This is an intriguing question. Here are three examples, not necessarily in the order in which they occur in the story.
During the first drawing a man named Steve Adams expresses some slight misgivings about the lottery:
"They do say," Mr. Adams said to Old Man Warner, who stood next to him, "that over in the north village they're talking of giving up the lottery."
Old Man Warner, of course, receives that news with his characteristic scorn. Then when Tessie Hutchinson is finally chosen as the victim, Adams becomes one of the leaders of the crowd of people rushing forward to stone the poor, cowering woman to death.
Old Man Warner was saying, "Come on, come on, everyone." Steve Adams was in the front of the crowd of villagers, with Mrs. Graves beside him.
Tessie Hutchinson herself seems like a friendly, folksy woman who is enjoying an outing and a brief break from her usual household chores. She is in a good humor when her husband Bill goes up to draw for the Hutchinson family.
"Get up there, Bill," Mrs. Hutchinson said. and the people near her laughed.
But then when Bill draws the black spot and the cold realization of its meaning creeps over Tessie, she becomes a changed woman.
Tessie Hutchinson shouted to Mr. Summers. "You didn't give him time enough to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!"
She becomes terrified, desperate, cunning, and utterly unscrupulous.
"There's Don and Eva," Mrs. Hutchinson yelled. "Make them take their chance!"
Eva is Tessie's married daughter. Tessie wants her included as part of the Hutchinson household so that the odds against her getting the black spot herself in the final round would be slightly improved. Instead of one in five, it would be one in six. This proposal seems to suggest that this good woman would rather see her husband, her older son, her twelve-year-old daughter Nancy, or her tiny son Davy get stoned to death than suffer that fate herself. The lottery brings out the worst in everybody--except for little Davy who doesn't understand what is going on.
Little Davy gets a blank slip in the final round. Both of the other Hutchinson children, Nancy and Bill Jr., also get blank slips. Nancy and Bill seem happy to have escaped stoning, although they must realize this means their father or mother will be the victim and they will be expected to participate in stoning one of their loving parents to death.
Mrs. Delacroix and Tessie Hutchinson appear to be long-time neighbors and good friends.
Mrs. Hutchinson came hurriedly along the path to the square, her sweater thrown over her shoulders, and slid into place in the back of the crowd. "Clean forgot what day it was," she said to Mrs. Delacroix, who stood next to her, and they both laughed softly. "Thought my old man was out back stacking wood," Mrs. Hutchinson went on. "and then I looked out the window and the kids was gone, and then I remembered it was the twenty seventh and came a-running." She dried her hands on her apron, and Mrs. Delacroix said, "You're in time, though. They're still talking away up there."
But then when the final drawing is completed:
"All right, folks." Mr. Summers said. "Let's finish quickly."
Mrs. Delacroix selected a stone so large she had to pick it up with both hands and turned to Mrs. Dunbar. "Come on," she said. "Hurry up."
Throughout the story there seems to be a feeling of urgency about getting the business over with as quickly as possible. Mr. Summers himself wants the drawing to proceed expeditiously.
"Well, now." Mr. Summers said soberly, "guess we better get started, get this over with, so's we can go back to work. Anybody ain't here?"
Mrs. Dunbar seems to be expressing this general feeling of urgency--although there is no obvious reason why any of the people assembled on this pleasant summer day should be in a particular hurry to get back to their usual activities.
"I wish they'd hurry," Mrs. Dunbar said to her older son. "I wish they'd hurry."
Why should Mrs. Dunbar wish they would hurry? It would seem that all these people secretly feel ashamed of themselves for participating in this primitive ritual. They all want to "get this over with" so they can put it behind them and try to forget about its horror and about their own savagery as well as the savagery revealed by all their friends and neighbors.
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