More handpicked essays just for you.
Clues in the possibility of evil by shirley jackson the personality of mrs strangeworth
Literary devices in the lottery shirley jackson
Is Miss Strangeworth an effective villan in the possibilty of evil
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
It's Not Always Worth Being Strange. In stories, character complexly is a esential. The Shirley Jackson story “The Possibility of Evil” tells the story of a seventy-one year women named Miss Strangeworth. She’s an unusual character that stems off from status quo. Though it doesn’t mean she completely unique. Regardless, her desires, contrasting traits, consistency, and the ability to change make Mrs.Strangeworth a complex character. 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. …show more content…
The complexity of a character makes for an interesting one, especially one with contrasting traits.
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
rest. For a character to be consistent with the ability to change, is for a character to be believable. Mrs.Strangeworth personality never changes throughout the story even after getting her roses cut down by the same people she attacked with hate filled letters. “She began to cry silently for the wickedness of the world when she red the words: Look out at what used to be your roses.” (Shirley 6) A medicine she thought needed for the people around her, but now the evil deed had been done to her. In the end, her reaction from roses being cut doesn’t show a change in character; keeping her static but consistent. Mrs.Strangeworth’s uniqueness for a character is something that should found more often in reading. Even her name is indicative of her character; a well meaning person with a strange ideology that made a well intention action worthless. Mrs.Strangeworth’s desires, contrasting traits, consistency, and her ability to change makes her a memorable character.
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
In the short story "The Possibility of Evil",by Shirley Jackson, Miss. Strangeworth appears to be a normal old woman that is highly respected among the town, but we soon realize that she has a dark side. She writes letters to people telling them things that are mere suspicion, but have negative consequences to their lives. These events in the plot show the theme that anyone can have the capacity of being evil.
Topic/ Thesis Statement: Don’t judge a book by its cover, some people are not who they claim to be, or looks can be deceiving.
Shirley Jackson has a creative way of writing her short stories and uses a surplus of literary devices to make us readers feel how she wishes. For instance in both short stories “The Possibility Of Evil” and “The
One of the most useful in advancing this story is the typical, powerful character. Whether it be supernatural or cunning this character always comes out on top in the situation and holds the most control over others and their actions. The “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” , “Leda and the Swan”, and “Harrison Bergeron” all utilize an archetypical powerful character to create tension from how each character uses their power.
After deceiving her town into thinking that she is a nice person, Miss Adela Strangeworth is a prideful, evil, yet sneaky old lady. While she deserved to have her roses destroyed based on her cruel actions, could her actions have come from a mental illness? A possible course of action for the townspeople could
There are many norms associated with being a woman and being a man, especially during the time period of which Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers was written in. These include, but are not limited to, the following (feminine and masculine counters are separated by a / ): one must always obey males because they are the superior sex/one must not allow women to hold any form of power because they are the weaker sex, one must obey her husband/one must not let his wife do whatever she pleases, and one must not live with another of the opposite sex unless they are relatives or married. Despite these norms being set in place for most of the characters in Strong Poison, there are a few exceptions for on both the feminine and masculine side.
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.
It is the mainstay of many pieces of classic American literature, especially those that fall into the category of 'pulp', to have thin, cardboard-cutout characters with obvious emotions and intentions for which their only purpose is to drive the story to a predetermined end. The seductive and dangerous femme fatale; codgerly old men; the badgering and nagging housewife, adorned with dress and apron; and etc... These characters, and the many like them, are set into a story to play a specific role—namely as a reactor—and force the protagonist in some direction. After all, what would a hero do if there was nothing heroic to be done? Sit around? Twiddle their thumbs...? These characters are, in some degree, necessary for the purpose of advancement, and the only reason I have spent this first paragraph going into them, however briefly, is that I feel the need to distinguish between a person and a character. Ostensibly, they are the same thing, at least from an outward point of view. One might say, “A story has people,” which is practically the same thing as saying, “A story has characters.” But, the obnoxious semantics aside, these are not both the same thing—it's a case of the uncanny...Characters, though appearing to be people, are not. They are posters of people, images of people—used to meet some plot obligation and/or bring out characterization in a real person. As confusing as this could sound, it's really simple: Characters are not people. They are merely ideas or archetypes1 of a human form, used to push the story along. People are real. They react to things, sometimes stupidly, sometimes intelligently, and above all, when written into a story believably, give the verisimilar appearance of truth and correctness (even when doing...
...are more complex such as the monster, some such as the old man are put in to make a point, and some such as Elizabeth are created in a way that augments the imperfections of others. Each of the characters in Frankenstein has a role or purpose in the story and is created in a way that adds to the story line and the novel in general. By creating each character and shaping them to a specific likeness, Shelley has creates a complex story and one of English literature's greatest classics.
not very complex as he is not a major character in the play as a
In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Possibility of Evil”, Miss Strangeworth’s mode of life causes her misconception in the world disclosing her traits such as superiority upon others, duplicity of her nature, and a feeling of envy.
The next character introduced is the narrator. He is both complex and interesting. He thinks he is not crazy. As he goes out of his way to prove that his is not insane, he does the exact opposite. His relationship with the old man is unknown. However, he does say he loves the old man. “I loved the old man.” (Poe 1).
For a time, the main characters in a story, poem, or narrative were easily classified as either being a hero or a villain. A hero would be easy to identify by the traits he'd possess, such as bravery, honesty, selflessness, trustworthiness, courage, leadership, and more. The villain would be easy to identify as well, possessing traits such as maliciousness, deceitfulness, immorality, dark, wishing harm upon others, and more. But what if the character lacked the natural heroic qualities but wasn't a villain either? What if the person displayed personality flaws that would traditionally be associated with a villain, but has heroic intentions? These questions were finally answered with the emergence of the anti-hero in literature.