The Lottery Ticket Short Story Analysis

In life, there is that tendency to ruin the good things one has going on in their lives when they become more successful than they already are. People become inundated with the joy and achievement that they begin to act irresponsibly. A great thing such as winning the lottery can bring cheerfulness and satisfaction into one’s life but, on the other hand, this great thing can also become a complete nightmare. In most cases, when one goes from being extremely poor to being exceptionally rich, it impacts their lives by making the individual become unreasonable with their winning to the extent that they quit their duties, hobbies and even their jobs and rather prefer to be addressed as the one who won the lottery. ‘‘The Lottery Ticket’’, a short …show more content…
Chekhov introduced Ivan as ‘‘a middle-class man who lived with his family on an income of twelve hundred a year’’ (Chekhov, 2004). This tone set by Chekhov depicts the fact that the Dmitritch family household is one which is average. Though it seems like his family is just like the average family and there was nothing special, the protagonist Ivan ‘‘was very satisfied with his lot’’ (Chekhov, 2004). Nevertheless, by making an introductory opening with this statement, it appears less as a genuine statement as the story goes on and more as Ivan trying to convince himself that he is content with his life. While revealing the mindset of the protagonist, Chekhov foreshadowed that Ivan’s happiness is about to be short-lived. For in a short time, the attitudes of Ivan and his wife take a turn for the worse when they looked up the numbers of the winning lottery …show more content…
He takes his readers through a chronological flow of emotions. From the repetitive remark of Ivan’s content with his life to the possibility of potentially winning the lottery and to the dismay and discontent of returning to reality. Additionally, he effectively uses dialogue to show the emotion that the protagonists have; while on the other hand, he uses punctuation to show extreme emotions such as; his use of exclamation marks to stress the excitement that the protagonists have when they talk about all the things they plan to do with the money and his use of ellipsis to show the uncertainty in Ivan’s voice. An instance of such uncertainty can be seen in the line as follows, "Wait, wait! . . . He walked about the room and went on thinking. It occurred to him: what if his wife really did go abroad’’ (Chekhov, 2004). Concurrently, the lottery ticket used in the story symbolized the fictitious sense of happiness and power that money brings as well as the pointlessness of the thought. Coupled with the symbolism of the lottery ticket is the irony that the thought of money and power that drove Ivan to the feeling of awe and splendor soon drove him to suicidal thoughts at the