Shirley Jackson’s “The Possibility of Evil” illustrates Miss. Strangeworth’s attempts to cleanse her town of all things sinister. Adela Strangeworth is depicted as a withered lady whose roots come from a prestigious family tied with the establishment of the town; she is a highly respected figure and has a strong influence on the townspeople. Despite appearing innocent to her neighbours and townspeople; Miss Strangeworth possesses a sinister nature. Strangeworth's linear view of the world reinforces her delusional personality. She idolizes herself as the so-called hero of her town. To clarify, Miss. Strangeworth views herself as the "one Strangeworth left in it[The world/town]"(5), Furthermore, Miss. Strangeworth views her town as wicked and evil. People in Miss. Strangeworth's opinion "were everywhere, lustful and evil and degraded" (5), providing an insight on Miss. Strangeworth's point of view and reinforcing her perspective. Altogether, Ms Strangeworth possesses a delusional view of her ordinary townspeople which effects her actions. …show more content…
Miss.
Strangeworth acts in a very disrespectful manner when she attempts to cleanse evil from her town. Miss. Strangeworth calls out a Helen and Don Cranes's child and writes rude notes to the parents. She writes to the child's parents "DIDNT YOU EVER SEE AND IDIOT CHILD BEFORE? SOME PEOPLE [Don and Helen] ..."(4), which addresses both Don, Helen and their child in a very disrespectful manner. In addition, she acts like her town is her possession. To emphasize, Miss Strangeworth goes around like she owns her town because to her "this was her town, and these were her people"(5) believing her town is nothing more than an item. All in all, Miss Strangeworth displays great disrespect and acts inappropriately to the
townspeople. Strangeworth consistently demonstrates apathy when writing her notes. For instance, Miss. Strangeworth often addresses people in a rude manner behind the backs with her notes. For instance, She calls Don and Helen Cranes newborn "an idiot child"(4) . Miss Strangeworth also writes extremely unprofessional notes to her neighbors seemingly not caring about how they might respond. She had been writing notes to her townspeople and neighbors regularly "sometimes two or three times a week"(5) each one with a message meant to stir unease in the townspeople. Overall Miss Strangeworth demonstrates a great deal on apathy when she writes her notes. Ultimately, Shirley Jackson's "The Possibility of Evil” depicts a seemingly innocent old lady with a linear view of the world attempting to repair a corrupt town. Despite genuinely trying to cleanse her town, the fashion in which Miss. Strangeworth tries cleanse her town are less than ideal and that she herself possesses a sinister 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.
The Salem witchcraft trials of 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts can be considered a horrendous period in American history, yet is also viewed as the turning point in what was considered acceptable in a contemporary society. In a documentation of a trial against a woman named Sarah Good, the reader is able to see the way in which such an accusation was treated and how society as a whole reacted to such a claim. Sarah Good fell victim to the witchcraft hysteria because she was different, and that fear of her divergence from the Puritan lifestyle led to her eventual demise.
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
“The Devil in the Shape of a Woman” was an excellent book that focuses on the unjusts that have been done to women in the name of witchcraft in Salem, and many other areas as well. It goes over statistical data surrounding gender, property inherence, and the perceptions of women in colonial New England. Unlike the other studies of colonial witchcraft, this book examines it as a whole, other then the usual Salem outbreaks in the late 17th century.
“Sula,” however, was in Ohio during the first half of the twentieth century, nearly 100 years after “Jane Eyre”. It is the story of a young woman who was raised by her mother and grandmother whom both did not have a good reputation in the town they lived in. Sula later leaves the town for a period of 10 years, has many affairs and lives a wild life. When Sula returns to the town, many people look upon her as evil because of how she lives her life. Sula’s story is contrasted with that of her best friend Nel, who was raised by a family with more social morals and later chose to settle in a life as a wife and mother. “Sula” deals with several different themes like race, family, gender and social conventions.
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.
