Analysis Of The Possibility Of Evil By Miss Strangeworth

For most people, the words evil and harsh are not the typical traits used to describe an elderly woman. However, in the short story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, the 71 year old character Miss Adela Strangeworth, has a dark predatory nature hiding behind her highly respectable and sweet exterior. She preys upon her peers by misleading them into thinking everything is fine, only to subsequently tear them down. She accomplishes this by concealing her cruel, deceitful and perfectionist personality by maintaining an honourable reputation within her town.

Characters serve as the metaphorical foundation upon which a story is written. In fact, the personalities of characters often reveal the outcome of a story’s plot before the author explicitly states it. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the self-indulgent grandmother portrays the outcome of her attempted evangelism through her sanctimonious nature. Through her illegitimate Christian appearance based on deceit and self-elevation, her failed attempt to persuade the Misfit can be attributed to her hypocritical personality.

Pleasant Street seemed to be Miss Strangeworth’s play house because she thought she owned the place, at least Strangeworth thought so. Meanwhile on the inside she is evil and thinks she is at the top of the town’s hierarchy. In fact she has a god complex. Miss Adela Strangeworth, a character in the short story “A Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, is a 71 year old who is thought by the townsfolk as a sweet puny lady but she is nothing but that. Because of the way Miss Strangeworth is, all horrible actions must have a consequence and she finds out the truth of that statement when her vintage old self turns into the evil lady that no one has seen before, and she realizes that she wants more control than she has, basically a god complex.

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.

In the short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the grandmother's superficial goodness towards other individuals is significant to contrast with the evil "The Misfit" obtains. For the duration of the story, the grandmother fears "The Misfit" and strives to avoid the evil he possesses; however, we learn it is inevitable that his existence will eventually encompass her when they make acquaintance. The Misfit seamlessly endangers others with the careless actions he perpetrates, and in return, displays minimal remorse. Readers of the story may easily be perplexed by the motives the Misfit obtains to commit heinous acts onto innocent victims; however, lack of religious conscience, moral blindness and intermittent conversation with the grandmother

Old, lonely ladies like Adela Strangeworth could suffer from boredom. One would also think that she would probably like to work in her yard. And one could even think of her living in a small town, where she would probably also know all of the people. If one visualizes all these clichés when an old lady was mentioned, one now has a pretty good picture of Miss Adela Strangeworth, the protagonist of the short story, “The Possibility of Evil’’ by Shirley Jackson. Miss Strangeworth is 71 years old and lives in a small town. Her street is Pleasant-street and her house and roses are just perfect. In the eyes of the townsmen Miss Strangeworth is an old, friendly, and helpful lady, but this could soon change. They would then see that this old lady

The character Miss Strangeworth in the literature “The Possibility of Evil” in inconsiderate and a perfectionist. She is inconsiderate because of her thoughts and actions. For example, Miss Strangeworth thinks this “Miss Strangeworth noticed that Miss Chandler had not taken much trouble with her hair that morning, and sighed” (Jackson 112-114). This reveals how inconsiderate she is to others solely picking out their imperfections. Miss Strangeworth is also a perfectionist who disdains imperfection or sloppiness. This shows clearly in this quote “Martha,” she said, “you don’t look well.” This is when she calls out Mrs. Harper for not seeming well, in public (Jackson 75). This is why Miss Strangeworth is an inconsiderate perfectionistic personality.

In the story "The Possibility Of Evil" written by Shirley Jackson there is a peculiar character called Miss Adela Strangeworth. She is an old women in a small town she has watched grow in her entire lifetime but she is less innocent than you'd think, in fact, she is a villainous women and shows how cruel and evil she is in many ways.

By all appearances, Miss Strangeworth is a sweet, old lady, living in a perfect, shiny, happy town. But appearances are not everything, especially in the case of Miss Adela Strangeworth of Pleasant Street. Miss Adela Strangeworth, a character in the short story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, is a 71-year-old spinster living in a small town in the 1940’s. At the beginning, she seems like any normal old lady, but it is quickly realized that this is not the case and that she has a dark side. Of the many traits that Miss Strangeworth possesses, the most prominent are her deceptiveness, perfectionism, and the god complex that has developed.

In "The Possibility of Evil," Jackson shows evil to be almost invisible. For years Miss Strangeworth thinks she is helping to fix the wrong in her town by writing anonymous letters. due to the fact that her grandfather established the town, Miss Stangeworth believes that she has

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.

In the short story, “The Possibility of Evil” you can right away tell by the title that there will be some kind of evil going around. In the story there is a lady called Miss strangeworth who in the end turns out to be a bully. However, Miss Strangeworth is not a physical bully, she is in a way a cyber bully but instead of posting or sending messages she writes multiple letters to people in her town pointing out certain things she’s noticed. Throughout the story no one knows who is sending the letters, this is being anonymous. In the article “The Online Disinhibition Effect” it also gives examples of how one can keep their identity hidden by going as “anonymous”

The setting of the movie in a classic suburban community around the 1950’s. The community aims for perfection in a way, that nothing odd is okay. That is why the mansion, where Edward Scissorhands has got residence, is a spot of dirt of the picture of perfection the community is trying to show. The color scheme makes the good versus evil theme very clear in the movie, in the way there is a clear contrast between good and evil. For example, the ‘good’ of the movie is shown, when we see the colors of the characters and the surrounding area. Another example is the dark colors of Edward Scissorhands’ residence and himself in general; a dark and gloomy look, which resembles sadness, death and depression. All characteristics we can relate to Edward Scissorhands and his backstory in general. The community works around the comfort of conformity; that means, that matching beliefs and values is the key to acceptance to town, where ‘Edward Scissorhands’ take place.

In the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” a family of six meets their demise on the side of the road in Georgia after a gang of convicts lead by The Misfit brutally murders each member of the family. The story starts off in an upbeat tone and sets up a seemingly happy plot about a family going on vacation to Florida. However, the grandmother does not listen to her son about taking her cat on the trip and her disobedience ultimately leads to all of their deaths. The author changes the tone of the story at the end when the family gets into a wreck and faces a gruesome death by a crazed armed killer on the loose (O’Connor#). The grotesque psychopathic nature of the characters in Flannery O’Connor’s, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” ironically shows how a good man does not truly exist through the revelation and proclamation of what characteristics a good man possess.

We are all sinners. Although one may try hard not to sin, all humans eventually succumb at some time or another to sin. While people may not able to avoid the fate which awaits them, the power of free will allows people to decide how they will respond to sin. While some may respond with guilt and regret, others may react with a sense of redemption and a renewed sense of responsibility.