How does the way the villagers speak reveal their characters and what they are going to do?Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery"

In the division of characters in Shirley Jackson's "The
Lottery,"  there are those who represent tradition and the "tyranny of the majority" as
John Stuart Mills wrote.  The others are those individuals who dissent from the majority
and question the tradition.

CHARACTERS WHO HOLD WITH
TRADITION

Mr. Adams - While
Mrs. Adams suggests, "Some places have already quit lotteries," Mr. Adams reaches into
the black box and picks out a folded paper, which he holds firmly and stands a little
apart from his family, "and looking down at his hand."  It is clear that Mr. Adams acts
the patriarch, but he also feels guilty for submitting to the "tyranny of the majority"
and to tradition.

Mrs. Delacroix
- When Mrs. Hutchinson objects to the procedures, Mrs. Delacroix
tells Tessie Hutchinson, "Be a good sport, Tessie."  Later, she "selected a stone so
large she had to pick it up with both hands and tells Mrs. Dunbar,  "Come on,...Hurry
up." Some critics feel Mrs. Delacroix [croix means cross in French]
represents the duality of human nature as she speaks with some gentility, but acts
sadistically.

Mr. Summers, who
speaks very matter-of-factly about the lottery as does Mr.
Graves,represents the unthinking who follow the status quo and
tradition.

Mr. Martin holds
the lottery box while names are drawn.

Old
Man Warner - Mr. Warner is appalled by Mrs. Adams's remark that some
places have done away with the lottery:

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"Nothing but trouble in that....Pack of young
fools....Next thing you know, they'll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody
work any more....There's always been a
lottery....

Mr.
Warner, who is resistent to change, represents the "old guard"--"Seventy-seventh year I
been in the lottery"-- and those who follow blindly simply because "That's how we have
done it" (tradition).

Bill
Hutchinson - When he wife questions the method of drawing for the
lottery, Bill tells his wife to shut up, bowing to the "tyranny of the
majority." 

INDIVIDUALS WHO QUESTION
TRADITION

Mrs. Janey Dunbar -
Her attempts are feeble as she wishes things would be over--"I wish
they'd hurry"--and she substitutes herself for her husband in drawing lots; however she
does make an effort not to participate:

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Mrs. Dunbar had small stones in both hands, and
she said, gasping for breath, "I can't run at all.  You'll have to go ahead and i"ll
catch up with
you."

Mrs.
Adams  - One of the few who questions the lotterie, Mrs. Adams says,
"Some places have already quit
lotteries."

Mrs.
Tessie Hutchinson - The victim who has the black dot that
sentences her to a stoning as a scapegoat, Tessie Hutchinson tries to be forgotten by
not appearing at first.  When she does arrive, she excuses herself by saying that she
has forgotten what day it is.  She questions Mr. Summers, objecting to the fairness of
an arbitrary drawing of lots.  She also questions the custom of married daughters
drawing with their husband's family.

After her own husband
forces her ticket from her hand that which she will show no one, and Tessie is taken to
be stoned, she protests, "It isn't right; it isn't fair."  Tessie represents one of the
very few voices of dissent in Jackson's alarming narrative.