Miss Strangeworth Quotes

Living with Miss. Strangeworth:
Wisdom, the elderly, and their connection

There is no doubt that Miss. Strangeworth is not an easy person to deal with, let alone live with, and although her character is fictional, there are many people with the same personality. We can tell quite easily that she is a very meticulous woman, with a lot of perfectionist tendencies, a few of which are to nitpick people’s lives and make sure that even the most minute detail is up to her standards. I know of someone with these attributes and as difficult as they are to deal with, with their list of requirements to be met and their eagle-eye for detail in even the smallest things, they mean the best, and are always trying to help, despite the possible repercussions.

And of course, organization and precision are good qualities to have, but at the extent used by one of my closest family members, and even Miss. Strangeworth herself, they become overbearing flaws rather than strengths.

For example, “She was pleased with the letter. She was fond of doing things exactly right. When she made a mistake, as she sometimes did, or when the letters were not spaced nicely on the page, she had to take the discarded page to the kitchen stove and bum it at once. Miss Strangeworth never delayed when things had to be done." ( This quote shows how exacte her character is, and how very detailed she is about her letter-writing process. We can take this passage and compare it to other domains of her life as well, such as in this passage “Consequently, she timed her walk so she could reach the post office just as darkness was starting to dim the outlines of the trees and the shapes of peoples’ faces, although no one could ever mistake Miss Strangeworth, with her dainty walk and her rustling skirts.” There, again, we see how precise she is about her timing, and how consistent she is with her daily walks, and her letter mailing, which are all a part of a well planned routine. My dearly loved family member does the same thing; follows a pre-made scheduale or routine day by day, and they cannot stand sloppiness. Subsequently, their biggest fear is not having a plan. We are also set to wonder why Miss. Strangeworth feels the need to

always comment on the townsfolk’s lives, and to constantly give unasked advice. A reason being so, is because she is a Strangeworth. The Strangeworth family have a very high status in the small town, and as the last member of this family, Miss. Strangeworth feels a certain dominance and status due to her lineage. Although, another reason is that she is an elderly women. For example, when she met the Cranes on the street and, after seeing their baby’s embroidered baby cap and lace carriage cover, decided to advise them on raising their daughter, she said, “ “That little girl is going to grow up expecting luxury all her life,” to which Helen Crane replied that they wanted their daughter to feel like a princess. Instead of leaving the couple alone, she warned them “A princess can be a lot of trouble sometimes”. As a woman, Miss. Strangeworth has a set of maternal instincts, but even if that is so, she has no right to give unwanted advice. Despite her age, her status and her perfectionism, if something does not need to be said, then it should not be said at all. The elderly are a great source of wisdom, because I believe that wisdom comes from experience, and at seventy-one years of age, Miss. Strangeworth definitely has a lot of opinions, but I wouldn’t think that she has a lot of experience. She is not entitled to give out her judgements and mask them as wisdom when she feels it is needed. In a case like this, her advice is no longer wisdom to be kept and used at appropriate times, it is just her opinion based on what she believes to be true. Wisdom has a broader and less critical point of view, because experiences vary. Miss. Strangeworth’s advice doesn’t stem from experience, it comes solely from objective opinions and is more critiquing rather than passing on knowledge gained through time. So, in conclusion, though she is old, respected and very meticulous, and although she reminds me of a person that I love, Miss. Strangeworth is a very difficult and problematic character.