How do we learn about the main character?

I think that much is gained about Tessie in terms of her
own statements.  When Tessie enters into the story, she is making jokes with Summers and
demonstrates an air of zeal about the "ceremony."  We start gaining more insight into
Tessie when her husband pulls the paper that means that someone from the Hutchinson
family will be targeted.  When Tessie starts to implicate her own family members, asking
that they be included in this secondary drawing, and then focusing on how Bill was
rushed, it is evident that Tessie is uncomfortable with the notion of being targeted. 
This is in stark contrast to how she was at the start of the ceremony, indicating that
she is only reticent about the practice of the town when she is the intended victim. 
This becomes more evident when she starts to protest her own identification as the
target.  Her words of "It isn't fair, it isn't right," is a reflection of how the
practice of the village is intrinsically immoral and horrifically savage.  However, it
is also a reflection of her own sense of hypocrisy.  Tessie is right in that what the
village is doing is wrong and unfair. Yet, she only seems to protest because she is
implicated.  Tessie's character is constructed in an interesting manner in that she
speaks for a larger and human truth, but one that is only experienced in a small and
self -interested manner.