American author Henry James believed characters are merely every bit interesting as their responses to peculiar state of affairss. The statement he made can be supported by many pieces of literature that we have encountered. The manner a character reacts to the state of affairs they are placed in can state a batch about their true character. Two characters were placed in different state of affairss in “The Tell-Tale Heart” written Edgar Allan Poe and “The Lottery” written by Shirley Jackson reactions will be discussed in this essay.
In “The Tell-Tale Heart” the renter thought he would acquire off with the slaying he had. but committed cracked under the force per unit area. Initially when the constabulary offers entered the place he was he was able to maintain his calm. but he easy started to interrupt. My caput ached. and I fancied a tintinnabulation in my ears: but still they sat and still chatted. The tintinnabulation became more distinguishable: —it continued and became more distinguishable: I talked more freely to acquire rid of the feeling: but it continued and gained definitiveness—until. at length. I found that the noise was non within my ears. ( Poe 390 ) At this point the adult male started to hear things in his head. He was conceive ofing the whipping of the old man’s bosom. Prior to his psychotic belief the reader likely believed he would acquire off with the slaying.
Finally the adult male can no longer take the sound of the old man’s bosom crushing beneath the floor boards. “Villains! ” I shrieked. “dissemble no more! I admit the title! —tear up the boards! —here. here! —it is the whipping of his horrid bosom! ” ( Poe 391 ) I believe he told the officers about the old man’s organic structure because his scruples got to him. If he was like most cold. blooded slayers his scruples would non hold told him he had done something incorrect.
In “The Lottery” when the Hutchinson household ab initio draws the piece of paper from the old black box. Tessie continually pleads to make the remake the drawing of the names. She says. “You didn’t give him clip adequate to take any paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn’t just! ” ( Jackson 267 ) . Even though the drawing of her family’s name was done wholly just she tries to come up with some alibi. Even though her whole household. including her kids. ab initio had the possible to be stoned she was the lone 1 who wanted a redrawing done.
When Tessie’s realized she had the paper she did non even seek to state adieu to her household. Most people. even felons today. would instead pass their last minutes stating adieu to their loved 1s. Tessie on the other manus continually said. “It isn’t carnival. it isn’t right” ( Jackson 269 ) . With her continually stating this isn’t carnival or right this shows she does non believe in the system her town used. When she foremost got to the lottery she made a gag about go forthing the dishes. as if she was O.K. with what was approximately to take topographic point.
When her family’s name was drawn her true feeling were shown. She evidently did non hold with holding a human forfeit in order to break her town’s opportunities of holding a good crop. Both the adult male from and Tessie were placed in some an highly tense state of affairs. and both reacted in a similar mode. The adult male cracked under the force per unit area of killing the old adult male and Tessie Hutchinson lost her calm when she found out she was the 1 who would be stoned. Henry James quotation mark of “characters are merely every bit interesting as their responses to peculiar situations” was confirmed from the above reading because both of the characters show a different. more interesting. side of themselves when they faced with a quandary.
