Surprise - Essay Example

Teacher Three important things about the character of Louise Mallard from The Lottery story Mrs. Louise Mallard is archetype of a damsel and distress who has to depend on someone for her upkeep. The archetype of a distressed and damsel is young and beautiful which resembles to Mrs. Louise Mallard is a young and a very beautiful woman. But just like a damsel in distress, Mrs. Louise Mallard’s body is frail because she suffers from a poor heart condition. So when the news about her husband’s death arrived, everybody was careful in delivering the news to her to avoid upsetting her that might give her a heart attack. It was her sister in law Josephine Mallard who broke the news to her as gently as possible to avoid upsetting her. This demonstrates Mrs. Louise Mallard damsel in distress constitution of having a weak physical as well emotional state of Mrs. Louise Mallard due to her heart condition.
2. Mrs. Louise Mallard is also an archetype of an opportunist gold digger. She first felt bad when the news of her husband’s death was gently announced to her. She cried and sobbed in her room alone to pretend that the world was about to end. Then her gold digging attitude overcame her – that her husband’s death could bring her freedom and with it money (his estate). At first, she was shy about the idea and realizes that it is inappropriate to think that way. But she just liked the idea of freedom from her husband too much. She was overjoyed with the idea that without her husband, she could now do anything that she wanted and also enjoy the inheritance from her husband. She now would become a truly independent woman. She even whispered to herself “ “Free, free, free!”  She however does not want people to see that she is celebrating with the death of her husband so she feigned her weeping during the wake of her husband just like any gold diggers would do.
3. Mrs. Louise Mallard’s archetype of a witch that was hit by karma. Witches can look physically beautiful just like Mrs. Louise Mallard but deep inside they are ugly. At first they will prevail just like Mrs. Louise Mallard who have successfully duped people that she was grieving with her husband’s death but in fact she was not. In the end however, karma took over just like witches who are being punished for their bad deeds. The karma happened in an unexpected manner. Mr. Brently Mallard after all did not die from the train crash and was in fact alive. He was mistaken as somebody else and his identity was reported as dead which was reported to this wife. Richard, a friend of Brently Mallard would like to prevent Mrs. Louise Mallard from suddenly seeing her husband due to her heart condition but she did. She was shocked and died from heart attack due to her poor heart condition. The doctors reported that she Mrs. Louise Mallard died from “joy that kills” of not being able to withstand the happiness of seeing her husband alive. The doctors did not know however that Mrs. Louise Mallard could have died from shock and disappointment because her alive husband curtailed the freedom that she just found which was a karma against witches. Read More