Miss Strangeworth's The Possibility Of Evil

In short stories the author composes a compelling plot, with an ending that in someway either teaches the main character a lesson, or the reader themselves. Jackson acts as a master of literary devices, as she navigates the reader through intense scenes that evoke an emotional response to the experiences of the main character. In the short stories, “The Possibility of Evil” and “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, she used the same three literary devices to grasp the reader’s attention from beginning to end. In “The Possibility of Evil” Miss Adela Strangeworth caused a stir by sending anonymous letters to townspeople, filled with things she suspected other people in her town of doing; she claimed that every letter was sent with the intent of

In “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth us constantly critical of the people around her. One way the author shows this is the moment she judges Linda Stewart’s behavior. “Only yesterday the Stewarts’ fifteen-year-old daughter Linda had run crying down her own front walk on the way to school, not caring who saw her” (176). Miss Strangeworth seemingly disapproves of the way Linda Stewart does not care who sees her as she shows so much grief. The way Miss Strangeworth describes the situation makes it seem that Linda should not be showing herself in that light in public. Similarly, Miss Strangeworth is judgmental of the librarian’s lifestyle. “Miss Strangeworth noticed Miss Chandler had not taken much trouble with her

Mary Maloney and Miss Strangeworth are the two main characters in the story. The two of them make up the main parts of the stories. Mary Maloney kills her husband and tries to cover it up and Miss strangeworth is the one who sends the mean notes and is a very fake person, who comes off sweet and innocent, when in reality she is mean and a liar. Mary Maloney kills her husband and tries to cover it up and Miss strangeworth is the one who sends the mean notes and is a very fake person, who comes off sweet and innocent, when in reality she is mean and a liar. Mary Maloney goes to the grocer to cover it up and says, ”Patrick’s decided he’s tired and doesn’t want to eat out tonight,” she told him. “We usually go out Thursdays, you know, and now he’s caught me without any vegetables in the house.” Miss strangeworth is portrayed as a very stuck up and brags to everyone about how her father built the town and how she has been there the whole time. It also introduces her roses. Miss Strangeworth's roses are her life. She tends to them all the time,

People’s personalities are not always what they seem. That is the case in Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Possibility of Evil.” The main character is an elderly woman who seems sweet and kind; however, she reveals that she is not sweet and kind. 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.

Conflict is a big issue in the story The Possibility of Evil. The main conflict is person versus society and is between Miss Strangeworth and the whole town. Miss Strangeworth is a two faced character. Miss Strangeworth pretends to be a friend to all her so called friends and fellow town’s people, but secretly sends them disgusting and hurting messages in the mail unsigned. The author of the story really makes the reader want to figure out why a person that has lived in the town her whole life and knew everybody, [“She knew everyone in town, of course; [...] she had not spent more than a day outside this town in her long life [...] She was seventy-one” (249)] would do something terrible to that level to the only people she knows. At first when Miss Strangeworth’s actions are revealed to the reader, one may think that she is crazy, but as one reads on one starts to notice some other reasons. The

People aren’t always who they seem to be. In ‘The Possibility of Evil,” by Shirley Jackson, this idea is explored in story form. One character, Miss Strangeworth, is the literary representation of this idea; She is polite and nice in person, but at the same time, she anonymously writes hurtful letters that spread false rumors to the whole town. Firstly, Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she says and does.

In “The Possibility of Evil,” Shirley Jackson gives us a character who seems to be the town's most respected and longest established resident, but who actually has a dark and destructive side. Her pride in the town may be the first foreshadowing clue of what she is truly like. Miss Strangeworth describes how her grandfather built the very first house on pleasant, street, and that she “.... family has lived here for better than a hundred years.”  She even admits to thinking the town …. Belonged to her (Jackson 1). This evidence is important because it shows how Miss Strangeworth feels she is different, perhaps better than other townspeople. From

