Irony And Point Of View In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

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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. This is incredibly ironic because Miss Strangeworth believes that she is ridding the town of evil while in reality she is causing. The people in the town aren’t evil. They just make mistakes that Miss Strangeworth’s