Comparative Analysis The Lottery And The Yellow Wallpaper

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Comparative Analysis; “The Lottery” and “The Yellow Wallpaper”

"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Lottery,” by Shirley

Jackson are fascinating, expressive and captivating narratives sharing themes and symbols in

their narration though using different plots and setting. The authors have explicitly demonstrated

two types of characters, i.e., the dynamic and the static. Dynamic characters are those who

undergo significant internal changes either in attitude, personality or perspective in the course of

the plot. These changes occur due to the encounters on their journey which is characterized by

trials, conflicts, and tribulations. They are easy to spot, appear fully developed and pull through

the narrative by creating a compelling story.

On Gilman’s narrative, the narrator, whom the author does not specify a name, is fronted

as the major dynamic character. As the story begins, the narrator is slightly depressed and or

nervous and drifts completely to being paranoid. Her husband, John, a doctor, as well as the

brother who is also a physician, says she is suffering from a “temporary nervous depression.”

The narrator acts sane and do not want to look at the wallpaper in her room but is stunned and

often stares towards the end of the narrative. On Jackson’s story, we come across Mrs. Tess

Hutchinson who projects her dynamism as she first appears happy and excited to be at the village

lottery. Tess would have followed the rules of the lottery as dictated and even stone the one

whose name is called, but she takes a turn around when her own family gets chosen. She gets a

change of heart, grows sad and protests that the entire game was not fair. Both the narrator and

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Mrs. Hutchinson have expressed dynamism in their characters, having been faced with attitudinal

and environmental changes that cause them to have a change of heart and mindset. They desire

to deal with their suppression aiming at absolute freedom.

The narrator who is suffering from nervous depression begins with a trusting relationship

with the husband, John, who works as a physician and doubles as her doctor. Under depression,

the narrator is denied permission to work and is only required to take her medication. She resists

her husband’s rest orders as the depression grew by the day and could not take it anymore. The

narrator is incarcerated and feels guilty for dissenting from her husband’s opinion that rest is best

suited for her and feels “congenial work, with excitement and change” (Gilman pg. 648) was the

best idea. The narrator notes “I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day: he takes all

care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more.” (Gilman pg.648) The desire

to trust her husband and her dissenting feeling cause her stress and can no longer write in her

notebook to express herself and especially without disapproval of anyone. The husband, John,

dislikes it but keeping it secret results to a tiring game of wits. After the duration, the efforts of

expressing her mind in notebook outdo her expectations. It causes her to have a change of

attitude towards the husband to the extent of pretending to be asleep at night yet her eyes dismiss

it. The narrator no longer views the husband as logical and is always in fear of being

reprimanded. The narrator mentions of wallpaper in the room that she doesn’t want to look at

describing it as stripped off and having patches further confessing that though the floor of the

room was scratched, splintered and gouged, she never minded it as much as the paper. “No

wonder the children hated it! I should hate it myself if I had to live in this room long (Gilman pg.

64). This wallpaper has a kind of sub-pattern in a different shade, a particularly irritating one, for

you can only see it in certain lights.” It amplifies her dislike for the wallpaper. As the story

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progresses, the narrator ripens a warm relationship with the yellow wallpaper that she initially

repulsed. It becomes her consolation, constant companion, excites and improves her health, and

grows calmer thanks to the wallpaper. Additionally, the narrator now spends more time sleeping

during the day for her to watch developments of the wallpaper at night. It comes to her

realization that the wallpaper now has a smell of its kind that creeps the entire house and sneaks

into her hair; initially disturbs, grows the desire for, and has a strong appeal to it.

Jackson begins to unpack her short story by describing Mrs. Tess Hutchinson, one of the

villagers in a small town who gather in a lottery every year. This time, on a summer afternoon,

Mrs. Hutchinson is late for the lottery and appears just before the lottery starts (Jackson).

Hutchinson says that she “clean forgot what day it was,” and that she thought that her husband

Bill Hutchinson was out stacking wood. Her powerful reminder of the lottery is not seeing her

husband Bill out as usual. Mr. Summers, the lottery official is heard teasing her that “thought we

were going to get on without you, Tessie” and Mrs. Hutchinson grins “Wouldn’t have me leave

dishes in the sink,” and soft laughter runs through the crowd (Jackson pg. 2). When her

husband’s turn comes, Tess is heard encouraging the husband to rise and pick the paper, the slips

used in the lottery. “Get up there, Bill.” Her conduct explains her anxiety about the lottery and

confidence that they will not pick the dreaded slip. When everyone had picked their slips of

papers, there was a long, breathless pause as they were all anxious to know who won the lottery.

