The “Lottery Ticket”, written by Anton Chekhov, is a short story about a middle class couple,whose dreams cannot be fulfilled.But they like to be in the state of dreaming, though reality saddens them.
Ivan Dmitritch earns 1200 per year and seems satisfied with his earning in the beginning and was happy to see series 9,499 of the Lottery ticket bought by his wife Marsha in the newspaper, though he initially shows disinterest. But when Marsha asks Ivan to check out
the Number 26 he says, "later". It’s all about Dream,which very rarely comes true. This, both Ivan Dmitritch and his wife Masha, knows. That’s why when her husband says “We have plenty of time to be disappointed” she somewhat agrees.He starts visualizing dreams. Ivan starts imagining things that would never happen, his second marriage, relatives asking for money and getting jealous, his wife Masha putting the money in safe and locking it with keys,is his dream too. He thinks this way, because they have never kept their money in safe,as they earn less. But they are trying to be happy with this income and his wife buys tickets to fulfill their hidden wishes and,though Ivan doesn’t show his interest in ticket deep
down, he too wants to win the prize money of 75,000.And it seems that they pray everyday that some miracle will happen and bring smile in their life. But when in the end, the Lottery number is not 26, all their dream shatters. And so there is sudden change in his thinking, as he comes back to reality. And the truth reveals that he actually wants to die. And he was pretending to be happy.
It’s a sad story which shows the difference between reality and dreams. Dreams can come true only by "hard work", as it gives us true happiness we deserve.Hard earned money of 1200 is "precious", than winning prize money of 75,000 which may give us "happiness" but not "satisfaction".