Evil In The Possibility Of Evil By Shiley Jackson

The Possibility Of Evil Analysis . Everyone knows this one person that is so kind and sweet in front of people but then go talk about those people behind their back . There are a lot of those people in this world but one in particular will be talked about in this essay . Miss Adela Strangeworth talks to everyone that she passes in her town , then she writes letters about them and mails them to the person she wants to address ,

When I think of the concept of “evil,” I think of The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius. In The Consolation of Philosophy, Lady Philosophy stated:

She writes anonymous letters to them, saying rude things that cause the people to be frightened or sad. The anonymous letters are similar to cyber bullying, Miss Strangeworth is hiding her identity but is sending letters that are unpleasant and malicious for the reader. Miss Strangeworth is bullying the townspeople by sending those hateful letters. The strange thing is that, Miss Strangeworth is aware of the letters being hurtful, thus why she sends them anonymously. She is trying to get rid of the evil in the town in an unusual way, by thrusting the evil in the person’s face in a harsh manner. The letters are sent with the goal of helping the people by showing them the evil in their lives. But in other words, these letters are causing problems in relationships of the people. Miss Strangeworth is saying things about personal relationships that can cause a drift in the relationship. Using the example of Linda Stewart and the Harris boy, Miss Strangeworth wrote a letter that might have had false information. Due to that letter being sent Linda and Harris’s relationship is damaged, Linda does not want to talk to Harris anymore. Instead of getting rid of evil, Miss Strangeworth is helping to create more of it. People are losing trust and have become more emotionally closed off due to her cruel letters.

Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by what she does. Miss Strangeworth is selfish. She is selfish because she won’t give away a few of her roses. For example, “Miss Strangeworth never gave away any of her roses, although the tourists asked her.” Another way she is selfish is that she believes the town is hers. In addition, “She was seventy-one, Miss Strangeworth told the tourists, with a pretty little dimple showing on her lip, and she sometimes found herself thinking that the town belonged to her.” As a result, Miss strangeworth can be analyzed as selfish.

“I believe that the root of all evil is power,” (Patricia Cornwell). I think this quote says a lot about the power of power. Let’s think about some people who were incredibly evil. Hitler killed 11 million people (Schwartz), 49 million deaths were linked to Joseph Stalin (Ghosh), and Kim Jong-Un has executed 70 officials since coming into office in 2011 (Omara). That doesn’t even include all of the other people who have died because of him or who will die because of him in the future. What do all of these people have in common? Power. If none of these people had power, millions of lives could have been saved. But with all power comes evil, as proven by these three horrible people. Now, power may not be taken to this extent all the time. As

It is a very arguable subject on whether or not people are born with good intentions, and therefore taught by others the ‘evil’ side of their personality. Whether it is the absence of ethical conduct in human nature, or just the way one perceives a situation, evil seems to be prominent in our everyday lives. Humans seem to have a moral code that follows them with every decision they make, yet despite the laws of morality and society, people of this world still seem to behave inhumanely because of the act of self-preservation, human interest, and who exactly the authority figure is at the time.

In the “Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson gives us a character who seems to be the town's respected and longest established resident but who may actually has a dark and destructive side. Her pride in the town may be the first foreshadowing of what she is truly like. Miss strange describes how her grandfather built the very first house on Pleasant Street and her “..family lived here better than hundred years.” She even admits to thinking the town “belonged to her” (Jackson 1). The evidence is important because it shows how Miss.strangeworth feels she is different perhaps, better than others townspeople. From this evidence the reader can infer

Shirley Jackson states “I suppose you’ve got Don upset about that his daughter is already six months and hasn’t yet begun to learn to dance.Well apologize to her right now….she is prbley worried why you keep jumping around.”The way this quote supports the topic sentence is this shows the different side of Miss.Strangeworth. In shorter words the quotation means she is starting to get into other peoples buisness showing her different. Shirley Jackson says “STRANGEWORTH HOUSE engraved on the cheap news paper shop paper...it’s almost like a joke and Miss.Strangeworth writes on the letter SOME PEOPLE SHOULDN’T HAVE CHILDREN SHOULD THEY, then she goes to the post office just at sundown when it’s starting to get dark to deliver the letters and in the process she drops a letter and a little kid comes up and says this may be good news i’m going to take it to her.” Then once the town figured out who it was they sent her a letter saying,” LOOK AT WHAT USED TO BE YOUR ROSES.” These last two quotations show the other side of Miss.Strangeworth. The way these last two quotations show the topic sentence is true is that this shows the real Miss.Strangeworth. This paragraph shows the not innocent side of Miss.Strangeworth and what the town did because of

To begin with, Miss Strangeworth expresses her evil when disclosing written letters to various people anonymously. Miss Strangeworth comes upon a woman named Helen Crane who is upset about her baby being slow in the stages of development. In response to the lady being upset, Miss Strangeworth claims, “Nonsense. All babies are different. Some of them develop much more quickly than others” (Jackson 3). Meanwhile, Miss Strangeworth composes a letter addressed to Helen Crane stating, “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children, should they?” (Jackson 4). This is significant as it reveals her harshness in the letter. She is being hypocritical and discourteous leading to an act of cruelty by being offensive to Helen speaking

There are many types of evil and perhaps the worst case is moral evil. Moral evil is when “A person does something deliberately to another person to cause pain and torment” (Erdrich 253). European colonizers have tormented Native Americans continually in the past, and their actions are still affecting Native Americans today. The Round House by Louise Erdrich demonstrates how the actions of whites in the past have continued to affect modern day Native Americans, specifically leading to alcoholism and abuse.

Naturally, there is good and evil in every person. However, it is often difficult to see the

John Hick discusses in his essay The Problem of Evil, the objections to the belief in the existence of God is the presence of evil in the world. He begins by posing the traditional challenge to theism in the form of the dilemma: That if God was perfectly loving, he must wish to abolish evil, and being all powerful, is able to perfectly do so as he will its. He then proceeds to present some views regarding this issue, giving insights from three point of views, that of contemporary Christian Science, the Boston Personalist school, and the theologian Augustine. The first opinion takes evil as an illusion, as a construct of the human mind. The second confers upon God finity, God as a struggling ruler,

Above all, in “The Possibility of Evil,” Jackson’s use of symbolism and irony allows her to unveil the dishonesty possessed by many people. Like Miss Strangeworth, her roses serve as a trademark of the town. And, similarly to the roses, although Miss Strangeworth seems pleasant, she possesses hidden thorns. When a dropped letter reveals Miss Strangeworth’s actions, her neighbors destroy her roses. “[Miss Strangeworth] began to cry silently . . . when she read the words: LOOK OUT AT WHAT USED TO BE YOUR ROSES”(Jackson 7). The destroyed roses represent Miss Strangeworth being exposed; there is no longer any pride or joy in the roses or Miss Strangeworth. Jackson’s use of symbolism throughout the story allows her to divulge the insincerity of everyday people. Throughout the story, Jackson also employs irony. Often, Miss Strangeworth engages in small talk with her neighbors while ironically consuming her time with cynical thoughts of the very

To understand evil we must first understand the concept that good and evil are term or words referring to what one given individuals believes to be the right and wrong thing to do. Good, many times

What is considered evil depends upon each individual’s view of morality, which constantly changes through the course of that person’s life. Roy Perrett’s “Evil and Human Nature” explains this by elaborating on the customary interpretation of moral evil. This evil, caused by an intentional bad action or harm, opposes another type of evil, natural evil, which occurs without