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Symbolism and interpretation
Symbolism and interpretation
Symbolism and interpretation
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Sometimes it’s best to keep your thoughts to yourself. In Shirley Jackson’s short story, “ The Possibility of Evil’, the main character Miss Strangeworth is a great example of why sometimes it’s best to keep your thoughts to yourself. Miss Strangeworth sends anonymous letters to people in her town and says things that she would not regularly say to them. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does, what the narrator says about her, and how other characters interact with her. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does. For instance, she is conceited. In the story she says, “ I’ve watched ‘my’ town grow.” Emphasis on the ‘my’ part. It isn’t actually her town, but she likes to think of it that way. Also, later in the story she states, “but it should have been a statue of my grandfather.” It’s nice that she thinks that it should be her grandfather but that is disrespectful to the person who is the statue. She probably doesn’t mean for it to come off as cocky or conceited, but that is just how it seems. Lastly, I think she is envious that although her grandfather built the first house on her street,but the statue wasn’t him. …show more content…
That is, she is well-known. The whole town knows her and everyone likes her. For example, in the story the narrator says, “ but the town was proud of Miss Strangeworth and her roses ad her house.” That was a reason I knew she was well-known because the narrator used “the town”. I’m sure she was well-known also because her grandpa built the first house on her street. In addition, in the story the narrator says, “ She knew everyone in the town, of course; she was fond of telling strangers-- tourists who sometimes passed through the town.” That sentence shows how Miss Strangeworth knew everyone in the town and even if she didn’t, she would most likely introduce herself to
Ethel Wilson’s exercise of brilliant literary techniques services the reader to comprehend the underlying message in her writing which is nominally responsibility of the human conscience when masked in nature. With application of clever symbolism, motif and character development, Wilson makes the reader question to what extent one should be responsible to through exploration of the human mind when manipulated by nature.
Sometimes the way people act around you isn’t the way they act around other people. A good example of this is Shirley Jackson’s, “The Possibility of Evil”. The main character, Miss Strangeworth, isn’t as nice as she may seem. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does, what the narrator says about her, and how other characters interact with her.
Deception as an element can be presented in various forms. One may choose to hide their true self for specific intriguing motives in life. A theme identified in "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson and "A Bolt of White Cloth" by Leeon Rooke is appearance can be used to deceive ones true self and morals for an intriguing motive. In both short stories, that were examined, both main characters use their exterior appearances to deceive their true morals, they deceive the people around them and lastly their deeds show their true intentions which distinguish their compelling motives which are viewed through a sense of morals.
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.
For a seemingly sweet elderly lady, the readers would not have imagined her to be a bully or even a slight bit of rude for that matter. However, little did anyone know that Miss Strangeworth was hiding an unbearable secret. The cruel letters she writes to people in her town, the way she goes about them, and her love for writing them proves that she is very much a bully. Miss Strangeworth is one of the reasons why people should watch out for who they
The Narrator’s character also develops from a shy and quiet girl to a strong-willed young woman. The Narrator’s point of view can also be examined as she is retelling the story from a number of years later, so it may not all be accurate. The setting, and possibly characterization, of the home, Manderley, is very significant because it was the scene of many of the most important events hat transpired throughout the story.
Looks can be deceiving. You cannot always tell what is going on inside a person from the outside. In the story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss. Strangeworth feels that it is her job to protect the town from evil. She often appears to be kind and understanding, but really she is using the information and their weaknesses against them. She does this by writing them anonymous letters, telling them untrue statements about their lives. This causes the residents of the town to reconsider Miss. Strangeworth’s assumptions. What she does not realize is that her actions are wrong, not everyone else’s and that in the end she will get a taste of her own medicine. Ultimately, Shirley Jackson uses the characters and
When an older lady is mentioned thoughts of a sweet, caring and fragile are what come to mind. After reading a short story such as “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, a gentle woman is not described. Assumptions of elderly women can change when a secretive, self-centered, controlling women named Adela Strangeworth is presented into many lives.
