Analysis of the Lottery and the Hedge

In the short stories, The Lottery and The Hedge, the identity of the female and male characters are represented very similarly. Both stories exemplify, male and female characters occupying their own, respective, traditional gender roles. The individual identity of women in the two stories conveys the traditional identity of women in the 20th century. The women in the two stories are depicted to be stay at home housewives, while the men are portrayed as dominant and controlling. The female character of The Hedge, is very emotional and impulsive. She is very attached and fond of natural entities such as the sea; “The sea…had always held a fascination for her…she loved to watch the shadows of the clouds racing across its surface”. The sea and the westerly wind are symbols of “her” freedom. So when “he” constructs a hedge around the house to block intruders, he is effectively restricting her view of the sea and thereby restricting her freedom. This in turn makes her very upset and “affect[s] her in a personal way”. It conveys that she was confined and she was regarded as being inferior to the man. The relationship between the husband and wife in the stories is quite odd. There doesn’t seem to be any love between them at all. “He always referred to Grace…as Mrs Bilborough”, “they would seldom speak”. The characters in these stories don’t seem to really understand their own significant others. They attitude they have towards one another speaks volumes about their relationship and their crippling marriage. Grace and Ted, from The Lottery, have a relationship that can be likened to a business rather than a marriage. Ted throughout the text keeps dwelling on the idea of how Grace could have possibly found the ‘five and threes’ to buy a lottery ticket. All the details revolve around money and how his wife could have possibly found enough money from the limited household allowance to buy a lottery ticket ‘When you budgeted as carefully as they did there wasn’t five