Other women present but calm at the lottery were heard asking “Who is it?” “Who’s got it?”

Suddenly voices were heard saying that it’s Bill Hutchinson, Tess’s husband who had drawn the

dreaded paper. It meant that it was her family that would produce “the sacrificial lamb.” With the

happenings, Tess gets a change of heart about the lottery and shouts to the lottery official, Mr.

Summers “You didn’t give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t

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fair!” (Jackson pg. 5) Tess unsuccessfully whines in annoyance and appeals to her neighbors that

she chatted amiably that the lottery was not fair. The die had been cast demanding that a member

of her family had to face the wrath. In an attempt to reduce her chances of death, Tess asks the

lottery official to let her daughters take their chance on the slips but is quickly dismissed as it

was against the tradition and norms as “Daughters draw with their husbands’ families.” Her

kids, Bill, Nancy, and Dave also take a chance with the slip and fate favors them as their papers

were blank. Her husband’s fate too was of the affirmative. Tess remains hesitant to open hers

until her husband went over to her and forced took the paper from her hand. She feared it had the

dreaded spot and as such, her only way was the path of death.

Both Tess and the narrator are in the attempt to self-assertion. They are confident and

express their desires forcefully. In Jackson’s story, Tess is seen to use any possible means to save

her soul from the villagers’ wrath after the black dotted slip fell on her hands. Mrs. Hutchinson

tries to use unorthodox means to achieve her desire for freedom including trying to use her

children “There is Don and Eva…Make them take their chance!". However, this is objected by

the lottery officer. On her part, the narrator in the “Yellow Wallpaper” desires to write her

destiny by battling her depression and seeks to vacate her husband and all other persons who

keep dictating her life. The drive to self-expression is so powerful that she is motivated to shred

the wallpaper where she sees people trapped, is desperate to escape her condition, and narrates

her story despite her husband’s directive to rest and avoid engaging in any mental activity. It is

important to note that Tess and the narrator are imprisoned though not in equal measure

(Gilman). The narrator assumes she is on out on vacation but is highly mistaken as she is not

only trapped in her house but also confined and a victim of her husband’s world. On both counts,

the narrator remains doomed. Similarly, Mrs. Hutchinson is restrained by the culture of the

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lottery which appeared so inevitable, very natural, to the participants who could not contemplate

resistance or protest of whom the dreadful fate had befallen. Mrs. Hutchinson plea to be

disentangled from the stoning seems like an evil against the foundations of the feared lottery

other than understanding her plea not to die. Interestingly, the narrator and Mrs. Hutchinson

appear to fight their course singly as they agitate their quest for justice alone without any help.

The narrator has a sister in law who keeps concurring with her brother concerning her

restrictions and his medical prescriptions and does not aid her in any way. On her part, Tess is

left alone in self-defense when her family is chosen noting that even her fellow women present

like Mrs. Delacroix and Mrs. Graves are heard telling her to “be of good sport Tess, all of us

took the same chance.” Her husband, Bill, silences her as she weeps and whines that the whole

play was not fair. “Shut up Tessie!” he yells at her seemingly not taking care of her. The two

stories also impress differences between the two protagonists. In “The Lottery” Jackson has

defined Mrs. Hutchinson as a woman who works and is home doing some work, probably the

reason why she is late for the lottery. Tess argues “wouldn’t have me leave dishes in the sink,

now, would you, Joe?” (Jackson pg. 2) In the “Yellow Wallpaper,” the narrator isn’t in charge of

her house probably due to depression and is not allowed to look after her baby making her

restless following her husband’s directives. The narrator says “nobody would believe what an

effort it is to do what little I am able-to dress and entertain, and order things.” (Gilman pg. 649)

Conclusively, both Tess and the narrator express their characterized dynamism that aids

the readers to identify the plot, themes and setting in a captivating manner. They have pulled

through the narratives in the most dramatic form. Gilman and Jackson have expressed their

themes symbolically and would not be any better without the dynamism of the narrator and

Mrs.Hutchinson.

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Works Cited

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper. New York, 10 January 1982.

<https://www.nlm.nih.gov/theliteratureofprescription/.../The-Yellow-Wall-Paper.pdf>.

Jackson, Shirley. "The Lottery." Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery and Other Stories. New York

City: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1948. 306.

<https://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf>.

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Comparative Analysis The Lottery and The Yellow Wallpaper

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