Shirley Jackson And 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,” 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

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

Shirley Jackson was a successful writer because she practiced her writing skills. Evidence of this is, “After a year, in 1936, she withdrew and spent a year at home practicing writing, producing a minimum of a thousand words a day “ (BIO). Jackson spent her time by making her writing better just from writing a little everyday. The text states, “In 1945, Stanley Hyman was offered a teaching position at Bennington College, and they moved into an old house in North Bennington, Vermont, where Shirley continued her daily writing while raising children and running a household” (BIO). As Jackson got older and had a family she still was writing everyday. This could be a result to her never really failing when it came to writing popular stories because

In “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth seems extremely judgmental. Her intense judging first begins at the town store. Miss Strangeworth runs into Martha Harper while thinking to herself “She’s not as young as she used to be. She probably could use a good strong tonic” (175). Miss Strangeworth is hating on Martha just because she isn’t young anymore. Another example is when Miss Strangeworth is walking home. She stops and talks to Martha Crane about her baby saying “That little girl is going to grow up expecting luxury all her life” (176). This is not a place Miss Strangeworth should comment on. Miss Strangeworth is telling Martha how to raise her child. My last example is when Miss Strangeworth sees Miss Chandler.

On pleasant street things are stranger than you think. In “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson something odd goes on in Miss Strangeworth’s house. She is an elderly lady who gets along with everyone and is proverbial for her roses. Miss Strangeworth is a bitter, self-centered and deceiving character that shows through what she does, what the narrator says about her and how others communicate with her.

It’s hard to understand why Miss Strangeworth would be living on a street called Pleasant when she is not all that pleasant at all. She anonymously insults people when she thinks she’s doing them a favor. She’s really just making

The theme of “The Possibility of Evil” is “What goes around, comes around.” Miss. Strangeworth writes mean letters towards other members of the town, then is caught with misfortune when she is discovered, and an anonymous town member destroys her roses, which are her grandmother's. She had wrote letters for a while, for over a year, and as often as two or three a day. She wrote letters, such as accusing Mrs Foster of being blackmailed by her nephew with her upcoming surgery, and would address them anonymously.

When Miss Strangeworth’s and the town’s opinions of maliciousness, clash, it becomes apparent that their opinions of what determines evil differ. Miss Strangeworth wrote letters to the town, thereby, destroying their happiness to stop what she perceived as the likelihood of evil. The town’s response to these letters indicates that they view her

Strangeworth who, in her attempt to keep evil out of her beloved town, actually causes a bunch of trouble for the townspeople. The trait of social structure is present because Mrs. Strangeworth felt that she had moral superiority to the others in her town because the town would not be around without her family. Good vs Evil is also a prevalent trait because Mrs. Strangeworth felt that she was the force of good in her community so in her mind it was her responsibility to fight evil. Mrs. Strangeworth also has a disturbed personality because she does not seem to comprehend that her notes are causing tremendous amounts of worry and trouble in her town when normal people would be able to see

The murder had been a brutal one, Jackson noted. Judging by the witness accounts and clues left behind by the assailant, it was easy to conclude that the crime had been one fueled by hatred. The room’s broken furniture also hinted at the fact that the meeting had been a violent one, and the smell of blood was present throughout the tiny apartment. The police had simply brushed off the incident as a suicide, that the victim was only targeted by mental illness, not some serial killer on the loose. However, Jackson knew that they were wrong. He was desperate for justice to be served and he would not stop at any cost to make sure that it was achieved. The area that he had lived in was known to be one that was corrupted by the government, a place

Thus, the story of Miss Strangeworth begins with her heading out the door as the dainty old lady she is. The story starts off slow and calm, but you soon get the feeling of selfishness when, for example, the narrator announces “Miss Strangeworth never gave any of her roses away although the tourist often asked her.” In particular, she believed “ the roses belonged on Pleasant Street, and it bothered

In “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, although Miss Strangeworth’s actions were evil, she had good intentions. For example when Miss Strangeworth wrote a letter to Mrs Harper that stated “Have you found out yet about what they were all laughing about after you left the bridge club on Thursday? Or is the wife really the last one to know?” (Jackson). This reveals that she is trying to help rid her town of evil. Miss Strangeworth feels that writing these letter will help the people in her town. Another example is when Miss Strangeworth said that Martha Harper was looking old. Although Miss Strangeworth didn’t say this outloud, it shows that she has very strong opinions, but that doesn’t make someone evil. Miss Strangeworth wants people

Finally, she is rude because of the anonymous letters she sends to her neighbours. These three actions make her character appear very negative and unfavourable. Firstly, Miss Strangeworth thinks she owns the town that she lives in. This is because her grandfather built the first house on Pleasant Street and her grandmother planted the roses which tourists are attracted to while visiting the town.

In the beginning of the short story “Louisa, please come home” by Shirley Jackson, Louisa ran away from home because she wasn't happy in her home. She fought with her sister a lot, she wanted to run away for a while this wasn't a spur of the moment. She ran away the day before her sister's wedding to ruin it. She wasn’t home for three years, every year on the anniversary of her running away, she heard her mother's voice and on the third anniversary she bought herself a hat. She made a new Louisa called Louis who lives with Mrs. Peacock and has a nice family and saving money. When she saw her house, she remembered it precisely and she misses it when she left. The main character, Louisa, she is mature, she is a good liar, and she misses her family.