When people think little old ladies they often image sweet, nice and wonderful, but people are not always what they seem. Adela Strangeworth was a sweet, nice and a wonderful old lady until they found out her dark secret. Adela Strangeworth, is a character in Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Possibility of Evil”. Adela Strangeworth is not your typical grandma; by day she is sweet, nice and loving but by night she is evil, deceptive and condescending. Strangeworth is no saint. She is an evil, nasty person. When she walks around town she plays nice to everyone. She asks about their day and makes pleasant small talk. Then she might see something she does not like or does not agree with entirely and that just sets her off. Yet she goes out of her way to interfere with other people’s business “[t]hat little girl is going to grow up expecting luxury all her …show more content…
She is a deceptive person. She is nice until something makes her frantic then she just has to knock them down by sending horrible letters to the people she has encounters with. She is wonderful around everyone, then then she gets home and writes one of her letters “ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children” (Jackson, 1941, p. 169) she then sends this letter to a new mother in town. Is Adela Strangeworth a liar No, but is she crummy, vile and deceptive Yes. Adela Strangeworth is not a role model. She is very condescending. She believes she can send the letters to make the town a better place because her grandfather built the first house. “They wanted to put a statue of Ethan Allen… but it should have been a statue of my grandfather” (Jackson, 1941, p. 163) she elevates herself at the expense of everyone else’s happiness. Meanwhile she has concocted this illusion that the town evolves around her “its Tuesday, Mr. Lewis. You forgot to remind me”. (Jackson, 1941, p.166) There is no debating that Adela Strangeworth is a condescending
Throughout the story she places judgement, she lies and manipulates her family, and she proves to only care for herself. She does all of this while claiming to be a lady, and holding herself is higher regard than everyone else around her. She continually shows that she is not lady, and she is also doing the things that she looks down upon other for, This is an example of a true hypocrite. Another shining example of her hypocrisy is shown when she brings up religion when speaking to The Misfit. “Do you ever pray?(258).”
Delia Jones is a black woman who live in Florida that holds to her belief in God to help her get through the suffering that she endures from her abusive husband, Sykes. The theme of the story is good vs. evil which are shown as Delia and Sykes. Delia is the good, hardworking, and self sufficient character that is put through a lot having an abusive husband. Delia has a very strong work ethic, by the way that she is working hard to wash the clothes for the white people that she worked for to put food on the table and a roof over her and Sykes’ head. Sykes returns the favor by taking Delia’s money and spend on rent for Bertha’s house.
“But those with an evil heart, seem to have a talent for destroying anything beautiful which is about to bloom.” This quote relates to the text because Miss Strangeworth has an evil heart without knowing it and she destroyed good peoples feelings and in the end when her roses were destroyed, something beautiful of hers was destroyed. (Roses) The possibility of Evil by Shirley Jackson explains that there is an evil everywhere, we can not stop it at all. Miss Strangeworth’s thought, actions and the setting plus the rising action and exposition demonstrate it.
She would also withhold her judgment toward anyone until she examined their character. She can be found trying to improve throughout the
No matter what she does deep down inside she is still evil, and still only cares about
Throughout time, the act of anonymously sending a hateful message, regardless of factuality has always been prevalent. In the past, it could have been through rumors or ink letters, but in modern times they’re most commonly seen in online messages. This act is vile to its purest form, yet it is still a distinguishable part of human society. In the short story “The Possibility of Evil”, this vile act was presented by the protagonist Miss Strangeworth. Throughout the story, she has been seen writing toxic letters to her neighbors, uncaring about the truth and the feelings of those around her.
“Miss Strangeworth is a familiar fixture in a small town where everyone knows everyone else. Little do the townsfolk suspect, though, that the dignified old woman leads another, secret life…”. A secret life can be evil or good, in Miss Strangeworth’s case it is suitable, but do others appreciate this secret life. In The Possibility of Evil Shirley Jackson illustrates inner thinking, revealing action, and symbolism to show how Miss Strangeworth tends the people like her roses, but truly state's them evil.
This quote also gives you an idea of how Miss Strangeworth enjoyed gossip or talking about someone behind their back. Miss Strangeworth was writing letters to “The town where she lived had to be kept clean and sweet” it's ironic how she could say this when in reality she was doing all the evil of the town. The way Miss
Miss Strangeworth sometimes “[finds] herself thinking that the town belonged to her” (Jackson,1941,
She acts in a caring manner to everyone’s face, but when she is alone, she becomes a heartless woman, determined to reveal what she knows. Miss Strangeworth is the one causing the distress in her community, yet she acts oblivious as to what is bothering everyone. She shows her extreme deceitfulness by attempting to ease Helen Crane’s concern about her child by saying “Nonsense… some of them develop… more quickly than others” (Jackson, 1941, p. 167). This is deceitful because she is aware that there is something different about the child and instead of voicing that, she consoles the mother, only to subsequently shatter her in an anonymous letter. Additionally, Miss Strangeworth cleverly utilizes the most common paper and envelops all townspeople use for her letters.
Of course, one almost intuitively understands that the novel’s leading women adhere rather closely to socio-gender norms; both Adeline and Clara, the two women who most represent Radcliffe’s idealized morality, are traditionally beautiful, focus on emotional intelligence via poetry and music rather than on scientific pursuits, and represent the appealing innocence of ingénues. In the same manner that Adeline’s unconsciousness contributes to her integrity, it also appears that her extensive physical beauty results in part from her inherent saintliness, her beautiful eyes linked to some intrinsic purity (7). Further highlighting this ethical preference for femininity, Adeline exhibits fear related directly to the presence of men; in the Marquis’s chateau, her terror specifically abates when she realizes that “elegant” and “beautiful” women surround her, and later the inverse occurs as she balks in fear at “the voices of men” (158, 299). On some level, Adeline seems to recognize that masculinity poses a significant threat to her, and instinctively shies away from its
In the beginning of the story, it shows that she is a very superior person as being the reverend’s niece. She evidently changes when she had the power of
Is Ms. Strangeworth a victim OR villain In the short story “The Possibility of Evil” written by Shirley Jackson, the protagonist Ms. Strangeworth is a villain because she isn’t what everyone’s aspect of her is, she is very deceptive, and the letters she sends are the very cause of the evil she’s trying to stop. Ms. Strangeworth is a seventy-one-year-old lady who lives in a little town, which she thinks is her own. She always feels the need to know everything, about everyone. Even though, no one knows who she really is.
As a matter of fact most frequently critics have looked at how prejudicial her mother’s philosophies have been for our character, and attributed to Editha Mowbray the “fallness” of her daughter. In her essay “The return of the prodigal daughter” Joanne Tong contemplates how “Mrs. Mowbray pays too little rather than too much attention to her daughter” (2004: 475) the outcome of which is a misunderstanding of her position in society with regards to the strict laws of etiquette and feminine ideology in eighteenth century England. Cecily E. Hill also blames Editha for Adeline and Glenmurray’s extramarital affair and their inevitable moral condemnation, and instead of accusing the lovers she sees Editha as the soul villain of the novel. Contrary to the typical concept of a mother who provides a safe education to Adeline, she experiments with dubious theories that ultimately foreground her daughter’s tragic
She is the one female character that challenges the standard of a southern, rural woman. Unlike Cora she isn’t obedient to her husband nor God. She cheated on her husband, Anse, with a minister and isn’t sexually satisfied by Anse. Addie isn’t happy with the traditional way of life of having a husband and kids, “So I took Anse. And when I knew that I had Cash, I knew that living was terrible…”