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Role Of Justice In Shirley Jackson's The Possibility Of Evil

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People are fascinated by justice and injustice, whether you are mature or immature, to the degree that it could drive some people mad. The story, “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, tales the tale of one such women who had become so entranced by getting rid of evil by serving them justice, that she went rather delusional with what she had probably intended to do at first. That woman, Adela Strangeworth, was quite the prominent figure in her town and she felt she had to do something when she thought she sighted evil. However, she began to radicalize her views of evil and as such her sense of evil and how it should be punished greatly from denizens of the town. “The Possibility of Evil”, by Shirley Jackson, showcases how justice can
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On June 26 of 1948, Shirley Jackson’s short story, The Lottery, made its first appearance in an issue of The New Yorker. Jackson was surprised by the substantial amount of backlash she received in regards to her harrowing writing that manifests the rituals of human sacrifice. The story takes place in a small town on an ordinary summer morning. The villagers assemble at the town square for the annual lottery, where one of the villagers will be randomly chosen to sacrifice themselves to the gods of a fertility religion. The villagers believe that a human sacrifice must take place in June to ensure that a bountiful harvest was ahead of them.

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She’s judgemental and got exactly what she had coming for her; She’s the POV character from Shirley Jackson’s “The Possibility of Evil”. Third-person single vision is displayed through a narrator not being a part of the story, and the main character, or the POV character, is the only view the reader can see; therefore, the character becomes more developed and the reader becomes more interested. Jackson chose third-person single vision POV for “The Possibility of Evil” because being in the head of only one character causes readers to have a closer connection with the character, all while maintaining suspense. When an author writes in third-person single vision, the reader gets an intimate look into the mind of the POV character, which works especially well when the POV character has a unique and different view than most. As some people believe, switching to omniscient would be the ideal POV because the view of others is needed to display Miss Strangeworth’s letter fell out of the mailbox; however, since the author only switches once, third-person single vision is still the better option as it is implemented more throughout the story.

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As previously mentioned, the most commonly try to take out their own pain on others and care less about what they are criticizing, which could be why facts are not something they’re interested in. When you take this into consideration in “The Possibility of Evil”, it shows how Miss Strangeworth is someone who could be in the grieving process over a betrayal from a spouse or child, a long one to be exact. Of course on the other end of the spectrum, she could also just be someone who enjoys the pain of others for no other reason than enjoying it. If this was the case, then Miss Strangeworth would most likely be a psychopath. She pretends to be a kind old lady, while in reality, she has a truly hideous personality.

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Bailey, Ted. " Sacred Violence in Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery." British and American Studies 20 (2014): 37,42,203. ProQuest. Web.

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