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The Possibility of Evil How do the people of the town react to Miss Strangeworth
Clues in the possibility of evil by shirley jackson the personality of mrs strangeworth
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In the story “The Possibility of Evil,” Miss Strangeworth seems to be a simple, old lady, who has her set routine and never seems to alter from it. She lives in the house her grandfather had built, the very first house on Pleasant Street. For generations her family has lived in that very same house and her grandmother had planted those roses that are her pride possession, and her mother tended to them just as she does. As the story progressed, Miss Strangeworth becomes a complex character. The entire story is actually about the difference between appearance and reality in this woman's character. On the surface she appears to be a kindly, harmless, uncomplicated little old lady with a small-town interests and mentality. She prides herself …show more content…
on being the last surviving member of the town's oldest family and as such feels responsible for watching over the other citizens of the town. Actually, she is the one who is spreading the evil around town, through her letters. Miss Strangeworth has lived in the same town for over seventy years.
She believes herself to be a kind of guardian and spends her days walking around town as she completes her daily routine. She is the matriarch of the town, and she acts the part. She knows everything about her town, and she proudly admits that she has never lived anywhere else during her lifetime. As she stops to chat with other townspeople, she appears to be polite and caring. However, she is concerned about everyone she meets because something seems "wrong" with them. She feels it is her civic duty to stop evil from spreading in her town.
This is a turning point for the character of Miss Strangeworth. She believes herself to be the guardian of the town and spends her days identifying "potential evil" in others. Whenever Miss Strangworth identifies potential evil she mails anonymous letters to her neighbors to keep them on the alert. Including an innocent teenager whom she believes to be having sexual relations with his girlfriend.
Unfortunately, the letters she sends are the very cause of the evil that she has been trying to battle: her malicious words provoke the behaviour she is guarding against. Miss Strangeworth never realizes her darkly ironic position, and when she is eventually discovered to be the source of the letters, she cannot understand why someone would do something as “evil” as destroying her prize
roses. In conclusion, Miss Strangeworth is a complicated character and is not who she seems at first. In the beginning she appears to be a kindly, harmless, uncomplicated little old lady with a small-town interests and mentality. By the end of the story, her character becomes more complicated and you can see her evil side.
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
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.
In the short story “The Possibility Of Evil “ by Shirley Jackson was several symbols to tell her story about Miss Strangeworth. One symbol she uses is her name Strangeworth. She was a strange women but everyone thought she was normal and nice, but in reality she was mean and strange, she thought she was better than everyone else. Another symbol she uses is the letter Miss.Strangeworth sent to people. They mean more than just letters because they show how she really is, she is showing her true colors. Finally another symbol was her flowers, the flowers meant that she was better than anyone else. The flowers were fancy, Miss. Strangeworth thought she was elegant and polite . Certain symbols have certain meaning in today's culture because they
From the moment the author introduces her to the reader, she displays two qualities that remain throughout the book: generosity and self-control. Her first word aims to welcome strangers at the family table (“Let’em come”).
She always wanted to be the center of attention, she was prejudiced and believed things should stay the same, and she was very selfish. While she thinks she’s above everyone else, she feels that the world revolves around her.