Written in 1818, the latter stages of the Gothic literature movement, at face value this novel embodies all the key characteristics of the Gothic genre. It features the supernatural, ghosts and an atmosphere of horror and mystery. However a closer reading of the novel presents a multifaceted tale that explores
This description creates a conflicting idea of her, on one hand there is this fascinating, beautiful and innocent woman, yet on the other hand there is this figure with gothic qualities and frightening “wild” eyes referring to nature. This is comparable to Catherine, “A wild, wick slip she was—but she had the bonniest eye, the sweetest smile, and the lightest foot in the parish.” (Chapter V, page42)
The audience experiences Roger Chillingworth in a dramatic yet critical way to justify change and retribution in one character as the consequence of cloaking deep sin and secrets. When first introduced in the story, the narrator refers to Chillingworth as “known as a man of skill” (97) through the point of view of the people in the Puritan town of Salem. He is brought into the story when the town was in a time of need of a physician to help the sickly Reverend Dimmesdale; his arrival is described as an “opportune arrival” because God sent a “providential hand” to save the Reverend. Society views Chillingworth as though as “heaven had wrought an absolute miracle” (97). The narrator feels when Chillingworth arrives in Salem he is good and has no intention of harm of others. Perhaps if the crime of the story had not been committed he would have less sin and fewer devils like features. Although this view of Chillingworth changes quickly, it presents the thought of how Chillingworth is before sin destroys him. Quickly after Chillingworth discovers Dimmesdale’s secret, his features and his character begin to change. The narrator’s attitude changes drastically towards the character from altering his ideas of the kind and intelligent persona to an evil being by using phrases such as “haunted by Satan himself” (101). The narrator portrays the people of the town believing Chillingworth is taking over the ministers soul in the statement “the gloom and terror in the depths of the poor minister’s eyes” (102). Throughout the book, Chillingworth ages exceedingly and rapidly. At the very end of the story, the narrator reveals another change in Chillingworth’s character; he searches for redemption by leaving Pearl a fortune a “very considerable amount of property” (203). By doing this, it shows
Mary Dempster is an excellent example of someone who is different and does not embody the values of Deptford society. She is the young, light-hearted wife of the Baptist preacher. She is considered to be somewhat simple-minded and unsuitable as a minister’s wife because she lacks interest and aptitude for housekeeping and cooking and laughs like a girl at her own failures when she tries do such things. Also, her generous nature makes her incapable of living within her husband’s income. Instead of being thrifty, she is more interested in giving things away. On one occasion, she gives away an ornamental vase that the Church had provided as part of the furnishings of their house. This action causes a big uproar because the villagers view this as stealing from her husband’s Church. Mary Dempster’s kindness and generosity of spirit are definitely viewed by them as major character flaws.
In the beginning, Miss Strangeworth presents herself as elder of the town, and furthermore, considered herself to be superior compared to the rest of her town. Yet despite this, Miss Strangeworth never intended to be a tyrant, but rather, a strong symbol of mannerism for her town (page 204, lines 9-14). After having confrontations with other townspeople, we later find out that, in the home of Miss Strangeworth, that she was the town’s blackmailer (page 210, lines 176-193). Yet her only intention was to inform her people to always be alert, and also, to keep their eyes open for the evils that may be lurking in the town. Although these could have prevented evil to arise in the town, the evil finally had met Miss Strangeworth in the end, leading to her roses’ demise (page 214, lines
The witch is both vulnerable and a powerful figure. The resulting tension between power and powerlessness as a response to laws created by those in power, rather institutionalised power: men, can be seen as expressed through such binary metaphors as that of physical strength and beauty versus weakness and ugliness, kn...
In the short story “Young Goodman Brown”, Nathaniel Hawthorne uses Gothic symbolism to evoke a sense of disillusioned trust that Brown comes to experience, as he ventures further and further into the hellish forest. In the beginning of the story, the reader comes upon Brown as he is bidding his wife, who is ideally named ‘Faith’, goodbye as he is about to venture off into the deep, dark, and gloomy forest that is outside of his village in Salem. As Brown continues into the forest, the reader is introduced to a key element that is brought about in Gothic symbolism, the concept of evilness. Brown constantly expresses how ‘evil’ the forest is, “There may be a devilish Indian behind every tree!” (Hawthorne 640). Hawthorne also extends the use of the concept of ‘Evil’ when he describes that Brown “Felt himself justified in making more haste in his present evil purpose.” Thus, meaning that Brown is on a quest to seek out Evil for help.