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Character Analysis Of Ms. Strangeworth In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

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“You are free to choose, but you are not free from the consequences of your choice” - Stephen Covey. In the story “The Possibility of Evil” written by Shirley Jackson, the character Ms. Strangeworth pushes her views and biases onto others, thus impacting the community for the worse. By spreading her opinions, she ruined relationships as well as misled people while gaining no benefits from doing this. Firstly, telling people unfiltered opinions that can be hurtful to them will hinder relationships. Near the end of the story Linda and Dave have a view that no one cares about them due to the letters sent, but when Ms. Strangeworth walked by they still said hello as they saw Ms. Strangeworth as a nice person. This shows how even if it does not affect the relationship between Ms. …show more content…

In the story, the parents of Linda were misinformed about David which caused them to never let David come over. In this scenario, David was confused as to why he wasn't allowed and Linda wouldn't even tell him why Lastly, at the beginning of this story, Ms. Strangeworth was loved by all, there was no reason to dislike her as she was kind and warm to others, but in the end when it was revealed, she was the one behind all of the letters she then got one for herself telling her to look out at what used to be her roses. There were no winners in this situation, She ruined relationships with the people she sent it to as well as relationships between those people. Dave was the prime victim in this case as he was told not to come near the person's house In conclusion, by spreading personal opinions she created negative effects on the relationships within her community, and manipulating others created a lose-lose situation. This could have been prevented if Ms. Strangeworth was to keep her opinions to herself. From this, it is safe to say that certain ideas should be kept to oneself especially if it isn't needed to be

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