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Duality Of Behavior In The Lottery By Shirley Jackson

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Throughout the lottery, the duality of behavior of many characters are shown. Many characters give off the appearance of being sweet, kind, and trustworthy. But as the story unfolds, an unexpected change of behavior occurs, therefore changing the mood and tone of the story. As an example, the characters who you least expect, such as the children of the town, and Mrs. Dunbar, take a dramatic change of characteristics which affect the reader's view of the story.

In the beginning of the story, the children who seem to be sweet and innocent are collecting stones to place into a pile, which unknowingly, will be used later on after the lottery. The reader understands the children as being kind and playful, wearing their nice clothes, and collectively getting along with one another. This is the reason for the …show more content…

Dunbar, the friend of Mrs. Hutchinson. Upon Mrs. Hutchinson's late arrival at the event, she has a laugh with her friend, Mrs. Dunbar, about being late due to her daily chores. Immediately filling her friend in about what she has missed so far about the picking, the readers understand that these two women are good friends. Therefore, the shock of the ending is ever more great when Mrs. Dunbar picks up a large stone, which needs to be held in two hands, in order to proceed with the “ceremony”. One would not expect that friends will turn against friends, therefore the character of Mrs. Dunbar is an example of duality of human nature.

Finally, the character Davy Hutchinson is example of how the duality of character star. As being the son of Mrs. Hutchinson, and one of the children, his character is put in a position to take a turn for the worst, when he is handed a few pebbles to stone his mother. Although little Davy is not mentioned much throughout the story, now we can understand how the villagers can do something like this. Being placed into the position to turn against his own mother is an

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