"The Lottery Ticket"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses how Anton Chekhov demonstrates that the mere thought of money can severely impact a personal relationship in his short story, "The Lottery Ticket". An older couple with a family holds what could be a winning lottery ticket, but resists checking the numbers while they daydream about what they might do with the money. It examines how, at first, their reaction to the possibility of wealth is joyful; but rather than share their dreams and communicate their wishes, it looks at how Ivan Dmitritch and his wife, Masha, recede into their own worlds. It attempts to show how money definitely does not buy love and how, in fact, it has the potential to destroy it.

From the Paper:

"Ivan Dmitritch, who is described as "middle class man who lived with his family," had not previously believed in playing the lottery. Therefore, it was Masha who purchased the ticket. Her holding of the ticket is significant to this story because it signifies power. Ivan reveals his association of money with power when he tells his wife, "It's not money, but power, capital!" Though the couple has not even won, they perceive the mere potential of winning as a source of power. Ivan gradually comes to resent the power that Masha holds, manifested in the lottery ticket. Knowing that because she purchased the ticket she deserves to make the decisions about how to spend the money, Ivan begins to feel threatened."

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