With great power comes great responsibility—even if said power was not rightfully earned to begin with. In positions of power, humanity is prone to an overexertion of force to ensure those positions are secured, vying to push them to greater heights that cannot be overtaken. In Poisonwood Bible and Things Fall Apart, these tendencies manifest into ardent displays of cruelty; within itself, cruelty becomes a defense mechanism, a coping method, a disciplinary tool, rash and injust from fear of this superiority being lost. The driving point of this cruelty is that it festers within insecurity and is fed by greed. In the novels it reflects the presence of not only patriarchal dominance, but also religious, cultural, and racial puissance.
The character Miss Strangeworth in the literature “The Possibility of Evil” in inconsiderate and a perfectionist. She is inconsiderate because of her thoughts and actions. For example, Miss Strangeworth thinks this “Miss Strangeworth noticed that Miss Chandler had not taken much trouble with her hair that morning, and sighed” (Jackson 112-114). This reveals how inconsiderate she is to others solely picking out their imperfections. Miss Strangeworth is also a perfectionist who disdains imperfection or sloppiness.
Miss Strangeworth “Never concerned herself with facts” and normally would spread rumors instead of actually informing others about ligament problems in the town (Possibility of Evil 252). Miss Strangeworth’s flaws are not just a difference, they stem from something inside of her that chooses to do harm. She could choose to be kind but instead she continues to hurt others with her letters. The concept of imperfection is illustrated in these stories in different way. The flaws could be out of the character’s control like in Pleasantville or a deliberate choice to hurt others like in Possibility of Evil.
For most people, the words evil and harsh are not the typical traits used to describe an elderly woman. However, in the short story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, the 71 year old character Miss Adela Strangeworth, has a dark predatory nature hiding behind her highly respectable and sweet exterior. She preys upon her peers by misleading them into thinking everything is fine, only to subsequently tear them down. She accomplishes this by concealing her cruel, deceitful and perfectionist personality by maintaining an honourable reputation within her town. Miss Strangeworth shows no mercy when she anonymously reveals secrets about the family and lives of people in her community.
In “The Possibility of Evil”, Shirley Jackson utilizes irony and point of view to support a theme of negative outcomes in spite of good intent. Repeatedly Miss Strangeworth is trying to correct peoples ways of life but actually is causing them pain and sorrow. One demonstration of this is where it says “She was pleased with her letter. She was fond of doing things exactly right”, (Jackson 4). Miss Strangeworth writes to families to correct them and let them know exactly what her opinion is on the matter and it brings them hurt.
Is Ms. Strangeworth a victim OR villain In the short story “The Possibility of Evil” written by Shirley Jackson, the protagonist Ms. Strangeworth is a villain because she isn’t what everyone’s aspect of her is, she is very deceptive, and the letters she sends are the very cause of the evil she’s trying to stop. Ms. Strangeworth is a seventy-one-year-old lady who lives in a little town, which she thinks is her own. She always feels the need to know everything, about everyone. Even though, no one knows who she really is.
In the short story, “The Possibility of Evil” you can right away tell by the title that there will be some kind of evil going around. In the story there is a lady called Miss strangeworth who in the end turns out to be a bully. However, Miss Strangeworth is not a physical bully, she is in a way a cyber bully but instead of posting or sending messages she writes multiple letters to people in her town pointing out certain things she’s noticed. Throughout the story no one knows who is sending the letters, this is being anonymous. In the article “The Online Disinhibition Effect” it also gives examples of how one can keep their identity hidden by going as “anonymous” In the short story “The Possibility of Evil” it says that “her letters dealt with the more negotiable stuff of suspicion,” this not only proves that she would send multiple letters.
Entitlement is a significant threat to society. When a person has predetermined that they possess the right to a certain privilege or special treatment, it can cause major chaos. Miss Strangeworth believes she naturally inherits the privilege of pointing out others flaws, in an attempt to perfect her town that she believes her ancestors created. “There wouldn’t have been a town… if it hadn’t been for my grandfather.” (163) This self-assigned duty of anonymously revealing the flaws of the population only reveals the true identity of Miss Strangeworth.
Throughout history, there have been many examples of cruelty within society. Often times, this cruelty comes from fear, suspicion, and ignorance. Within the text “The Crucible” by Arthur Miller, readers can see that fear can cause people to be cruel to each other. Likewise, the article “Japanese-Americans Internment Camps” supports cruelty caused by suspicion, and “A Brief History of the Salem Witch Trials” by Jess Blumberg demonstrates how ignorance can destroy a society.
In Shirley Jackson, “The Possibility of Evil”, Ms. Adela Strangeworth actions and dialogue reveal that she is an intrusive person. Her intrusiveness is reflected in the answer she gave to Martha’s response “I’m perfectly alright” when asked about her wellbeing. Despite Martha assuring her she was alright, Ms.Strangeworth continues to believe Martha is unwell thus revealing her curiosity and nosy behaviour. Ms.Strangeworth believes that people in her town “were evil and needed to be watched” which suggests an invasive and unwelcoming behaviour. She feels obligated to have the right to know about what goes in other’s life and feels she is fulfilling her duty of protecting her neighbourhood by doing this.
A well rounded scholar should be able to decipher text effectively by considering literary movement, textual evidence, and narrator perception. Shirley Jackson, the author of “The Possibility of Evil”, recognizes the importance of these skills and challenges the reader to connect the literary movement of Southern Gothicism to the text. The “pleasantly” ominous setting and the benevolently wicked persona of the protagonist, Miss. Strangeworth, helps to convey the purpose of the story to the reader.
The end of WWI was the beginning of a new age. This year 100th anniversary of the end of the great war. Imagine you are living in 1918.State where you are living and how the war will impact your life. Discuss the pro and cons of the changes this war introduced to society and how you imagine those changes will impact the U.S. in the years to come. This past 1 year, 7 months and 5 days has been awful.
Once her family moves to Toronto after the war to settle down, she was approximately eight years old. At that time, circumstances changes for Elaine who feels unhappy, helpless and yearns for female friends as she has no female friends yet (Vijay Singh Mehta 179). As Pavla Chudějová (34) has suggested in “Exploring the women’s experience”, Elaine become conscious of the society’s gender restrictions for the first time when she starts going to school. At school, Elaine follows the rules where she has to wear skirts to school and “the girls hold hands; the boys don’t” (CE 50-51), as well as to enter the building through the “grandiose entranceways with carvings around them and ornate insets above the doors, inscribed in curvy, solemn lettering: GIRLS and BOYS.” (CE 51) which confuses her and
The Shadow, in cloud form, quickly slid behind a beam of the Callaghan’s dungeon, concealing himself from the two Venti Kingsman pursuing him. He waited quietly until they passed, sailing in the opposite direction into a spiraling hallway: twisting and turning in the air, veering in and out through its many passageways, soaring by prisoners chained in their cells. He soon hears the clamoring of footsteps up ahead and vanishes, retreating once again into the shadows as several of the Callaghan’s Kingsman scurry by.
By all appearances, Miss Strangeworth is a sweet, old lady, living in a perfect, shiny, happy town. But appearances are not everything, especially in the case of Miss Adela Strangeworth of Pleasant Street. Miss Adela Strangeworth, a character in the short story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, is a 71-year-old spinster living in a small town in the 1940’s. At the beginning, she seems like any normal old lady, but it is quickly realized that this is not the case and that she has a dark side. Of the many traits that Miss Strangeworth possesses, the most prominent are her deceptiveness, perfectionism, and the god complex that has developed.
