Miss Strangeworth In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

In the short story “The Possibility Of Evil” Shirley Jackson uses several symbols to tell her story about Miss Strangeworth. One symbol she uses is the letters that she writes to different people. Letters are suppose to be good, but she uses them for evil. She uses the letters to criticize people and make them feel bad. She walks in the night and mails it to them so they don’t notice that she is the one causing the problems. Another symbol she uses are the roses. She would use the roses so people would think that she is a nice old lady. People around the neighborhood thought that she was a good old lady. The roses meant everything to her, and she tourists would stop and enjoy them. It bothered her that people want to

walk away with her roses. A final symbol she uses is Pleasant Street which is the street where she lives. The Pleasant Street is suppose to be a happy home, and Miss. Strangeworth’s dad built the first house on that street. Pleasant means happy and satisfaction of enjoyment.What she achieves with these symbols is that for the letters she uses them to make people angry and make them feel bad. The roses make her look like a nice old lady , but in reality she is a cruel women.. The Pleasant Street makes her achieve to keep her roses there where she spends most of her time on These are the meaning of these symbols and what she achieves with them.