Miss Strangeworth In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

Miss Strangeworth Character Essay: A Strange Old Spinster
Miss Strangeworth is not the kind of little old lady you would expect. In the short story “The Possibility of Evil” by, Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth’s family has lived in one town for all their lives and have passed on their house with the special roses on generation to generation. Living alone now, she feels as though she is the only one to keep the evil out of her town . Adela Strangeworth is a deceptively friendly, controlling, and obsessively perfect 71 year old spinster.
Someone who is friendly and deceptive at the same time is not a person with whom one wants to socialize. Surprisingly, Miss Strangeworth had many people that would interact with her; she “had to stop every minute or so to say good morning to someone or to ask after someone’s health” (Jackson, 1941, p. 165). Saying hello to everyone in the town everyday was Adela’s way of finding out what was going on in the town, and what evil she needs to rid. After talking kindly to a young couple with a new baby, she wrote a nasty letter about them that said, “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children should they?” (Jackson, 1941, p. 169). Miss Strangeworth’s friendship is not something one can trust.

Miss Strangeworth got involved in the whole town’s lives. She wrote a letter to Mr. Lewis saying that his grandson was “lifting petty cash from the store register” (Jackson, 1941, p. 170). This little old lady believed that there was “evil unchecked in the world” (Jackson, 1941, p. 170) and she was the one who had to rid it from her town. Miss Strangeworth controlled people through her letters. Whenever something she did not want in her town happened, she had to write to who was responsible and make them realize what he or she was doing. She controls the people in her town without even saying who is