How Does Shirley Jackson Use Dramatic Irony In The Lottery

Shirley Jackson’s theme in “The lottery” is to show the audience how people blindly follow traditions that are insignificant and meaningless. Jackson uses dramatic, situational, and verbal irony to develop her theme by creating a situation which is understood by the audience but not the characters, having a situation where actions have an opposite effect from what was expected, and having the characters say one thing but mean another, or using words that convey a meaning which is opposite of the actual meaning. Jackson uses dramatic irony by creating a situation that is understood by the readers but not by Mrs. Hutchinson. Mrs. Hutchinson arrives late for the lottery and has no idea what is going to happen after she draws the ticket. This small detail adds to the irony of the whole story. Before Mrs. Hutchinson was chosen to die, she had no problem with the cruel and brutal tradition, but after she is the chosen one to be stoned to death, she starts to yell and scream saying it is …show more content…
The title of the story, “The Lottery” is verbal irony in itself. The definition of lottery is a way of raising money by selling tickets and giving prizes to the holders of numbers drawn at random. In this case, the lottery is defined in another meaning. By reading the title, the audience may think that someone is going to win a lottery and get money or some other type of fortune. But the opposite happens at the end and whoever wins the lottery will die and get nothing. Also in the beginning of the story, the children are seen playing peacefully, but with rocks. “Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys followed his example, selecting the smoothest and roundest stones.” (Jackson) This piece of detail is very suspicious and ironic to the