Shirley Jackson subverts the reader's expectations of Mrs. Strangeworth through the deceptive wording and vicarious descriptions of her behavior. The story centers on a Miss Strangeworth, an innocence looking old lady. She lived in her small town her whole life. However there was a secret she was hiding. Miss strange worth was sending cruel letters to the townsfolk warning of how they're friends and family could be doing evil with no proof turning them against each other. At the start of the story, Miss Strangeworth is represented as a sweet old lady. She walked daintily the main street and had to stop every minute to say good morning to someone. Hence a kind old lady with a meager appearance could never be evil. After all, how could someone who debated about a cup of tea …show more content…
She had a long history in this town and managed a reputation and respect. People In the position of high regard aren't typically presumed to do something wrong. Shirley Jackson masterful uses these techniques to avert suspicion. Much like her usage of environment and description. Whenever Jackson described Miss Strangeworth she also attached a short description. Everything is Miss Strangeworth little town looked wash and bright or she went into the lovely sitting room these link a positive connotation towards miss. Strangeworth. The reader will subconsciously link the terms light bright or lovely with the protagonist. Similarly, even her house on Pleasant St. with the perfume of Rose's red, pink and white mast along the narrow lawn gives off a gentle serene appeal. The house which her grandfather built and her family dwelt in for better than 100 years and stood as a stable for the town, certainly would have never been expected to house someone so wicked. Despite this, perhaps one of the most unassuming traits of Mrs. Strangeworth was her appearance. She was a seventy-one-year-old lady with a soft old
First, Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does. Miss Strangeworth is a very passionate person. She is very passionate about her grandfather, because he built the house Miss Strangeworth lives in, and also a large percentage of the town. In the story, she says this, “My grandfather built the first house on Pleasant Street”, she would
Why? One of the world's top inquiries. For this situation, why was Miss Strangeworth composing those letters? As she experienced childhood in her little town, living in the same house all her life, what turned out badly? What was so contorted in her mind that she felt the need to decimate those individuals' lives with letters? "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson indicates how something so sweet can turn out so shrewd. Why is she so possessive, narcissistic, and detestable?
This story revolves around a character known as Miss Adela Strangeworth whose ancestral home is Pleasant Street which also happens to be the setup used to develop the story. However she is from the initial stages of the story portrayed as an old lady that is relatively calm and harmless especially with regards to the lives of her neigbours. She is portrayed in the story with the author as a proud lady who believes in the fact that she owns her town perhaps a factor that is evidenced by the way she interacts with the members of her community. Her constant conversations with the members of the community perhaps paint her as a relatively calm, loving and caring lady to the members of the community.
The beginning of the story displays the theme by showing that Miss.Strangeworth seems innocent in her public life, but later shows that she lies about what she thinks to people. When she told Mrs. Crane “All babies are different. Some of them develop much more quickly than others", in response to her worrying about her child, she
Miss Hancock is a strange yet charming character, who is classified as both round and dynamic. Miss Hancock is flashy, bizarre, with “too much enthusiasm.” But she is more than simply that. After a discussion on “The Metaphor”, she asks Charlotte talk about her own metaphor on her mother. Here, a different side of her is shown. “She
But what she was really doing was sending cruel and insulting letters anonymously to the people of the town. In the story she sent three letters to Mrs. Harper, suggesting that her husband was cheating on her by saying “Have you found out yet what they were all laughing about after you left the bridge club on thursday? Or is the wife really always the last to know?”(Jackson, 1965, p. 169). One to Helen Crane saying, “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children should they?”( Jackson, 1965, p. 169 ). Finally a last one to Don Crane suggesting that he should kill his idiot nephew by sending a note that said “You never know about doctors. Remember they’re only human and need money like the rest of us. Suppose the knife slipped accidentally. Would Dr. Burns get his fee and a little extra from that nephew of yours?”(Jackson, 1965, p. 170). As you can tell Miss Strangeworth is a very cruel lady on the inside even if she looks happy and cheery on the
Like any good character, Mrs. Strangeworth has understandable desires. The possibility of evil the story entails is from Miss Strangeworth ideology of what she sees is the truth. In turn, she writes deagroitive letter to her townspeople, feeling that a solid plan for stopping the evil in the town she's lives in. For her, writing these letters let herself feel a sense of pride for the town she deeply love. “The sun was shining, the air was fresh and clear after the night’s heavy rain, and everything in Miss Strangeworth’s little town looked washed and bright.” (Shirley 1) If her desire wasn’t to make a better town, she would have never written such letters. Mrs. Strangeworth has desire like any other character with well intentioned, but with ability to take it to the extreme makes stand out from the crowd.