Strangeworth being evil, deceptive, and not thinking that she is doing evil things. The first example of the theme in the middle of the story happens when Mrs.Strangeworth sends an anonymous letter saying “EVER SEE AN IDIOT CHILD BEFORE? SOME PEOPLE JUST SHOULDN'T HAVE CHILDREN SHOULD THEY”. Mrs. Strangeworth sent this after earlier saying that she thought the child would be normal and healthy. This shows that she doesn’t show her true opinion to people, but she is happy to tell them later in a hateful letter mailed anonymously. Another example of theme in the middle of the story is when Miss.Strangeworth sends a letter to Mrs.Harper 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 ONE TO KNOW?” After seeing this she might start to question what her friends and her husband are doing when she is not around them. After writing writing this letter she is happy with her good work and doesn’t care about the impact on the people that she writes to. These examples show that she is deceptive by making the people she talks to believe she thinks one thing but then sends them letters with a vastly different opinion. These examples show her being evil by displaying her willingness to tell people that she thinks their friends and family are
One of the ways this is achieved is by using an exterior appearance to deceive ones true morals for an intriguing motive. This is seen through the character of Miss. Strangeworth the main character in "The Possibility of Evil" appearing to be a sweet old lady however, she is not what she seems. Her deceiving exterior is seen when the narrator states "Walking down Main street on a summer morning, Miss. Strangeworth had to stop every minute or so to say good morning to someone or to ask after someone 's health (Jackson 1). This quote illustrates Miss. Strangeworth uses her
She is a manipulator when it comes to any aspect of her life. Ideally, the grandmother was selfish and care about herself. For instance, when the author has her saying “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (O’Connor). The author let it be known at that second that the grandmother was only thinking about herself. As if she was traveling with a group of strangers. Throughout the story, the grandmother shows that she can be dishonest towards her family. “She woke up and recalled an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady” (O’Conner). The grandmother did this to manipulate the situation causing the ride to be delayed. Thus, she was lying to the children about the secret panel in the house. Therefore, she caused chaos in the car. The author made it seem that the grandmother was very content with that she has caused. Even when she realized that the location of the house that she was referring to was not up that road at all. But she remained quiet or did she know this along. She was quick to judge and tell someone what not to do. But she never turned her eye on herself. That she was selfish and dishonest to her
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
Throughout the Possibility of Evil the theme is clearly shown as looks can be deceiving. On the other hand, some people might interpret that the theme is that you should treat others as they treat you. However it’s only at the end when the townspeople figure out that she is the one sending the letters which shows that karma only comes into play at the end of the story, while the looks can be deceiving is shown throughout the whole story. By showing Miss Strangeworth as a gentle old lady at first and then slowly showing her true colors, Shirley Jackson illustrates the theme that looks can be deceiving.
The Grandmother is the catalyst for all things. She also is a character who sees herself as a good person but is actually
In my opinion from what I have understood from the text she is a tempestuous character. She is initially perceived as being wild bright and proud. Her character then develops a macabre quality that becomes a precocious influence over everybody in the village of Salem. She abuses this 'ability' to turn things to her advantage and others demise.
The conclusion of “ The Possibility of Evil” is you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Everyone in the town thought Miss Strangeworth was a sweet little old lady, but in the end they find out Miss Strangeworth is evil, because she wrote all those mean letters to
The production focuses on a set of teenagers who are friends with Allison, who surreptitiously convinces her friends to share their secrets, thus developing her loyalty to them. Once Allison disappeared, she left a mystery of who was responsible for her disappearance, dragging her friends into her dark secrets. Her body is later found, and the girls, who drifted apart after Allison went missing, start to reconnect, but their troubles are only beginning. After the funeral, all four of the girls receive messages from a stoker who calls himself or herself 'A'. ‘A' exposes many of the girl's dark secrets that only Allison knew of, leading the girls to wonder if Allison might be alive after all. ‘A' causes trouble for the girls and intervenes in their life, threatening not only their lives, but also the lives of those around them. On the road to discovering who ‘A' is, the girls come across numerous clues that incriminate people that they trust and love. Many citizens of the town seem involved in the mystery of their friend's death, making the entire town seem like a place of danger and discomfort.
Whereas, Jane’s experiences with the entities Bertha and Grace Poole are humanised on four occasions by Mrs Fairfax and Rochester. First, Grace’s laugh “repeated in its low, syllabic tone [and] odd murmur” has Mrs Fairfax respond with “perhaps Grace Poole” (108) which drains Jane’s paranoia and fear. On the event where Rochester leaves Jane with Richard Mason’s injury, it is clear her paranoia and fear are restored with: “I hope it is…not something worse” (151). And so, keeping secrets can have this affect Eugenia Delamotte explains that “[gothic heroines] tremble in fear of the unknown” (205).