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Miss strangeworth character analysis
Clues in the possibility of evil by shirley jackson the personality of mrs strangeworth
Clues in the possibility of evil by shirley jackson the personality of mrs strangeworth
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People always seem to be something that they’re not. Shirley Jackson’s story “The Possibility of Evil” is a good example of a person that truly shows two sides. There are different views from others in the story about this particular person. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does, what the narrator says about her, and how others interact with her. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does. Her actions cause her to appear mostly nosy. For instance, she made a comment to her friend one day: “‘Martha”, she said “you don’t look well.’” This quote helps show that Miss Strangeworth can get into people’s business. She believes that she must know everything in “her town”. Additionally, “Miss Strangeworth noticed that Miss Chandler had not taken much trouble with her hair this morning and sighed.” She knows that something is uncommon about miss chandler’s day, …show more content…
The way the narrator talks about Miss Strangeworth is kindly spoken. Specifically, one morning, Miss Strangeworth said, “‘And goodmorning to you too Mr. Lewis,” Miss Strangeworth said, at last.” According to the narrator, her response to Mr. Lewis shows some kindness to Miss Strangeworth and she returns the favor to him. Showing affection to an old friend can sometimes be hard, but it seemed natural to Miss Strangeworth to speak to Mr. Lewis. Also, she was “walking down main street on a summer morning, Miss Strangeworth had to stop or so to say good morning to ask after someone’s health.” It’s very unusual for an elderly lady to ask after others because they are mostly stingy or waiting for others to say something to them. Miss Strangeworth, on the other hand, does the complete opposite; she kindly asks about others and their daily lives. In other words, the narrator is saying that Miss Strangeworth is selfless while showing her acts of kindness to the
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.
Mr.Strangeworth fits that description and then some with her desire for a better town all a while writing cruel letters filled with falsehoods to the people in her town that ended up making more problems. “Miss Strangeworth never concerned herself with facts; her letters all dealt with the more negotiable stuff of suspicion.” (Shirley 4) For someone like a seventy one year old women to be so nice and caring in public only to become sinister in the privacy of her house. This setup of a character rarely seen so for this to happen truly shows different she is from the
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
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
As a result, Miss Strangeworth’s character was analyzed by considering what she does in the book, what the narrator said about her, and how she interacted with other characters. Overall, we were able to realize that she is arrogant, outgoing, and also meddlesome. She displays each of these characteristics in more ways than one throughout the story.
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
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.
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
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?
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.
Because of Miss Strangeworth’s constant effort put into the garden, the roses became a part of her. “Look at what used to be your roses”(8). When the town’s people found out that Miss Strangeworth was at fault for writing the letters, her roses were destroyed. The roses were passed on for generations similar to inherited wealth. Miss Strangeworth’s family lived on Pleasant Street for hundreds of years and her grandfather planted the first roses. This made the lady believe that the town belonged to her and she earned the right to control it. The roses represented all of the respect she had previously gained; consequently without the roses, she was given a black eye. The letters sent by Miss Strangeworth represent evil in her town. Instead of doing good, the letters were crass, bitter and unwantedly exposed personal problems. “..Never aware of possible evil lurking nearby, if Miss Strangeworth had not sent letters opening their eyes”(4). She believed her letters were astonishing and changed the wicked behaviour. In reality, the letters encouraged other people to do evil as a craving for
At the end Miss Strangeworth writes anonymous letters to people. The letters express her assuming things about other people and giving her opinion. An example of her being cruel is, She writes a letter to Mrs. Harper and her baby and says, “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children should they?” She writes this because she bases her letters on assuming things instead of going to the person and getting the facts. Another example of Miss Strangeworth being cruel is, She writes another letter to Mrs. Harper and says, “Have you found out yet what they were all laughing about after you left the bridge club on Thursday? Or is the wife really the last one to know?” Miss Strangeworth writes this because she doesn’t seem to care how anyone else feels except for her. This proves that my topic sentence is true by giving details at the end of the story, it finally shows her true colors and shows how really mean she can be.
Phillip Pullman, a British author, once wrote, “I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are”(goodreads.com). Pullman’s quotation on the actions of man being the source of good and evil closely relate to morality, principles regarding the distinction of right and wrong or a person’s values. The question of what human morality truly is has been pondered by philosophers, common folk, and writers for thousands of years. However, sometimes a person’s ethics are unclear; he or she are not wholly good or bad but, rather, morally ambiguous. William Shakespeare, an English playwrite, heavily presses the topic moral ambiguity in his play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. The titular character, Julius Caesar, is a morally equivocal character who serves a major purpose in the play.
Many have written entire novels on the topic of good versus evil. Philosophers have spent their entire lives researching and debating and providing theories to somehow find an answer that will never be clear. What makes a person evil or good? In her short stories, “A Good Man is hard to find” and “Good Country People,” Flannery O’Connor explores the theme of good versus evil and differentiating between them and what that conveys about the complexity of human nature.
We the readers take a deeper look into Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Possibility of Evil.” Instead of just looking at the narrator and how that affects the theme, we are now looking into how the purpose of this story is best understood through the literary movement of Regionalism. With my background knowledge I know that regionalism represents the stories characters, dialect, and customs. Using this knowledge I will be able to get a sense of what Shirley Jackson’s short story is truly about.