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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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Mrs. Strangeworth made unethical decisions that lead to hurt feelings among the people in her town. Mrs. Strangeworth's intentions are to protect the townspeople from evil. Mrs Strangeworth corrupts the relationships of the other people in town toward one another and towards her. Truly, Miss Strangeworth thought that the town people were corrupt and evil, but it was really Miss Strangeworth. Mrs. Strangeworth made unethical decisions that lead to hurt feelings among the people in her town.

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In the ‘’The Possibility of Evil’’ Mrs Strangeworth is spreading rumours about the people in the community. By Mrs Strangeworth sending those letters to people saying things to try and keep the community at peace when all it was really do was causing problems within the community the author of the short story used that conflict to show man 's inhumanity to man. When the boy finds the letters and figures out who has been writing them he tells Miss Strangeworth that the community now knows who has been writing the letters and spreading things that are not true. Miss Strangeworth thinks that informing the community of things that are happening around them that she sees and thinks that is going on she thinks she is helping them out but she 's really just causing problems with the community and making the people

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She has several prominent routines, such as buying her tea on Tuesdays and always going for afternoon and evening walks. These routines lead one to believe that she may even have obsessive compulsive traits, in the story the author mentions that “[s]he was fond of doing things exactly right”(Jackson,1941, p.169). Immediately after every meal “...her plate and cup and saucer [are] washed and dried and put back where they [belong], and her silverware [is] put back in the mahogany silver chest…”(Jackson,1941, p.171) because “Miss Strangeworth never delayed when things had to be done”(Jackson,1941, p.169). Her perfectionism leads her to burn her letters immediately when she makes a mistake or “when the letters [are] not spaced nicely on the page” (Jackson,1941, p.169). These tendencies could be one of the reasons for her horrible letters.

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