The Lottery Shirley Jackson

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Psychoanalytic criticism is based off of the study of Sigmund Freud’s neurotic patients. Freud discovered “that the human mind contains a dimension that is only partially accessible to the consciousness and then only through indirect means such as dreams or neurotic symptoms” (Rivken and Ryan 389); this part of the mind is known as the unconscious or id. It is through the unconscious mind that repressed desires, feelings, memories, and instinctual desires are encapsulated, and they typically deal with sexuality and violence (Rivken and Ryan 389). The repressed sexuality and violence is notably traced back to childhood and the relationship of the child to their parents. Psychoanalytic criticism is heavily based in the Oedipus Complex; the child …show more content…

Hutchinson is representative of Jackson’s mother and her death symbolic of their rocky relationship. Mrs. Hutchinson first appears in the short as she arrived late to the lottery. She “came hurriedly along” (Jackson 2) indicating her desire to be a part of the festivities. Yet, as the story moves along Mrs. Hutchinson is increasingly vocal that the lottery is of a time gone by. When her families name is chosen she offers up her married daughters: “‘There’s Don and Eva,’ Mrs. Hutchinson yelled. ‘Make them take their chance!’” (Jackson 5). Ultimately, dissatisfied with the results of the lottery she quietly said: “I think we ought to start over” (Jackson 6). This scene creates a woman that is eager to be a part of the community until it negatively affects her. Thus, creating a hypocritical woman that would be willing to sacrifice her own daughters to save her own life. From the psychoanalytic perspective, the scene presented is the manifest content, the literal representation of the work. However, Freud would have you look at the dream-thoughts of these events to determine the actual meaning. To begin, Jackson presents Mrs. Hutchinson as an eager member of society, always putting her best foot forward, but the minute times get rough her community focus quickly shifts to a personal focus. Indicating that Jackson feels her mother acts the same way in regards to their family, which shows that Jackson views her mother as hypocritical and

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