Deep down, Miss Strangeworth wants to be kind and help the world through ridding it of the evil; however, she does not realize that her form of fixing the world is harmful and ineffective, “Miss Strangeworth would have been genuinely shocked if there had been anything between Linda Stewart and the Harris boy, but, as long as evil existed unchecked in the world, it was Miss Strangeworth’s duty to keep her town alert to it” (4). As noted, her desire creates all of her other character qualities, such as contrasting traits, because she must have them in order to get closer to her
Thesis: Shirley Jackson’s usage of irony, characters, and plot portray the stories theme of the dangers of unconsciously following tradition.
By reading a short story, you learn valuable messages that you can use in life. The three short stories share a common theme of the mystery of other minds. In “A & P,” the protagonist Sammy used very sexist language when he says, “With the straps pushed off, there was nothing between the top of the suit and the top of her head except just her, this clean bare plane of the top of her chest down from the shoulder bones like a dented sheet of metal tilted in the light” (Updike 561). In addition to the sexist comments, when Sammy calls women sheep and witches readers are puzzled because they cannot believe why he would say these comments about women. In “A Rose for Emily,” Tobe never goes to the authorities and tells them about Emily, but instead, “He walked right through the house and out the back and was not seen again” (Faulkner 96). Readers suspect that Tobe has mental issues because they question how someone in their right mind would not tell the authorities there is a dead body in Emily’s house. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Jig thinks about getting an abortion when she says, “And I’ll do it and then everything will be fine” (Hemingway 1). Some readers question how someone in their right mind would ever consider getting an abortion.
The main character of the story is Emma Woodhouse. She is "handsome, clever, and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition seemed to unite some of the best blessings of existence; and very little to distress her or vex her." (Austen, 3) Emma was the youngest of two daughters and she was spoiled by her old, affectionate father. Her mother had died when she was only a child and her sister, Isabelle, had married at an early age. This made her mistress of his house from a very early period. Emma’s self image is very strong and she is doubly pleased with her match-making skills, which turn out to be disastrous for her friend Harriet. Harriet Smith is a young girl of an unknown background, but she was a student at Mrs. Goddard’s School. Emma challenges herself to reform and refine Harriet. She becomes to aspire to see Harriet marry a person in a higher social station. Harriet is very pretty. She was "short, plump, and fair, with blue eyes and light hair, and a look of great sweetness." (Austen, 20)
Mrs. Strangeworth is an elderly woman that lives on Pleasant Street. She is a very nice woman and likes to talk to the residents of the town. She is also very popular throughout her town. She cherishes her roses at her house. She tells someone
Emma Woodhouse is the title character of the book. For Emma, Jane Austen took a heroine whom, she remarked, `no one but myself will much like' `And', as one of her ablest critics has said, `many a rash reader, and some who are not rash, have been shut out on the threshold of Emma's Comedy by a dislike of Emma herself.' Emma is a beautiful, wealthy, well-educated young woman who was born and raised in the upper-class society. But also the negative aspects of her character are exposed, she is spoiled, conceited, domineering, wilful, snobbish, and, at times, unfeeling. She lives with her father at Hartfield, their upper-class home. She is the youngest of two daughters, but her mother died long ago and her sister has already been married. She has been the mistress of Hartfield for some time. Emma has led a rather privileg...
Indeed, Victorian women are molded into the socially calibrated model of The Looking-glass self, a structural theory in which Cooley proposes that people shape their identity largely based on their understanding of how other perceive them, and the social environment thus serves as the “mirror” that reflects desirable images of themselves. According to Cooley, the stages of The Looking-glass self involves imagining how one looks to others, imagining how other are judging her, and finally developing herself through such possible judgement. A hypothesis can be formed here, that Victorian women must develop this looking-glass self by concealing socially or individually unacceptable impulses from their consciousness. In the case of Clarissa, she represses her rather primitive sexual feelings toward Sally for fear of social judgement, and must construct an identity reflective of the feminine qualities desired by the society. But Clarissa’s looking-glass self is quite problematic, because it is only a manifestation of her attempt to repress real emotions. All forms of repression, according to Freud, cause disease within the mind and body— they will gradually boil inside the beings and finally explode. Interestingly, Clarissa never “explodes” her repressed feelings