Examples Of Irony In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

In short stories the author composes a compelling plot, with an ending that in someway either teaches the main character a lesson, or the reader themselves. Jackson acts as a master of literary devices, as she navigates the reader through intense scenes that evoke an emotional response to the experiences of the main character. In the short stories, “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, she used the same three literary devices to grasp the reader’s attention from beginning to end. In “The Possibility of Evil” Miss Adela Strangeworth caused a stir by sending anonymous letters to townspeople, filled with things she suspected other people in her town of doing; she claimed that every letter was sent with the intent of

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” and Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” both tell stories using literary techniques of tone, symbolism, and irony that help to convey stories that leave the reader baffled by their ending. Although Hawthorne and Jackson utilize these literary techniques in a different way, both of the stories end with a sense of darkness.

In the short story, “The Lottery”, Jackson’s use of symbols reveals a twisting plot that isn’t recognizable until nearly at the end of the story. Her use of third person point of view is

The best feeling one can experience is winning a prize. For example, when one wins the lottery, one is excited, however not the lottery in the story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson. The lottery in this story represents a certain kind of irony known as situational irony. Now, this is not the only example of irony included in this story there are also examples of verbal irony and dramatic irony. In The story “The Lottery” there are countless instances of situational irony, verbal irony, and dramatic irony that presents readers with the barbaric ways of the town and allows readers to have an insight on the town’s issues.

     In Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” irony is an underlying theme used throughout the story. The setting is introduced as a “clear and sunny” day, but ends with the brutal death of a housewife (715). The two people who essentially run the town, Mr. Graves and Mr. Summers, also have ironic names. In addition, the characters and the narrator make ironic statements throughout the story.

    "The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about a disturbing social practice.  The setting takes place in a small village consisting of about three hundred denizens.  On June twenty-seventh of every year, the members of this traditional community hold a village-wide lottery in which everyone is expected to participate.  Throughout the story, the reader gets an odd feeling regarding the residents and their annual practice.  Not until the end does he or she gets to know what the lottery is about.  Thus, from the beginning of the story until almost the end, there is an overwhelming sense that something terrible is about to happen due to the Jackson's effective

In the short story, “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson the change in tone shifts over time starting with a gleeful and sunny beginning turning to a ghastly and horrifying story towards the resolution. The author shifts her tone in order to make a more dramatic ending that will stick with the reader, the ending transforms the short story from realism to symbolism so that the readers can further use this story in a real world context.

In her story “The Lottery”, Shirley Jackson manages to catch the readers’ attention and ultimately shock them with an unexpected ending; all of which help her emphasize her critique toward the dark side of human nature and the evil that resides, sometimes, in those who we less expect it from. Jackson uses symbolism throughout the story that helps her set the mood and also makes the readers wonder and analyze the senseless violence and cruelty in their own lives.

Society today sees the lottery as an easy way to win a ginormous amount of cash just by buying a little slip of paper with a combination of numbers. The irony that Shirley Jackson uses in her short story, The Lottery, is used to the extreme by not only the title being ironic, but also within the story. The lottery is seen as a way to gain cash, but the ironic part of the title is that the reader sees it and thinks that the story will be about someone winning a big prize, yet the winner is sentenced to being stoned to death. Within the story, Shirley Jackson writes about how one member of the community ultimately chooses who wins the lottery. Another ironic thing about someone chooses the winner is that one of the communities sons picked his own father to win the lottery. Linda Wagner-Martin analyzes The Lottery and its irony by writing, “Bringing in the small children as she does, from early in the story (they are gathering stones, piling them up where they will be handy, and participating in the ritual as if it were a kind of play), creates a poignance not only for the death of Tessie the mother, but for the sympathy the crowd gives to the youngest Hutchinson, little Dave. Having the child draw his own slip of paper from the box reinforces the normality of the occasion, and thereby adds to Jackson's irony. It is family members, women and children, and fellow residents who are being killed through this orderly, ritualized process. As Jackson herself once wrote, "I hoped, by setting a particularly brutal ancient rite in the present and in my own village, to shock the story's

One of the literary devices used in both “The Lottery” and “The Possibility of Evil” was irony. In “The Lottery” the woman, Mrs. Hutchinson, who ends up getting stoned to death is the one who happens to be running late “Mrs. Hutchinson came hurriedly along the path the the square, her sweater thrown over her shoulders, and slid into place in the back of the back of the crowd.” (Jackson, P. 9) This is situational irony because of course the woman who comes late and is acting so casual about the whole Lottery is going to be the woman that gets stoned to death. Another piece of

Many authors use irony to make their writings more diverse, as well as to intensify the literary elements in the story. Shirley Jackson, writer of “The Lottery”, does this in her stories in order to leave the reader in suspense and confusion with her use of situational irony. She also uses dramatic irony to give the story a grotesque twist and to cause the reader more confusion about the characters’ morals. Verbal irony is used to intensify characterization as well as give the reader an insight into the true beliefs of those in the village. The use of irony in all three forms throughout the story adds an intensity to the development of many literary elements throughout the story.

"The Lottery," a short story written by Shirley Jackson, is a tale about an inhumane

In The Crucible, Arthur Miller reveals false religious values over logical assumption is hazardous and can cause great hysteria by using dramatic irony and verbal irony. The dramatic irony is a type of situation that can lead to a dramatic event and mainly presents to the audience but not the other characters. By using this to generate critical thinking throughout the audience and to catch the attention. Verbal irony is the using of words and phrase that it seems to disobey itself or simply being counterintuitive. These are the techniques that can help us try to comprehend what is the author try to infer us in the content.

The title of Jackson’s story contains suspense and tension to convey irony. Jackson’s use of words keeps the reader on the road that there are no problems and everything is great. For the townspeople’s behavior as they wait and when the lottery is chosen, the

Plot twists: when a simple woman can be turned into a letter-writing sociopath, a disease can be a literal manifestation, and a murder gone perfectly planned can be torn apart by the murderer himself. Many writers find writing a plot twist well is a difficult task, but that doesn’t seem to be the case for Jackson. She manages to twist the plots of “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery” with ease. “It isn’t fair’, she said. A stone hit her in the side of the head” (Jackson, 5). “The Lottery” introduced a pleasant little town with a special once a year event where a family draws a card from a box, and a member of that family gets stoned to death. The reader was not expecting to read that such an event took place in a pleasant, little town.