable scenario that they want to change. In “Sweat,” the antagonist is Sykes, the abusive, cheating husband of Delia, who wishes to run Delia out of her home in order to move his mistress in. In “The Lottery,” the protagonist Mrs. Hutchinson wants to save her husband from being stoned to death in a traditional ritual. “Sweat” starts by indirectly describing Delia as a hard-working, Christian woman.

When Odysseus comes back to find the suitors hungry for his wife, he devises a plan with his son to kill all the suitors. And just after he has done justice with the suitors, he and his wife can be together again. ‘ Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her’ (Ephesians 5:25). “If you are one of earth’s inhabitants, how blest your father, and your gentle mother, blest all your kin. I know what happiness must send the warm tears to their eyes, each time they see their wondrous child go to the dancing!

In the suspenseful short story “Lamb to The Slaughter” the author Roald Dahl Shows uses Mary Maloney as a tool to show you that love can cloud your judgement. You can see this through Mary Maloney’s actions such as Mary Maloney’s love and obsession for her husband, her constant kind gestures, and the cold blooded murder of her husband. Mary Maloney loves and is obsessed with her husband you can see this when she is waiting for him to get home “Now and again she would glance at the clock but…merely to please herself with the thought that each minute gone by made it nearer the time when he would come” Mary Maloney constantly looking up at the clock and waiting for her husband to get home is showing us the obsession she has with her husband

Haemon is Antigone’s fiance and when he found out that his soon-to-be wife is going to be killed, he confronts his father about it. Sophocles foreshadows Haemon’s death when he says, “Bring out the wretch, that in his sight, at once, here, with her bridegroom by her, she may die!”(Sophocles 42). Haemon ends up killing himself because he did not want to live without Antigone, for he loved her too much. Once Eurydice found out what had happened to her son, she could not take it. “...a voice of woe to my own household pierces through my ears; and I sink backward on my handmaidens afaint for terror…” (Sophocles 64).