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Miss Strangeworth In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

684 Words3 Pages

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. In “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, symbolism, irony, and foreshadowing are used to present the idea that when one believes that they have the entitlement to point out imperfections …show more content…

This entitlement is caused by pride, popularity, and one's role in a society. This is made evident in the story of Miss Strangeworth, as her reputation in the town leads her to pursue this perfection that she craves. Through symbolism and foreshadowing, Shirley Jackson shows that Miss Strangeworth believes she is entitled to the position of being the matriarch of the town because of her status. Her prestige and familiarity are made obvious when it is said that “Miss Strangeworth’s hats were proverbial” (171). Miss Strangeworth is well known and not a stranger to the people of the town, which may be a leading factor in why she believes she is entitled to expose the evil in the town. Her high self-regard is revealed when she “spares” herself after working in the garden. The fact that she takes it easy on herself is alluding to her belief that she is far more important than the rest of the town, and doesn't need to work as hard. Lastly, her ego and status are made clear again when the narrator expresses that “no one… would dare disturb Miss Strangeworth” (171). This statement reveals that Miss Strangeworth may be feared by her fellow citizens, which shows her higher status in the community, as well as the arrogance she embodies. This pretentious entitlement can cause considerable harm, to society, as well as within the person them

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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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While she writes the letters she “never concern[s] herself with facts; her letters all dealt with the more negotiable stuff of suspicion” (Jackson, 1965, p.169). While most people would mind their own business, Miss Strangeworth intervenes therefore writes untrue letters disguised as truth to all her neighbors. When writing these letters we find out that Miss Strangeworth might looks much the same as delicate rose, but she actually has sharp thorns, she is not what she

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Through the use of irony, foreshadowing and symbolism, O’Connor expresses that every person is seen as equal in

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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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In the story, Miss Strangeworth thinks that she is better than everyone else. “Miss Strangeworth told the tourists, with a pretty little dimple showing by her lip, and she sometimes found her herself thinking that the town belonged to her.” (Shirley Jackson, 1965) This is saying how she felt like it was her responsibility to rid the town of all evil. This connects to another trait shown which is moral blindness.

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In the short story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss. Adela Strangeworth is introduced as a 71 year old woman who is extremely passionate of her rose garden, but she is also passionate about the people in her town. She could not even walk around town without being stopped to talk and ask about how everyone was. Adela Strangeworth seems to know everything about everyone, but this knowledge also exposed her to all of the hidden evils in her small, familiar town. Adela wanted nothing more than to get rid of the evil that was around her.

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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)

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The short stories; The Most Dangerous by Richard Connell,The Necklace by Guy something, The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson all deal with characters who are dominated by their evil nature. Mrs.Strangeworth destroys lives by spreading untruthful rumors contaminating her own town with negativity. Madame Loisel is dominated by greed and leads her family into financial ruin. General Zaroff has a lust for blood and kills people for pleasure. Mrs. Strangeworth however, is the most destructive of the three because she takes pleasure in her malevolent actions.

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The short story “The Possibility of Evil”, by Shirley Jackson has a main character named Miss Strangeworth. Miss Strangeworth is a 71-year-old woman who lives in a small town. She possesses three main characteristics: pride, perfection and wickedness. Miss Strangeworth shows a great deal of pride in the story. She has pride in many different things.

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Gossiping and spreading rumours will destroy trust and relationships. In "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth lives in a small town where tales spread quickly through the streets. Her sweet, innocent appearance makes it easy for her to befriend and gain the trust of her neighbours. What they don't realize is that, looks can be deceiving. Although Miss Strangeworth seems like a lovely old woman, her smiles hide a nasty secret.

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In the short story “The Possibility of Evil”, Shirley Jackson demonstrates how even those who are perceived as innocent and seemingly harmless can hide a dark and wicked side. Although some could argue that Miss Strangeworth is a well-meaning member of the community who simply wants to protect her town from any potential wrongdoing, the fact that she “liked writing her letters (p. ).” suggests that she isn’t the dainty old lady everyone perceives her to be. It can be depicted that she takes pleasure from writing her letters which reveals part of her wickedness. Furthermore, she takes great care to conceal her identity, going as far as to destroy any letters with errors, which suggests that she is aware of the negative impact they have on the

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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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In Louisa May Alcotts novel “An Old Fashioned Girl” the main character, Polly Milton, finds herself struggling against a man versus society conflict, as she confronts the rich first class society that surrounds her. The fourteen year old country girl who ventures into the city to visit her good friend, is constantly being told she is old fashioned, poor, and too simple for the city. The basis of the conflict is that all the people Polly encounters during her time in the city, expect her to look and behave like the rest. When Polly cannot do this, people begin to tease and mock her all because she has no wealth.

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Throughout the novel, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee, Lee expresses inequality between people often causes people to judge one another. Scout, the main character, is a strong opinionated, young girl, with many thoughts on other characters throughout the book. An important theme that develops throughout the novel is inequality often causes judgement between people who aren’t acquainted, when the inequality is based on what someone heard about another person. A key moment that explains inequality often causing judgement is when Jem describes Boo Radley and makes him seem like a scary real-life monster, without actually ever meeting him.

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