Miss Strangeworth In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

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

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