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Miss Strangeworth In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

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Power can drive anyone to believe that they are better than all else around them. In The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson, demonstrates that power can corrupt anyone, because Miss Strangeworth has lived in the town the longest she requires and expects everyone to do what she wants. With this tiny amount of power Miss Strangeworth is quickly corrupted to think that she is the most important person in her town. Miss Strangeworth feels important and powerful because she has lived in town the longest, “...she had never spent more than a day outside this town in all her long life.” (Page 1, paragraph 3) This proves that Miss Strangeworth has lived in the town for a very long time and prides herself upon it. Also, on page six the narrator illustrates how paramount she feels she truly is, “This was, after all, her town and these were her people; if one of them was in trouble she ought to know about it”. She is at a point where she believes that the town is “HER” town, and …show more content…

On page five the test says “The town where she lived had to be kept clean and sweet, but people everywhere were lustful and evil and degraded, and needed to be watched; the world was so large and there was only on Strangeworth left in it.” This clearly proves that she believes people in her town are bad and need to be kept in check. She feels that everyone her town must act as she does, perfect. When in reality she is just as bad, if not worse, than the people in her town. Another example of this occurs on page 4, “...but as long as evil existed unchecked in the world, it was Miss Strangeworth’s duty to keep her town alert to it.” What she doesn’t realize it that she is not helping, people don’t want her input, she just makes everything worse. Miss Strangeworth feels that since this is her town it is her job to make sure everyone meets her high

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Old, lonely ladies like Adela Strangeworth could suffer from boredom. One would also think that she would probably like to work in her yard. And one could even think of her living in a small town, where she would probably also know all of the people. If one visualizes all these clichés when an old lady was mentioned, one now has a pretty good picture of Miss Adela Strangeworth, the protagonist of the short story, “The Possibility of Evil’’ by Shirley Jackson. Miss Strangeworth is 71 years old and lives in a small town.

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She always think Edward is bad and Satan. “I saw the sign of satan on him. You didn't heed my warning”. Later on she started to judge him and Bill’s family. “You have the poor sheep strayed so far from the path”.

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In the story "The Possibility Of Evil" written by Shirley Jackson there is a peculiar character called Miss Adela Strangeworth. She is an old women in a small town she has watched grow in her entire lifetime but she is less innocent than you'd think, in fact, she is a villainous women and shows how cruel and evil she is in many ways. Miss Adela Strangeworth's actions show that she is oblivious to how her methods effect her town in an evil and despicable way. She is unaware that she is the evil in the town, terrorizing its inhabitants. she writes letters to civilians who Adela thinks are "wicked" and because she is the oldest person in town, she feels obligated to protect it (Jackson 226).

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This shows clearly in this quote “Martha,” she said, “you don’t look well.” This is when she calls out Mrs. Harper for not seeming well, in public (Jackson 75). This is why Miss Strangeworth is an inconsiderate perfectionistic personality.

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Miss strangeworth tried stopping the evil going on in “her town” by giving criticism to things/ people that she didn’t approve of and or didn’t like that she didn’t feel was perfect. Miss

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455 Words | 2 Pages

Which turns out to be very ironic, considering how she had done more harm than good because of her letters. Mrs. Strangeworth’s letters only worsened the recipient's current state of life. They made them feel horrible about how they were living their lives. Mrs. Strangeworth thought she was doing a good because she looked at herself as a

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691 Words | 3 Pages

She acts in a caring manner to everyone’s face, but when she is alone, she becomes a heartless woman, determined to reveal what she knows. Miss Strangeworth is the one causing the distress in her community, yet she acts oblivious as to what is bothering everyone. She shows her extreme deceitfulness by attempting to ease Helen Crane’s concern about her child by saying “Nonsense… some of them develop… more quickly than others” (Jackson, 1941, p. 167). This is deceitful because she is aware that there is something different about the child and instead of voicing that, she consoles the mother, only to subsequently shatter her in an anonymous letter. Additionally, Miss Strangeworth cleverly utilizes the most common paper and envelops all townspeople use for her letters.

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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.

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This quote also gives you an idea of how Miss Strangeworth enjoyed gossip or talking about someone behind their back. Miss Strangeworth was writing letters to “The town where she lived had to be kept clean and sweet” it's ironic how she could say this when in reality she was doing all the evil of the town. The way Miss

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1059 Words | 5 Pages

Another example of how power can negatively affect an individual’s mindset, was when Scythe Goddard manipulated the HighBlade Xenocrates. Goddard kidnapped the HighBlade’s illegal daughter and blackmails Xenocrates into trying to get rid of Citra and making sure Rowan is the one to become a scythe. Scythe Goddard knew that “if anyone knew she existed” (Shushterman, 000), the HighBlade would face many punishments and be stripped of his position, and used that information to his advantage. Scythe Goddard had a sense of entitlement and knew he could get or do whatever he wanted by manipulating others with his power. He believed that it was “the job of the gardener to shape the tree as much as possible” and if “branches that begin to reach unreasonably

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Everyone, at one point in their lives has wanted power more than anything. Those who do get it have to make the decision whether they want to use it for good or evil. Power can turn a person into something they never dreamed they would become because it starts to take over their lives and people do not know what to do with so much power. There are many examples of power in the play Macbeth and every person that got it used it in very different ways. This caused many changes in people from turning from good to evil or evil to good.

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She judges other people to make herself feel more superior and normal and to hide her true character. Later on as Miss Brill observes a young couple, “the hero and heroine, of course, just arrived from his father’s yacht” (p.188), she comes to the realization of who she truthfully is. This wholly destroys Miss Brill, causing her to change her typical plans and go home in grief, “But to-day she passed the baker’s by, climbed the stairs, went into the little dark room-her room like a cupboard… she unclasped the necklet quickly; quickly, without looking, laid it inside. But when she put the lid on she thought she heard something crying” (Mansfield 189). Terry White sums up the story of “Miss Brill” by writing, “Like the insidious illness that seems to be creeping to life inside her, Miss Brill is abruptly forced to confront the reality that her imagination seeks to escape”(White)

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610 Words | 3 Pages

Miss Strangeworth sometimes “[finds] herself thinking that the town belonged to her” (Jackson,1941,

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900 Words | 4 Pages

“Miss Strangeworth is a familiar fixture in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. Little do the townsfolk suspect, though, that the dignified old woman leads another, secret life…”. A secret life can be evil or good, in Miss Strangeworth’s case it is suitable, but do others appreciate this secret life. In The Possibility of Evil Shirley Jackson illustrates inner thinking, revealing action, and symbolism to show how Miss Strangeworth tends the people like her roses, but truly state's them evil.

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Homelessness is a rising issue and has always been prominent in America. Many people line the city streets hoping for money and/or food/water. However this problem is not only in the city, this happens in all sorts of places. Most people have encountered a homeless person on the sidewalk or elsewhere and will usually feel the wave of guilt of not having cash but at the same time wearing nice clothes or holding shopping bags. Homelessness is a sad tragedy, fortunately, there are solutions such as starting a government fund especially for ending homelessness, relying on the kindness of people to help out, and/or building more shelters in city areas.

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