Strangeworth In Jeh MacDonald’s short story, “The Possibility of Evil”, Jeh indicates that Mrs. Strangeworth is a nit picking perfectionist that seems to show signs of O.C.D. Specifically, when people ask for one of her luscious red roses Mrs. Strangeworth thinks to herself that, “[these] roses belong on pleasant street... [and] to [even] think of people wanting to carry them away” (1,2). It indicates that it’ just too hard for her to even think of something being out of place. Somebody with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder might also experience thoughts and feelings similar to that exact same thought. Not only did she not like things out of place, “Miss Strangeworth hated sloppiness” (3). Even if it was just Mrs.Chandler’s ratty messy hair.
In the story The Possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson the main character miss Strangeworth shows her true backstabbing nature when writing anonymous letters to all the people in town. The story eventually reviles her dark secret of writing the letters and hiding behind the paper. Similarly cyber bullies hide behind a keyboard and type out horrible messages meant to make the receiver feel meaningless. The common pattern of indirect manipulation and controlling behaviors are observed in both modern cyber bullies and the character Miss Strangeworth in "The Possibility of Evil".
In the short story “Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson used several symbols in the story to explain Ms.Strangeworth. The first symbol would be her name the word strange is in it hinting that she is a strange woman to begin with. Then she gradually shows her strangeness by telling us what she is noticing in people, that no one would ever really notice. Then it was roses that was symbolizing her as person. Roses have soft beautiful petals that distracts people from seeing the thorns that grows with the rose and causes them to put it up to later be stabbed by the thorn. The petals are Miss. Strangeworth’s appearance an old,proper, sweet lady who never think to raise her voice, but her thorns are the letters she writes to everyone anonymously.
Miss Adela Strangeworth is a very peculiar woman. On the outside, she is simply the sweet old lady down the street, but get to know her and she is as cold as ice inside. Miss Strangeworth lives in a small town where everybody knows everybody and nobody knows nobody. The story, “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson does not give much as to where this little town is located but what we do know is it has a post office, a market, and the lovely Strangeworth house with roses out front. The one and only Miss Adela Strangeworth, sweet yet disastrously deceptive, possessive, and harsh.
In the short story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson there was several symbols to tell a story about Miss Strangeworth. One symbol is Miss Strangeworth’s roses. She loved her roses because they were beautiful and everyone admired them. She was proud of the fact that tourists would ask for them, but she never said yes. Her grandmother had first planted them, and after that it was her mother. The honor of taking care of her family’s roses meant a lot to her. Another symbol is her name itself. Miss ‘Strangeworth’ always keeps to herself yet is always judging everyone else. Her personality is quite strange due to the fact that she will be nice to a certain point, until she finds something that’s unappealing to her. She seemed to be a
Everyone expects an elder to be really kind and sweet. Shirley Jackson’s “The Possibility of Evil” tells a very different story. Miss Strangeworth out in public is kind and sweet, but behind closed doors she is very deceptive. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by what she does or says, what the narrator says, and how others react to her. Miss Strangeworth is a very selfish lady in the story.
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 ,
In a small town where everyone is nice that Miss Stangeworth is respected and trying to protect from evil but doesn’t realize that she is the one being evil. That Shirley Jackson is using creativity and being two faced to deceive people. “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson uses two faced and creativity to reveal that Miss Strangeworth uses details and imagery is not the woman that everyone thinks she is. Firstly, “In the Possibility of Evil” Shirley Jackson uses details and two faced for Miss Strangeworth that is getting explained in this paragraph.
In "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson, Adela Strangeworth is portrayed as a cunning and manipulative woman who takes pleasure in spreading hostile gossip within her seemingly perfect town. Adela Strangeworth’s personality trait of cunning is shown in her carefully planned and calculated interactions with the townspeople and her secret letter-writing habits. For example, she engages in a “friendly” conversation with Mr. Lewis, the grocery store owner, reminding him of her routine of buying tea on Tuesday. Adela’s meticulous observation of others. She states “It's Tuesday, Mr. Lewis.
In Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Possibility of Evil”, Miss Adela Strangeworth lives in this small town on Pleasant Street. She is a nice old lady who everybody loves,but she’s more than nice she’s evil. She seems to be a good person, but she’s not. She walks by the townspeople smiling ,but started writing evil letters about the people and sending the letters ruining the town people’s lives. They don’t know who is sending the letters,but Miss.Strangeworth wrote these letters out of pride which shows how evil she really is. The theme of the story is that there is the possibility of evil in anyone.
One of the more obvious disorders that were shown was Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder which is, one’s inflexibility and fixation on rules, procedure, and orderliness, the main difference between OCD and OCPD is they do not perform constant meaningless rituals. Some symptoms are anxiety about time, cleanliness, and worry about money which causes them to work more than needed. What causes OCPD is not entirely clear but psychologist believe it is a combination of genetics and environment. One of the scenes that display OCPD was when Joan and her maids were cleaning her house and one of her maids forgot to move a pot when she waxed the floor which caused a ring of dirt and Joan said, “I’m not mad at you, I’m mad at the dirt.” then her current boyfriend showed up and she forgot
Miss Strangeworth is not what people think she is. In Shirley Jackson’s story, ‘The Possibility of Evil’, Miss Strangeworth is first described as a kind and innocent person. She leads a very insular life. Then, you discover that Miss Strangeworth is delusional and a rather malicious gossiper. She is also a coward as she never directly confronts people with her suspicions and opinions, but works through anonymous letters.
This essay is to explain why of all the characters of the short stories we read that Miss. Strangeworth is the worst character and why. These characters come from the short stories And of Clay We are Created, To Build a Fire, The Possibility of Evil, The Interlopers, Two Friends and How Much Land Does a Man Need? The characters in these stories are unique in the ways that they could be evil, such as having the ability to change something for the better but instead not doing anything at all. Miss strangeworth is the worst of all because she is two-faced, selfish, and very judgemental.
As time has progressed, light has been shed on the causes and symptoms of mental disorders. Like many mental disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder was once linked to dissociation with religious beliefs. In the seventeenth century OCD was seen as a symptom of being isolated from religion and religious practices. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that obsessive-compulsive disorder began to be recognized as a mental disorder unrelated to religion. The route to this recognition began as stated by Koran (2007) by distinguishing obsessions from delusions and compulsions from impulsions. The source of the disorder, however, was still a matter to be argued on. The idea that OCD was a result of any level of insanity was disregarded after the mid-eighteen hundreds. For the most part, French psychiatrists believed it was a result of an emotional distress and “volitional” defects but not before placing it in a very broad spectrum of many other phobias we see today. German Psychiatrists, on the other hand, associated OCD with an issue on the intellectual level and as Magnan (1835-1916) put it, OCD was the “psychosis of degeneration.”
About 60% of obsessive-compulsive disorder patients have multiple obsessions. Not only does Melvin display behaviors associated with his fear of contamination, but also he presents compulsions under the symmetry/exactness/”just right” symptom subtype. This subtype deals specifically with the need for symmetry, in which things are put in a certain order and rituals are repeated. Melvin has very specific expectations of order in his daily routine. Every
In the short story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, the main character, Miss Strangeworth, is quite the narcissist. An example of this is when she thinks to herself that “the town belonged to her” (1). This illustrates her believing that she is akin to royalty, and more important than any of the town’s other citizens. Another quote to support this is where the narrator says, “The town where she lived had to be kept clean and sweet” (5). As queen of the town, she feels as though it’s her duty, and only her’s, to keep it perfect. Only a person as impeccable as Miss Strangeworth could be tasked with keeping the town in such high standards. Something else that implies Miss Strangeworth’s narcissism is her stationary. It’s described