Freud came up with the idea that it is possible to discover what a character is thinking and feeling just by observing their imaginations and actions. Freud’s view was given the name psychoanalytic criticism in 1930, and the term is used until today. As a result, it is believed that by analyzing the characters, one is in the real sense analyzing the author. This is because story characters demonstrate the author’s questions and answers as well as fears in the realm of possibility. The story, The Lottery, starts in late June, during a warm day when villagers gather in town to take part in a lottery by Mr Summers. However, one of the story characters by the name Tess Hutchinson is late. The lottery started when Mr Summers summons each household head to a black wooden box where they select a piece of paper each. After that, they are asked to open the slips to see who had been chosen. Bill Hutchinson turns out the lucky man, and so his family members are called upon to draw papers from the box, which has other paper slips. Tess Hutchinson picks a paper with a huge black dot at the centre. The villagers start moving towards her as it becomes crystal clear what the lottery prize was, a stoning. Mrs Hutchinson protests in vain as the many villagers attack her. This essay makes use of the psychoanalytic analysis to criticize Shirley’s story, The Lottery.
Tess Hutchinson is presented in the story as a person who does not conform to the societal norms. While all other people, men and women, arrive early for the lottery, Tess comes late and argues to have forgotten what the day was. As a result, she disrupts the crowd in her efforts to locate her husband. However, Tess has her sweater over her shoulders, something that shows that Tess conforms to the society. This indicates that although she does not strictly observe some of the society’s believes, she admires to be accepted within the community. Tess is a subconsciously lovely housewife who is excited to participate in the lottery. Her enthusiasm for the lottery is evident when she tells Bill, her husband, to get up. That statement earns her some laughs showing that she is socially accepted.
However, when the lottery’s first-round ends with Bill’s family being selected for the next stage, she immediately comes out of the symbolic to the reality stage. She now is aware of the absurdity of the lottery’s tradition and speaks against it. The frightened and confused Tess becomes angry and accuses the lottery of being unfair. Becoming a victim makes Tess see that the society she was eagerly seeking for its acceptance was following violent and unethical tradition. Tess tries to increase her chances of survival by asking for her daughters and sons-in-law to be included in the second drawing. This makes us question Tess’s motive of challenging the lottery tradition, which seems for self-preservation. She is selfish and wants her family to increase to enhance her chances of survival. This means that if it were another family, Tess would not have questioned the lottery process or the outcome.
Shirley writes about this societal conduct to reflect her troubled childhood where she was bullied, resulting in her trauma. Through conveying man’s selfishness in the story, Shirley displayed her consciousness and demonstrated how society could influence ones conscious during their developmental stages. Tess and Bill’s conscious minds are opened upon the realization that they were the victims. Only she clearly shows how the traditions imposed on people in society affects people. For instance, the traditions of drawing some paper slips for others to be stoned for fun reveals the torturous and evil nature of man.
In short, Tess and other villagers have been moulded and shaped to believe that the annual lottery for stoning is right and acceptable. Tess’s values are reflective of the environment desires. However, when something frightening and troublesome occurs to her, she snaps out of the socially accepted mindset and comes to the sense of ethics, showing how she is as an individual. Getting into trouble triggers Tess’s other part, madness and selfishness, which was not evident before. Shirley tries to show the selfish nature of men through her story characters.