The Lottery

Late for the lottery and joking about it, Tessie is a lively, friendly symbol of the warmth and civility of small-town life. She also stands in as an ugly reminder of what can happen to good people in small communities, when she is chosen by the lottery for execution by stoning. Her vocal protests that the process was too hurried to give her family a proper chance and that the entire event “isn’t fair”—constitute the only open dissent against the lottery. However, they are also a weak systemic critique since it appears unlikely that Tessie would be protesting the lottery if someone else had been selected.

Mr. Graves is the postmaster; as the keeper of the list of household names, he assists Mr. Summers in officiating at the lottery, and he provides the three-legged stool on which the lottery box rests during the proceedings. Mr. Graves’s surname symbolizes the death that shadows the otherwise cheerful public gathering.

At age 77, Warner is the oldest citizen in the town. He strongly favors the lottery and laments that younger folks no longer treat it with respect. When someone mentions that a few nearby towns have abandoned the lottery, Warner thinks them to be fools. His is the only voice that openly argues for the lottery; by contrast, Tessie Hutchinson is the sole voice against it. 

Bill is a man who, with wife Tessie, is raising three kids. He silently acquiesces to the workings of the lottery, even when it targets his own family, suggesting a character who overvalues duty, tradition, and self-sacrifice. When Tessie protests, he tells her to “Shut up”; when she is chosen for stoning, he bears it stoically. Bill represents the kind of good person who, under the right circumstances, will support horrific actions, even against his own family, in the name of the tradition and the body public.