Short stories, novels, novellas and children's books all have something in common. With words alone, they create characters which push the story forward and have an impact on every component of the story. Characters are believable when people can relate to them through their actions and reactions. Shirley Jackson’s “The Possibility of Evil,” includes the essential character elements of complexity, desire, contrasting traits, consistency, and the ability of a character to change in order to develop the protagonist into a living breathing person. Fictional characters have an ambition and it is their goal to pursue it at extreme efforts like an olympian competing for gold. For example, Miss Strangeworth, the protagonist in “The Possibility of …show more content…
She is kind on the outside: always bidding hello and asking about the health of others, but she is wicked on the inside. Portraying her complexity, “Miss Strangeworth awakened the next morning with a feeling of intense happiness and, for a minute, wondered why, and then remembered that this morning three people would open her letters. Harsh, perhaps, at first, but wickedness was never easily banished, and a clean heart was a scoured heart...” (Jackson 6). Her complexity and her desire to share blunt and sometimes evil notes creates contrasting traits. She is curious and caring for people, but she cares excessively about them and ultimately causes them emotional pain. Inevitably, after finding a harsh letter addressed to herself, she has a change in attitude. Readers can infer that she has the ability to change because she is kind hearted and respectable to the townspeople. Her desire changed and she will be probably be more cautious about what she writes or will stop writing altogether. The protagonist, Miss Strangeworth is a substantial, authentic, dimensional character because of her desire, complexity, contrasting traits, consistency, and ability to change. She is relatable to readers and is like a real