A Comparative Essay about The Lottery and The Masque of the Red Death

Wait, a person can be stoned to grow crops or suddenly killed by deadly disease? In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” the town participates in an annual stoning as part of a ritual. In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” a dangerous plague, the Red Death, is killing everyone. Certain characters from both short stories, Prosper and Tessie Hutchinson, show similar characteristics. Tessie tries to prevent the stoning of her husband while Prosper tries to save his friends from being killed.

In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” the town participates in an annual stoning as part of a ritual. There is a drawing that determines who is stoned, if thou receive the paper with a red circle in the middle then thou is the person to get stoned. Mr. Hutchinson received that paper and his wife, Tessie Hutchinson, demanded that they do the draw again. So, they did the draw but this time it was just between their household and Tessie ended up with the paper which leads to her getting stoned. This event can be found on pages 5-7, lines 45 to 79.

In Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death”, a dangerous plague, the Red Death, is killing everyone. Prince Prosper invited all his friend to stay at his castle to keep them from being killed by the Red Death. They hid out in an “amply provisioned” abbey that Prosper thought might “bid defiance to contagion”.

Get quality help now

Prof. Finch

Verified

Proficient in: Fiction

4.7 (346)

“ This writer never make an mistake for me always deliver long before due date. Am telling you man this writer is absolutely the best. ”

+84 relevant experts are online

Hire writer

On page one in paragraph two, it says “The abbey was amply provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid defiance to contagion”. They were safe until the Red Death entered and killed them all.

Tessie Hutchinson and Prince Prosper can relate in a couple of ways, both caused by them having a good heart. Both characters are very considerate and show generosity. Also, both characters are very loyal to the people they care about, loyal enough to die for them. Although they come from different short stories and even are in different social classes, they almost have the same personality traits. Those being conscientiousness and sympathetic.

In Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Masque of the Red Death,” Prince Prospero tries to save his friends from being killed by a dangerous plague, the Red Death, but ends up dying with them. In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery,” Tessie Hutchinson tries to save her husband from being stoned, an annual stoning is part of the town’s tradition, by demanding another drawing but this time it was between her household and she was the person that was stoned. Tessie Hutchinson and Prince Prosper were both conscientiousness and sympathetic. These two characters died trying to protect the ones they loved. Thou can conclude that Tessie Hutchinson and Prince Prospero had the same good intention at heart.