Jane spends her first 10 years of her life at Gateshead Hall, a lavish mansion. She lived with her Aunt, Mrs Reed, and three cousins, Eliza, Georgina and John. During her time in the mansion she wouldn't dare argue with the mistress, and fulfilled every duty. Jane is deprived of love, joy and acceptance. She is very much unwanted and isolated.
Miss Strangeworth was obviously very happy to see Mr. Lewis, in the book it says that they had been really good friends in high school. In the book, Miss Strangeworth says “Yes thankyou Mr. Lewis. Such a lovely day, isn’t it?” When she says that you can obviously see she is being cheerful. Miss Strangeworth is clearly a cheerful person; when she talks to people she is very nice.
But what the other members of her community aren't aware of is that she's actually a hateful, and nosey the instigator of many of the town's problems and concerns. She often wrote Anonymous letters to the townspeople, gossiping and criticizing about others problems. One example of this behavior is when she writes to Mrs. Crane, “Didn't you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn't have children, should they?” (Jackson 4) What she says makes people feel bad when they receive letters like this. She writes these because she thinks that she can fix the problems of others. And make “her” neighborhood a better place. She then goes on to write to Mrs. Harper, “Have you found out yet what they were all laughing about after you left the bridge club on Thursday?” (Jackson 4) This probably made Mrs. Harper worried or even upset. Maybe she's not aware of the pain she causes others, they're not even aware that it is Miss Strangeworth writing the letters. This shows the reader that one should it be read deceived by another's
She does this by revealing Miss Strangeworth’s ironic actions of her destructive attitude and hypocritic ways. This statement shed lights when Miss Strangeworth is writing letters to Mrs. Harper and Helen, and she notices how the town is becoming more vile, “The town where she lived had to be kept clean and sweet, but people everywhere were lustful and evil and degraded, and need to be watched; the world was so large , and there was only one Strangeworth left in it,” (Jackson, pg. 253). Miss Strangeworth exemplifies arrogance and hypocrisy by stating that she is the solution to all evil, yet she is initiating evil by means of writing letters to people conveying her pernicious words and telling them that they are not good enough. She expresses how she dislikes evil, therefore she is contradicting herself with her actions since she continues to spread evil through her judgemental
This feeling intensifies when Mr. Brocklehurst arrives to take Jane away to Lowood School. Her aunt is pleased to see her go, but manages to influence Jane's life even after Jane is settled in at the charity school, by informing Mr.
Miss Temple was the first amiable person that Jane Eyre met at Lowood Institution. She acted as a firm role model and mentor to Jane throughout her stay at Lowood as a superintendent. Jane Eyre, a simple young girl, was astonished by her character because she never had a person to look up to until she met Miss Temple. Miss Temple gave Jane that sense of love that she wanted when she arrived at Lowood. She was incapable of being harsh to those girls at the institute; she had no bad bone in her body.
When Jane is shunned by Mr. Brocklehurst in front of the entire Lowood population, Helen is the one person that does not immediately judge Jane. In fact, she makes her feel more comfortable in a place that is filled with punishment and hypocrisy. Though Lowood does not truly feel like home, Helen is able to provide Jane with not only all the compassion she needs as well as support and respect. This is one of the first loves Jane experiences on her journey and it allows her to become more open to the love she finds in her future endeavors.
At the beginning of the book, Jane was living with her aunt Mrs. Reed and her children. Although Jane is treated cruelly and is abused constantly, she still displays passion and spirit by fighting back at John and finally standing up to Mrs Reed. Even Bessie ‘knew it was always in her’. Mrs. Reed accuses Jane of lying and being a troublesome person when Mr. Brocklehurst of Lowood School visited Gateshead. Jane is hurt, as she knows she was not deceitful so she defends herself as she defended herself to John Reed when he abused her, as she said “Wicked and cruel boy! You are like a murderer – you are like a slave driver – you are like the Roman emperors!” to John Reed instead of staying silent and taking in the abuse, which would damage her self-confidence and self-worth. With the anger she had gotten from being treated cruelly, she was able to gain ...