The Lottery Ticket

Anton Chekhov was a Russian short-story writer, playwright and physician, considered to be one of the greatest short-story writers in the history of world literature. His career as a dramatist produced four classics and his best short stories are held in high esteem by writers and critics. Chekhov practised as a doctor throughout most of his literary career: “Medicine is my lawful wife”, he once said, “and literature is my mistress.” Chekhov renounced the theater after the disastrous reception of The Seagull in 1896; but the play was revived to acclaim in 1898 by Constantin Stanislavski’s Moscow Art Theater, which subsequently also produced Uncle Vanya and premiered Chekhov’s last two plays, Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.

These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a “theatre of mood” and a “submerged life in the text.” Chekhov had at first written stories only for the money, but as his artistic ambition grew, he made formal innovations which have influenced the evolution of the modern short story.

His originality consists in an early use of the stream-of-consciousness technique, later adopted by James Joyce and other modernists, combined with a disavowal of the moral finality of traditional story structure. He made no apologies for the difficulties this posed to readers, insisting that the role of an artist was to ask questions, not to answer them.

Summary

The story is about a family man named IVAN DMITRITCH. He and his family were living a middle-class life and was very well satisfied with their life. Not until one day, his wife asked her to check the list of lottery drawings in the newspaper. His wife”s number got series 9,499, number 26. To his shock and amazement, he saw the series 9,499. Without checking the ticket number yet, he and his wife already started dreaming of a good life. Wanting to put excitement whether they got the correct ticket number or not, they first thought of several possibilities on what to do with the large amount of prize money. They dreamed of a big property, new furnishings, travelling and paying debts. Pictures continuously crawl in their minds, each more selfish than the last. Greed is eating up their imaginations.

They have now seemed to realize that their kind of life is no appropriate for a wealthy and powerly people like them who has just won the lottery. Ivan and his wife soon to annoy each other”s company and felt anger against each other, thinking to one another that they are just pain in the head on their plans. Seeing his wife”s hatred, he quickly glanced at the newspaper to check the correct ticket number. Unfortunately, it was number 46, not 26! Hatred and anger immediately disappeared, but they immediately seem to realize how small and dark their rooms were, how their supper is not doing them good, and that the evenings were long and wearisome. Their previous simple and contented life are now changed with more longing for a better life, after having false thoughts that they won the lottery.

Setting:

Urban setting.

The setting of the story is the house of the couple. In the statement, “…was very well satisfied with his lot, sat down on the sofa after supper and began reading the newspaper…” it connotes that Ivan is comfortable with the house he is living in but at the end of the story, after the fall of the high hopes and daydreams, the house was revealed to be dark and low-pitched. It does not necessarily mean that the house is indeed as bad as how they described it; probably the huge disappointment, paranoia, and hatred towards each other have wiped off their optimism toward their current living condition.

Style:

-Irony:
irony in this story is how the once loving family is now resentful towards each other .
-The end of the story :
“The Lottery Ticket” is an open-ended story because the conflict was not really resolved in the ending. I wonder what happened next: did they just disregard or ignored all the pessimistic notions they had for each other? Were they able to really share to one another all of it? In any relationships there are contributory factors that may better or worsen it. People involve are still in control of how and in what way they will allow these factors to affect their relationship. Anton Chekhov could have ended the story in such a way that will edify openness, respect, and selflessness to the readers, especially to married people.

Plot:

The climax of the story is where Ivan and Masha’s hatred towards each other stirred up in their hearts, and for Ivan to annoy Masha he quickly checked on the newspaper and disappointed her by reading out triumphantly that the winning combination was not alike to hers. The conflict was not actually resolved for though it was stated that, “…hope and hatred both disappeared at once…,” Ivan’s emotions was still in heat that he spoken out complaints which did dispute the statement that he is, “…very well satisfied with his lot.”

Characters:

1- IVAN DMITRITCH
He is a round character, he is a “middle-class man who lived with his family on an income of twelve hundred a year and was very well satisfied with his lot” 2-masha:
She is a round character,masha his wife is a middle class woman, The characters are multi-dimensional or dynamic because they both developed in the course of the narrative Theme:
*disappointment.
* *Money does not buy love;
* it destroys it. Before and in the beginning of the couple’s exciting moments of anticipation regarding the possible fortune, it was somehow pictured in the line, “…she clears the table while he reads the newspaper on the sofa…” that they are married long enough to have fallen into their respective routines and there was respect and love amidst the relationship. However, in the course of their daydreaming, because of Masha’s hope to travel too, Ivan’s feelings diverted into resentment towards her.