The short story "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson uses verbal, situational, and dramatic irony to create an unsettling tone. It depicts a yearly village tradition of a public lottery where one person is stoned to death, subverting the reader's expectations of what a typical lottery would entail. The characters are ignorant of the implications of their own ritual while the reader understands the grim fate that awaits the unlucky winner.

1. “The Lottery”
Shirley Jackson

2. Irony
A literary or rhetorical device in which there is
a gap (or incongruity) between what a
speaker or a writer says and what is
generally understood

3. Verbal Irony
 Irony produced intentionally by speakers
 e.g.- a person reports to her friend that rather than
going to a medical doctor to treat her ovarian cancer,
she has decided to see a spiritual healer instead. In
response her friend says sarcastically, "Great idea! I
hear they do fine work!" (Note that this could easily
be spoken literally by a person who believes in
spiritual healing as a legitimate treatment for
cancer.) The friend could have also replied with any
number of ironic expressions that should not be
labeled as sarcasm exactly, but still have many
shared elements with sarcasm.

4. Situational Irony
A kind of irony in which there is a
discrepancy between the expected result and
actual results when enlivened by perverse
appropriateness.
 Examples:
O. Henry’s The Gift of the Magi

5. Dramatic Irony
A kind of irony that occurs when a character
on stage or in a story is ignorant, but the
audience knows his/her actual fate
 e.g.- Romeo and Juliet

6. Symbolism
 The
practice of representing things by
symbols.

14. Tone
 The mood or feeling of a literary work
 e.g.- Formal, Informal, Serious, Humorous, Amused,
Angry, Playful, Neutral, Satirical, Fictional,
Imaginary, Fanciful, Idealistic, Romantic, Realistic,
Optimistic, Pessimistic, Gloomy, Melancholic ,
Mournful , Sorrowful