the young men were quite good enough for Miss Emily." Emily was never allowed to marry any of the local men because, apparently, her father did not think them worthy of her. She and her father were thought of as "a tableau, Miss Emily a slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in the foreground." They seem to have existed in an antebellum bubble, and her father's old-fashioned, outdated way of thinking of his daughter and her relative importance in the world has led to her solitary and sad life.

This kind of outdated, old-fashioned thinking pervades "The Lottery" too. The townsfolk have hung on to a barbaric tradition which no longer has any relevance in the modern era. Even the black box used for the lottery—not the original, mind you, but one created long ago—has chipped and splintered, and Mr. Summers would like a new one. However, "no one liked to upset even as much tradition as was represented by the black box." The people here are so apprehensive about upsetting tradition that they don't even want to replace a box. As a result of this way of thinking, an innocent woman loses her life in a brutal and violent way, in front of her children. Traditions are often comfortable, while change is hard, and so people can cling to traditions even when they no longer make sense. Both of these stories show the dangers of holding on to outdated modes of thought simply because they are familiar and comfortable.

Although both stories deal with murder, there are stronger themes that they share: the power of society over the individual and the destructive nature of unexamined tradition and "group think."

Faulkner's Jefferson is a small Southern town mired in a toxic culture of social conformity. The most insignificant details of daily life in Jefferson are influenced by tradition; the important ones are controlled and directed by it. Acceptable behavior, by Jefferson standards, is enforced not by law but by custom, habit, gossip, and the threat of condemnation by others. Born into this society, Miss Emily lived her life as she was expected to live her life, despite its emptiness. When she rebelled with Homer Barron, Jefferson was aghast, but Emily carried on in her own way, as the town discovered years later when Barron's body was found. Emily lived to a ripe old age, but thanks to the town, her spirit died young.

Shirley Jackson's village is much like Jefferson in that its citizens live according to tradition and custom, never thinking independently or questioning their individual or collective behavior. Their obedience is so blind that they continue to participate, in a very civil manner, in the brutal lottery, again individually and collectively. Once the stoning begins, however, there are no individuals at all--only a savage mob.

Although their stories are quite different in setting and plot, Faulkner's and Jackson's themes are not. Unthinking adherence to tradition for the sake of tradition is a destructive social force that is difficult, if not impossible, to oppose.

The plot development for each story is key to the surprise the reader experiences at each story's end. However, the process for plot development used by each author is very different.

In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," the author is able to surprise the reader because of his use of a disrupted chronology of events. For example, when the story begins, the unnamed narrator begins the story almost at the end, and ends the story with the final action. But in between these two points, he moves around seemingly without rhyme or reason in relaying specific segments of Emily's life.

When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral...

Then the narrator jumps to the time when the aldermen had gone to her home to collect back taxes. She smoothly defies and defeats them. The narrator effortlessly segues into how Emily had defeated their fathers thirty years prior when an awful smell was emanating from her house. The men refuse to approach her face-to-face, so they go about spreading lime around the foundation of the house under the cover of darkness. The reader is eased into information of her father's death and Emily's inclination to mental illness. 

As part three begins, the time has shifted again, backward, to when workmen were in the town to put in paved sidewalks. A relationship develops between the Yankee Homer Barron (the foreman) and Miss Emily. Without her father's interference, she does as she pleases. She rides out in public with him. She purchases poison from the druggist. 

The town is appalled by Miss Emily's behavior with Barron—he is not of her class, and he's a Northerner. Then he is gone and they think the relationship is over. He returns one last time, for the last time. Emily becomes reclusive. Many years later, she dies in her bed. After the funeral, the men go about opening up the house and find Barron's corpse, and evidence that Emily had slept next to him—recently—though many years have passed since his death. 

The story is told by the narrator through a series of non-sequential flashbacks.

It is noted that the story's first line is actually also a flashback—a memory shared before the body is found in the house.

In Jackson's "The Lottery," the plot development does not use flashback, but foreshadowing. The hints regarding the story's conclusion come through the use of symbolic references: they are abundant. Again, the story's conclusion is not outwardly indicated, but hinted at through clues that one might miss reading it through for the first time.

Some of the most noticeable symbolism comes with the use of names. Mr. Graves' name can be associated with death or "tragedy." 

Delacroix, which in French means "of the cross," suggests sacrifice because of its reference to Jesus Christ's death on the cross.

Certainly the death that occurs at the end of the story is very much a ritualistic sacrifice. Other elements of foreshadowing are "left lying about:"

Bobby Martin had already stuffed his pockets full of stones, and the other boys soon followed...

The black box also foreshadows danger. People keep their distance. The black spot on the paper also foreshadows death:

In [Stevenson's Treasure Island], pirates are presented with a "black spot" to officially pronounce a verdict of guilt or judgment.

Another important aspect of the story is the description of everyday activities, the beautiful weather, etc.: setting a mood counter to the shock and horror of the tale's ending.

These are two very interesting short stories to compare and contrast, as they are both thought of as examples of Gothic fiction. I understand that you are focussing on the two female protagonists of these short stories and comparing and contrasting them. You might want to think about the ways that both of them are victims of the society the have grown up in. Obviously, Tess is a clear victim - she is turned on by those who called themselves her friend and in an intimate community is callously stoned to death by her neighbours. But Miss Emily has been victimised in some senses as well - we are given tantalising glimpses of her life growing up with her father that perhaps indicate how she has suffered from his tyranny and makes us understand her overwhelming desire to love and be loved by someone - whatever the cost.

However, I personally think there are more differences than similarities. Tess, for example, in "The Lottery," is shown to be a member of her community up until the end. She gossips with her friends and is in every way one of the crowd. Miss Emily, on the other hand, seems to be presented in a way that shows she is trapped in a time warp and in some ways is already dead even before her actual death. Consider her comparison to a drowned corpse when the Alderman go and see her. Although both are the protagonists of these Gothic masterpieces, the similarities are few and far between.