Nature of Authority in Jackson’s stories
The term Blind Obedience refers to people in a society who conform to the rules of people in ascendancy blindly. They follow everything that is instructed mindlessly. They are referred to as bystanders. The Milgram experiment by Psychologist Stanley Milgram was performed at Yale University, and the main objective of this specific experiment was to note how far people would commit atrocities because someone has ordered them to. The test would also determine why some people have the power to be brutal over other people and why people listen and follow the dicta given (Milgram, 371). The study was conducted concerning World War II; how far people would go to hurt others only because a sovereign power had instructed them to. The short stories, The Lottery and The Daemon Lover by American wright, Shirley Jackson exemplifies the traits obedience, defiance, cruelty, trauma and indeed demonstrates how these traits can be caused by those in authority as the people they lead follow unseeingly.
Visionless Obedience is evident in the book The Lottery. The authority, Mr. Summers, ordered the stoning of people to death. No one was allowed to aid the helpless after they were lapidated. This was a tradition that every community member had to uphold. Mrs. Dunbar always looked forward to the stoning of people to death. She never seemed maladjusted by the idea every year (Jackson, 26). When she lost the lottery, Mrs. Dunbar did not temporalize throwing a stone to Tessie. She even picked up a huge stone that she had to use both hands to carry it. The order given person had to be obeyed by everyone. Of course, many people were against it, but that didn’t mean they didn’t do it (Jackson, 28). This relates to the milligram experiment in that, and the lower class people had to obey the authority orders. Those who were defiant had to be submissive to what was instructed. Mrs. Dunbar never hesitated a request made by Mr. Summers. She was always following what was instructed to the extent where she would kill other people.
In The Daemon Lover, Jackson communicates how women were discerned. They had to make a lot of sacrifices to oblige to the expectations of society. Women are seen as housekeepers, and their job is to take care of children. Unmarried women who work for themselves were perceived as invisible, and they would infuriate the men if they went out in public, this is evident when the protagonist had feared to face the police to report a case of a man she was going to marry. She knew that that would make her be ridiculed (Jackson, 9). Just like the Milgram experiment on Obedience: patriarchy could get into our heads that women could not face men because of their position in society.
In Child Ballad 243, a nameless woman accepts the offers of her long lost lover. She is promised a good life of music. A life with no responsibilities (Ballad, 243). She accepts the offer and abandons her children and husband. As she on the sea with her ‘lover ‘he ends up sinking her into the sea and kills her (Ballad, 243). Here the Milgram experiment applies in that; a woman needs to be responsible, and a woman who doesn’t follow that is no good to society. For this reason, James Harris kills his sweetheart because she doesn’t depict the actions of a woman.
To sum this up, the books The Lottery and Daemon Lover by Shirley Jackson prove the truth of the Milgram experiment by pointing out the extent to which people feared the upper hand and committed acts of barbarity to follow a specific command.
Works Cited
Jackson, Shirley. The Daemon Lover. Child Ballad 243. 1912. PDF.
Jackson, Shirley. The Daemon Lover pdf. Pearse Chope Edition, 1912. PDF
Jackson, Shirley. The Lottery. New York: The New Yorker, 1948. PDF
Milgram, Stanley. Behavioral Study Of Obedience. 67th ed. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 1963. PDF.