Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Use of irony as one of the dramatic devices
Literary devices in the lottery shirley jackson
Irony as a principle of structure text
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Use of irony as one of the dramatic devices
According to Oxford Dictionary, the word “evil” is defined as, “profoundly immoral and wicked,” which can be interpreted in many different ways. In the story, “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth’s point of view is completely different than the townsfolk’s opinion on who is provoking evil. In a small town, Ms. Strangeworth finds joy in sending unwanted, anonymous letters to innocent town’s people thinking that without these actions, her town would be entirely wicked. By using foreshadowing, the author effectively conveys the theme, “Evil is in the eyes of the beholder.” Symbolism is also used by the author to make the theme easier to understand. Lastly, irony plays a big role to establish the theme. The writer …show more content…
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 …show more content…
The town viewed Miss Strangeworth as a dainty and sweet, old lady. “..She had always made a point of mailing her letters very secretly”(6). They were clueless that she lead a secret life writing sneaky letters to the public she did not have factual information about. She was judged by her innocent looks and the town least expected her to have a dark side. Her looks deceived everyone around her and she took this as an advantage, not thinking that she would be caught. The readers knew about her mysterious activity, yet the characters in the story did not. Miss Strangeworth was arrogant and was convinced she was perfect. This urged her to write the letters and she got great joy from doing so. “..And then remembered that three people would open her letters. Harsh, perhaps, at first, but wickedness was never easily banished”(7). She knew the letters were bleak, but nothing stopped her from writing them. As previously mentioned, the letters themselves symbolized wickedness and not the actions of the community. Miss Strangeworth was at fault for the conflict occurring, which makes her the culprit in the
Miss Strangeworth is quite a scornful person. She tends to notice the negative things about a person, and is judgemental. Here are two quotes from the story in which Miss Strangeworth is scornful. “Miss Strangeworth wondered, glancing at her quickly, if she had been taking proper care of herself. Martha Harper wasn’t as young as she used to be, Miss Strangeworth thought. She could probably use a good strong tonic. “Martha”, she said, “you don’t look well.” Miss Strangeworth came into a grocery, and saw an old friend. Though the first thing she notices is how unkept she is. Another time Miss Strangeworth judges someone negatively is when she was walking past the library and saw one of the staff she knew. “Miss Chandler seemed absent minded and very much as though she was thinking about something else. Miss Strangeworth noticed that Miss Chandler has not taken much trouble with her hair that morning, and sighed. Miss Strangeworth hated sloppiness.” In that quote, there was obvious negativity coming from Miss Strangeworth and Miss Chandler. Clearly, she didn’t take time to assume that she may have had a rough morning; she just stated how she hated sloppiness and walked
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.
Along with being arrogant and outgoing, she is also a very meddlesome person. After Miss Strangeworth ran into Miss Linda at the market, her actions afterwards demonstrate to us how she is meddlesome. To demonstrate, on page 367 it states, “Looking after her, Miss Strangeworth shook her head slightly. Martha definitely did not look well.” She’s meddlesome in the sense of her snooping around where she isn’t needed. It’s not her job to determine whether there was something wrong with Martha. Likewise, on page 366 the text states, “Mr. Lewis looked worried, she thought, and for a minute she hesitated, but then she decided that he surely could not be worried over the strawberries. He looked very tired indeed.” This quote also shows us that Miss Strangeworth continues to involve herself in other people’s business. Mr. Lewis may be worried about something larger than strawberries, but it isn’t necessary for her to find it normal to involve herself. Her character in this sequence of events is basically the definition of being meddlesome.
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.
In the short story “The Possibility of Evil,” Shirley Jackson uses several symbols to tell the story about Miss Strangeworth. One symbol she uses consist of the roses that Miss Strangeworth treasures. The roses represent the love and perfection of Miss Strangeworth. As we know, Miss Strangeworth believes that the world is horrible and unclean and that she is the only perfect person. She loves her roses dearly which emphasizes her needs for everything to be perfect just like her. She values her roses so much because only she takes care of them making them a symbol of perfection and becomes one of the items that Miss Strangeworth loves and sees as superior to other roses. Another symbol Jackson uses compose of Pleasant Street, the street that
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.
Everything was great, every day was the same except that particular day when your life
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
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.
During the story the author often uses foreshadowing to give hints to the reader of things that will happen in the future. When the story starts, a storm is coming on a late October night. The storm symbolizes the evil approaching the town. Usually it seems a storm would resemble something dark and evil, because a stormy night is always a classic setting for something evil. At the climax of the story, Charles Halloway reads a passage ...
The perspective of evil is also infrared in this play, but it is ignorance of unfolding events that makes potentially good characters loathsome. These characters do not deliberately choose to be on the wrong side of the system, but they are ignorant of events behind the scenes, and this ends up shaping their character. Danforth and...
Bram Stoker and Oscar Wilde characterized evil as pervasive and cruel. Yet each author had his own specific interpretation. For Stoker, evil was tangible. A person could see it with their eyes and touch it with their hands. Wilde saw evil as illusory, any act, no matter how innocuous ran the risk of becoming something outside anyone’s control. Garrard’s regards “evil acts are ones which produce an enormous amount of disvalue in
Evil is something of which imagery is constantly found throughout the novel. The first being the whale: whose color is white. Once again, this is a concealed theme. At first thought the persecuted white whale would make people think that it is an image of innocenc...
Good and evil are symbolized by light and darkness in the play Macbeth, by William Shakespeare. When there is peace and good, Shakespeare mentions light; whether if it is the sun shining brightly or merely a candle giving light. On the other hand, when there is evil and disorder, he mentions darkness; a shadow or a horrible thunderstorm. Witches are known for evil, chaos, and conflict. Since Witches are known to be evil, whenever they appear, the weather is usually horrible. Shakespeare utilizes light and darkness in order to portray when good or evil will take place.
‘The Possibility of Evil’ by Shirley Jackson is about an old woman named Miss Strangeworth who is trying to cleanse the evil out of her town. She writes offensive letters to people in her town to help them change, only to find out, she’s really the evil one. In the short story ‘The Possibility of Evil’ , Shirley Jackson focuses on multiple craft moves to show the characters motivation. She uses symbolism and inner thinking to show show it. She lastly uses flashbacks to show the characters motivation.