The narrator in Louise Erdrich’s The Strange People is characterized as a doe, a “lean gray witch” (i, 20) and finally, a “shadowy body.”(i, 25) Her own actions ultimately trigger this transformation, and are further emphasized through three jarring shifts within the poem. Despite portraying the narrator as prey in the beginning, she is not faultless. By placing double meanings on the word “burning,” (i, 6) it allows the self-destructive actions of the narrator to be evident. Also, by juxtaposing the cold and warmth described in the poem, the reasoning behind the doe’s self-destructive actions is explained, and ultimately paints her in a more nuanced light. Even so, her self-destructive actions highlight the consequences resulting from her attempt at self-preservation. She transforms into a “lean gray witch” to save herself, and yet it destroys her self-identity. The poem exposes the bleak yet nuanced consequences of destructive desires and self-preservation, and how even when necessary and justified, leads to the unfortunate loss of one’s identity.

In the story of the “The Demon Lover” Mrs. Dover’s character starts off as a normal prosaic woman struggling in the times and hardships of the second world war. Much like many of the English people, she had been shaken by the detriment that had been caused by this war. However, soon she discovers a letter embedded with the reminder of the sinful promise she had broken years ago. Upon reading the letter speaking of her promise, she is infected with a paralyzing fear that eventually devolves her into a paranoid, hallucinating woman. Her paranoia creates the story of “The Demon Lover” by cultivating the inner fear within herself. Her hallucinations create and control the surroundings and events that eventually take place. Thanks to her amassed fear of over twenty-five years, Mrs. Dover’s character almost completely controls the plot and the overall outcome of the story.

Buddha once stated, “it is a man’s own mind, not his enemy or foe, that lures him to evil ways.” In “The Possibility of Evil,” Miss Strangeworth, a seemingly innocent elderly woman, sends cruel letters in order to rid her town of evil. When other townspeople discover her as the author of the letters, they destroy her prized roses. Shirley Jackson’s “The Possibility of Evil” not only reveals the deceitfulness of people, but also emphasizes the underlying evil of all humans and shows that evil remains insurmountable until fully accepted.

In the text it states that, “Poor little LInda was crying again, and Miss Strangeworth listened carefully.” This shows Miss Strangeworth doesn’t care about Linda or the people in her town because when Linda was crying, she just kind of spied on her and listen to her cry.

Achieving control is the main motive behind Adela Strangeworth and Emily Grierson’s subconscious’. Yet each woman sought control in extremely different ways. Adela sought to prevent her whole town from committing possible acts of evil. She disguised herself by writing letters anonymously, this gives her the freedom to be unknown, yet still maintain her control over her little town. Emily Grierson’s situation was different. She sought control over her own life, which her town had denied her of. They starved her of her only love, Homer Barron. The town felt that it was improper of noblesse oblige to be engaged to

These speeches are insightful and eloquent arguments against the injustices the speakers have seen in the world around them. These women have each used their prestigious standing in the literary society to bring attention to these injustices. In 1994 Atwood gave the ‘Spotty-Handed Villainesses’ speech at various

At this point one can record the fact that all of them jeopardise the respective heroine’s happy ending; however, these women are not all equal as they differ in efficiency and menace. Researchers in the field of Jane Austen have rather neglected this topic; although there are a few character analyses or references, nobody has explicitly investigated the entity of Austen’s female antagonists yet. It is noticeable though that certain types of female antagonists repeatedly occur in Jane Austen’s novels. According to their respective features, every single one of these characters can be thus put into one of three different categories, which, in the following, will be referred to as ‘The Old Schemers’, ‘The Self-Centred Girls’, and ‘The Rivals’. Although one could obviously create/establish further different categories, I keep to only the above listed three to avoid unnecessary

In this paper an attempt has been made to analyse certain stories of the supernatural by Bond in order to assess how the character of the female has been represented with a special emphasis on examining an element of the sinister which seems to be associated with each of these women. Whether as ghosts or as real, living individuals, these women exhibit a tendency to inflict harm on other characters which marks them as being decisively dangerous. What this paper tries to ascertain is whether these female characters can be simply branded as being evil or if there are actual, justifiable reasons behind their actions which provokes them to act in the ways they do. The study thus seeks to shed some light on the intentions and motivations of these characters who are evidently more complex than they initially appear to be.