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Miss Strangeworth In 'The Possibility Of Evil'

489 Words2 Pages

In the story “The Possibility of Evil” Miss Adele Strangeworth is a 71 year old resident of meager town her family founded. Pleasant Street is street she lives on which is where her deceased family once lived. Her name hints that she may be quite posh. In the beginning Miss Strangeworth seems to be a normal, common elderly lady who kept herself and her belongings extremely proper and prim. In addition she feels that she is obliged to know everything that goes on in the town and to try and keep the evil away. To the people in town Miss Strangeworth appears to be pleasant normal lady who does not have a care in the world. Furthermore she is the last surviving member of the Strangeworth’s family and feels responsible for watching over the people in town.
Later it becomes clear that Miss Strangeworth is not what she seems and she has an …show more content…

Therefore, she timed her walk so she would reach the post office just as it was getting dark out. More importantly Miss Strangeworth does not write these letters because she is insane; she writes them being she is afraid of what will become of her town if she does not. Being that she views herself as the backbone of the town; she feels it would not run without her. Her grandparents and parents all lived in the town and that is why she thinks that it is up to her to watch after the town.
Consequently in the end Miss Strangeworth drops one of the letters and a boy picks it up and takes it to Don Crane. That being the case Don destroys her precious rose bushes after he accidentally finds out that she is the author of the horrible letters he and his wife have received about the possible arrested mental development of their baby daughter. The "possibility of evil" that Miss Strangeworth sees all around her in the town is just a projection of the hatefulness inside

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