Miss Strangeworth Character Analysis

Every person has taken pride in their accomplishments whether it is overcoming adversity or being admired by peers. Having pride provides confidence and belief that any challenge in their lives can be overcome. On the other hand, excessive pride can be detrimental. It may lead a person to become overconfident in their abilities or beliefs and unaware of the harm they may cause towards others with their actions. In the three short stories, “Two Kinds” by Amy Tan, “The Scarlet Ibis” by James Hurst, and “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, the authors convey the perils of exorbitant pride. In the story “Two Kinds”, a mother places unyielding demands on her daughter to become a prodigy, causing the child to become defiant, which creates

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.

In “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth has lost her sanity and she is evil in some ways. She tells people everything they do wrong in the town that she believes is hers. She knows everyone in town, “I’ve watched my town grow” Jackson states (Jackson 188). She is old enough to have knowledge about everyone in the town, and she hasn’t left this town in her whole life. She also isn’t very humble. “‘They wanted to put up a statue of Ethan Allen,’” Miss Strangeworth said snotty”’...but it should have been a statue of my grandfather’” (Jackson 188). This shows that she wants her family to be the most important family in the town.

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

“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)

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 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.

Ronald Reagan once stated “Peace is not absence of conflict, it is the ability to handle conflict by peaceful means”. In the passage “The Diary of a Young Girl” by Anne Frank, a story of how a young girl responds to conflict by staying optimistic. In “Dear Miss Breed”, written by Joanne Oppenheim, Japanese children of all ages write letters to Miss Breed that explain the conflicts that the individuals have and how the children overcome and resolve it. Others may say that the most effective way to respond to conflict is to stand up for what a person believes in, however, the best way that people can respond to a conflict is to have a positive outlook because it helps to not focus on the hardships in an individual’s life, alleviates stress, and affects other people 's attitude.

“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.

Thenceforth, to secure his good will, she always spoke to him first, and often gave him drink money, which he readily received.” This quote shows us one of Lucie’s routines. I shows us how she is a normal woman in the 18th century. It shows us yet again how she really is the perfect girl. This quote shows us how she is caring and gracious. These are some of the qualities that were expected from women in the 18th century. In comparison is Madame Defarge. On page 277, “The shadow attendant on Madame Defarge and her party seemed to fall so threatening and dark on the child, that her mother instinctively kneeled on the ground beside her, and held her to her breast.” In these two quotes we see how differently these two women present themselves towards other people. Lucie is kind, considerate, and everything that Dickens wants a woman to be. When she sees someone else like she does in this quote she tries to be nice and happy and do what she can for them. In this quote she gives the wood-sawyer money. On the other hand Madame Defarge isn’t quick to be nice, kind, nor considerate. Dickens is trying to show us how she isn’t a gender ideal because she isn’t the perfect woman. This quote shows us how Madame Defarge is just naturally cold and gives off scary feels to everyone. This is shown by how the kid was scared and the mother had to go comfort the

The author of this short story- Shirley Jackson begins the story by introducing Miss Adela Strangeworth as a sweet old lady “Miss Adela Strangeworth came daintily along Main Street on her way to the grocery.” And she pathetic fallacy to mimic nice mood “The sun was shining, the air was fresh and clear after the night’s heavy rain, and everything in Miss Strangeworth’s little town looked washed and bright. Shirley Jackson clearly wants the reader’s perspective on Miss Strangeworth to be pleasant,

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 classic book Flowers for Algernon, which was written by Daniel Keyes in the late 1900’s, explains the story about a middle-aged man named Charlie Gordon and the struggles he faces from having a mental disability. Charlie Gordon worked at Donnegon’s Box Company, but while working there, he was made fun of and called stupid for something he can’t control. Charlie had a wish for all people to love and accept him, but couldn’t understand that there is always going to be someone that wouldn’t like him which made him feel unwanted and unappreciated. Throughout Flowers for Algernon, Daniel Keyes develops a theme of self-acceptance to explain how people shouldn’t change themselves to fit in with others.

Last night, on September 12th, by 1337 Elington drive, Ms.Adela Strangeworth’s roses were supposedly vandalized by an unknown towns person.

In Susan Glaspell's play “Trifles,” there is a difference between the men and women’s way of perceiving evidence to Mr. Wright’s murder case. The men spend most of their time searching for solid evidence upstairs where Mr. Wright's murder takes place. However, the women spend most of their time in Mrs. Wright’s kitchen. Instead of seeking tangible evidence, they inspect the condition of the items and acknowledge how they have been muddled around. Different perspectives lead to a variety of discoveries such as the women’s way of perceiving evidence.