The Lacanian Theory is a form of criticism that examines a character, audience, or author and the way that they are molded by outside societal influences. There are three stages of this theory which are the mirror stage, the symbolic order, and the imaginary order. With this essay, we are going to take a look at the character of Tess Hutchinson, from Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery and how the traditions and expectations of her community affect her.
When Tess Hutchinson enters the story, she already stands out as someone who does not completely conform to the social norm. While the other women in town arrive early and quietly join their husbands, Mrs. Hutchinson comes late having “Clean forgot what day it was” (P8, L3) and disrupts the entire crowd as she makes her way to her husband. However, while this does set her apart slightly from the rest of the villagers, it is also evident that she still made the unconscious effort to conform to society as she has “her sweater thrown over her shoulders” (P8, L2) which is obviously expectant of housewives as all the women are described earlier as wearing house dresses and sweaters. While there are some aspects of her character that separate her from the rest, she is still warmly accepted and is evidently excited to be there and desires to be accepted by society. For instance, she ran from her home so as not to miss anything, and is happily bantering with her friend and with Mr. Summers. This is all evidence of her being in the symbolic stage of the Lacanian Theory. Even though she is an individual and is different, the core of who she is, or who she perceives herself to be, is completely relational. She is the subconsciously the lovely housewife that she is expected to be and is excited to participate in the Lottery. Another piece of evidence that shows the reader her enthusiasm for the event is her, yet again slightly out of the norm, line where she tells her husband to “Get up there Bill!” (P30). This not only shows she is happy to participate but also earns her some laughs which are symbolic of her being socially accepted.
However, once the first stage of the Lottery is complete and her husband is revealed to have drawn the slip of paper that selects their family for the second stage, she is removed from the symbolic stage and into the mirror stage. She suddenly is aware of the absurdity of the tradition of the Lottery and speaks out against it. Obviously confused and frightened at, she is angry and makes the accusation that Mr. Summers “didn’t give him [her husband] time enough to take any paper her wanted…..It wasn’t fair!” (P46, L2-3) Since she has now become a victim she is able to see that the society to which she so eagerly yearned to belong to was blindly following a tradition that she could now perceive as violent and unethical. Having made this realization, she becomes desperate and even attempts to improve her chances of survival by trying to have her own daughter and son-in-law included in the second reaping.
As the townsfolk remind her, in an almost exasperated or patronizing manner, of the rules and as they continue with the Lottery, Tess’s attitude shifts from desperate and angry to blatantly defiant. She participates but she does not show her fear as she does so. She “hesitated for a minute, looking around defiantly, and then set her lips and went up to the box.” (P44, L2-3) Tess is obviously conflicted here, as her identity is struggling between the familiarity of the symbolic state and the awareness of the mirror state. She has entered into what Lacan refers to as the Real, and gained an understanding of the corruptness of her society. But she is afraid of that knowledge and a part of her wishes to retain good social standing with her peers. The reader sees Tess object, but quietly so as not to cause a scene, and then willingly participate. But she does so with pride and disdain evident in the way she carries herself.
As the story comes to a close and Tess can see that her life is about to end, she attempts to bring others to the mirror state and wake them up from their blind obedience to a crooked and meaningless tradition. She desperately wants to save herself by awakening the inner self of her friends and helping those that she had previously so desperately wanted to belong with to see the error of their ways. She frantically claims five different times that the reaping was not fair, in an attempt mainly to get the general group to reconsider the situation. She does not have the chance to fully evolve into the mirror state between her gaining awareness and losing her life, and so does not go so far as insist that the entire tradition ought to be abandoned but simply requests that “we ought to start over” (P60, L1). This is evidence that while she had a better grasp of what a terrible even the Lottery truly was, a part of her still wanted to be a part of that society and did not wish to be alienated.
From the reading, we can conclude that like the villagers in her homestead, as well as the people in surrounding townships, Tess Hutchinson has been molded and shaped by her society to believe that ritually stoning a member of their community on an annual basis is appropriate and acceptable and to be accepted by each individual. Her core values are reflective of what her environment desires for them to be. When something shocking and frightening happens to her, however, she is roused from that socially accepted mindset and is able to come to a sense of ethics outside of those of her community and how she reacts to this awakening defines who she truly is as an individual, rather than reflecting the way she was raised. Thus, we have evidence of the Lacanian Theory at work in an individual surrounded by outside influence.