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Date: 23rd February 2016

Comparison between “The Necklace” and “The Lottery”.

Both stories share a common theme which is that there are life aspects that are inevitable and cannot be changed. In "The Necklace," Madame Mathilde Loisel, who is the main character, is married to a poor husband, a life that makes her feel unsatisfied. Mathilde is not happy with that life since she was born and raised in a poor family, something that has not changed. However, she still tries to change her situation. Mathilde cannot escape the bitter truth of her place in the society. This can be reflected by when she borrows a necklace from a friend so as to impress other people leading to a disaster. This makes Mathilde a hardened and bitter woman.

In "The Lottery," Tessie Hutchinson gets together with the townspeople as the lottery event takes place. A victim is selected once every year by lottery and then is stoned to death by the community members. Therefore, this means that disaster is inevitable, and someone must die. Tessie’s family becomes a target and Tessie ends up selecting a death mark paper. Fear hits her, and she argues that she was ready to sacrifice one of her family members in her place. This, however, was not allowed and thus her death was inevitable.

The objects in "The Lottery" foreshadow the dark undertone in the story. However, in "The Necklace," the life of Mathilde's is described in the instant after the dance event when she looks in the mirror and finds out she had misplaced the necklace.

A similarity exists in both “The Necklace” and “The Lottery” stories. In “The Lottery” when Tessi selected the black dot paper she could be in full of fear and couldn’t believe it. She even tried to persuade people not to kill her by asking them to take someone else from her family in her place. This can also be seen in “The Necklace” when Mathilde misplaced the borrowed necklace. She could not believe she had lost it and had to find means to replace it. Another similarity was that Tessi and Mathilde were living an ordinary life before the occurrence of their disasters. An additional similarity is that both Tessi and Mathilde were both excited for something, Tessi was excited and wanted to see who won the lottery while Mathilde was excited to go for the dance event.

There are also differences between “The Necklace” and “The Lottery”. In “The Lottery” after picking the paper form the box, the people nervously waited until the lottery was completed. However in the “The Necklace”, after losing the necklace, Mathilde was not nervous but was freaking out. She came up with a plan to get some money and purchase a necklace that looked same as the one she had misplaced. Another difference is that “The Necklace” happens in Mathilde’s house while “The Lottery” happens in the town’s square.

References

Shirley Jackson. “The Lottery.”Middlebury College. 1948. Web. 23rd Feb. 2016.

Guy de Maupassant. “The Necklace.”United States Department of State.1884. 23rd Feb. 2016.