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Irony
Definition of Mood
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect of a piece of writing... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes in the reader. Every aspect... read full definition
The mood of a piece of writing is its general atmosphere or emotional complexion—in short, the array of feelings the work evokes... read full definition
Mood
Explanation and Analysis:
The mood of “The Lottery” shifts from joyful to unsettling to haunting over the course of the story. The opening lines establish the happy and carefree mood, as seen in the following passage:
The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o'clock.
Here the narrator uses rosy language to describe how the morning was “clear and sunny,” and that “flowers were blossoming profusely” on the “richly green” grass during this “fresh warmth of a full-summer day.” All of this sunny language adds to the joyful mood at the beginning of the story.
The mood begins to shift as villagers start to gather for the lottery proceedings and Jackson starts to hint at the anxiety they are all carrying. She does not have the narrator state this directly, but has them, instead, note how the villagers get quiet, “wet their lips,” and “breathe heavily” the closer they get to learning who has selected the marked piece of paper during the lottery process and will therefore be stoned to death. This all leads to the final lines of the story, which enter a haunting register:
A stone hit her on the side of the head. Old Man Warner was saying, “Come on, come on, everyone.” […] / “It isn't fair, it isn't right,” Mrs. Hutchinson screamed, and then they were upon her.
The mood in these final lines is pure horror. Tessie Hutchinson’s entire village (including her children) are starting to throw stones at her while Old Man Warner (a long-time community member) says, “Come on, come on, everyone,” as if this were an acceptable and everyday affair. Tessie’s screams of “It isn’t fair” and the narrator’s simple description “then they were upon her” also add to the terrifying mood. Until this moment, readers weren’t entirely sure where the story was heading and now know, for certain, what all of the stones the children calmly collected were for—to kill an innocent community member.
Related Themes:
