Also in the short story “Possibility of Evil” it contains, The roses belonged on Pleasant Street, and it bothered Miss Strangeworth to think of people wanting to carry them away, to take them into strange towns and down strange streets. Therefore, These examples prove that she can be selfish and she can be rude. These examples also helped to prove she is…
Don’t be deceived by appearances... people aren’t always as they seem to be. In the short story “The Possibility of Evil”, Shirley Jackson writes about Miss.Strangeworth, an elderly woman, who writes rude judgmental letters to the people in her town about all the things she think is wrong with them. Though on the outside Miss. Strangeworth seems like some nice old lady who has spent her entire life here in the little town, she is really a mean, rude and selfish person who doesn't seem to care about other people’s feelings.…
The short story “The Possibility of Evil,” by Shirley Jackson was written in 1965 and received the Edgar Allen Poe award. The story’s protagonist, Miss Adela Strangeworth portrays a character that is multifaceted. Miss Strangeworth’s personality traits are shown through her actions, comments, narrator’s descriptions and how others interact with her. Miss Strangeworth’s multifaceted character can be displayed through what she does and what she says. “Don and Helen Crane were really the two most infatuated young parents she had ever known, she thought indulgently”(2).…
Flannery O’Connor’s penchant for the Southern grotesque plays out clearly in her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. This narrative, featuring a grandmother who is killed by escaped convicts succeeds largely due to the interplay among its separate narrative parts. By combining a discriminate morality, a “holier than thou” attitude, and the delusion of grace in the territory of the devil O’Connor is able to highlight a universal and timeless theme found throughout her works: A smug and sanctimonious mindset will bring about punitive measures, however not without a chance of redemption. The protagonist of the story (the grandmother) showed a sense of smugness and moral superiority to her own family in the very first paragraph.…
Miss Strangeworth Character Essay: The Evil Old Lady When a problem occurs in a town, the trouble makers and the mysterious persons are suspected first. Nobody would think that it can be a lovely old lady. Miss Adela Strangeworth, the main character in a story of Shirley Jackson, “The Possibility of Evil”, demonstrated that even the old cheerful lady could be rude. This deceptively friendly, perfectionist and controlling spinster has done more harm than she pretends to avoid to others.…
Through her character and her views the author high lights the irony of the contradiction – what she thought the world to be and what the world really is. Mrs. Freeman has no false view about the realities of life and does not accept anyone at their face value but ironically she uses this clarity to focus only on the gruesome aspects of life – not on the positive…
An insincere person is one that has two sides of them, and what’s visible to others is their pretty one. Miss. Strangeworth is typically out in the public as an extrovert because of the amount of times she would stop to greet someone or ask them about their health. One of the people she runs into is Helen Crane and her baby. As their conversation continues,…
Miss Strangeworth may be told as the venerable of the her tiny town, but there is always a dark side of people. In the short story by Shirley Jackson we find all about the manipulitive Miss Strangeworth, she is one of the most respected ladies in her small town, but there is a side of her that no one knows about, the author of the nasty letters. With Miss Strangeworth crazy behavior going wild , her reputation will soon take a hit. Miss Strangeworth is a mischievous mastermind because she is excellent at being extremely deceptive because it would take a lot for her to write nasty letters and not get caught. She was very clever that in “she never got any answers, of course, because she never signed her name”(Jackson, 1941, p. 170) in addition…
‘One time I got a woman’s glass eye this way’” (O’Connor 2537). Consequently, nearly every single character from Mrs. Hopewell to the bible salesman act as deconstructions of the ideas behind various “good county person”…
“I (Mrs. Wharton) wish you to find a friend and protector, worthy of being rewarded by your love… I think Mr. Boyer will prove” (41). Even her beloved Boyer refers to Sanford as a deceiver that is not to be trusted (84). Eliza’s friend, Julia Granby, concurs, “his professions of friendship (are) mere hypocrisy… I fear that he is acting over again the same unworthy acts, which formerly mislead you” (130).…
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” religion plays an enormous part in the story and why the Misfit does his evil deeds. O’Connor’s writing style is considered southern gothic and often reflects her own views on religious…
Jane is prohibited from being herself as she struggles from the very beginning of the novel against her passions and anger. She is expected to be a composed and lady like, despite the abuse she endures. Jane begins to believe who she is as an individual might be an immoral person. She validates these suspicions by saying “All said I was wicked and perhaps I might be so” (Bronte, 16). When Jane goes to school, she decides to take after a girl named Helen and feel good about herself.…
One of my favorite characters, Miss Alma LeFay Peregrine, is a character in the book Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, where she teaches and protects a handful of children with strange abilities, hence the word peculiar. Miss Peregrine aids the young protagonist, Jacob Portman, in his journey to discover his role in the peculiar world. As Miss Peregrine’s character develops, you see some of her more obvious traits. She is affectionate, teacherly, powerful, protective, and orderly. Of course, Miss Peregrine has more depth than just those five words, but these are some of her traits that I thought stuck out and are pretty important in describing Miss Peregrine.…
“The Possibility of Evil”, written in 1965 by Shirley Jackson, features the protagonist, Adela Strangeworth, who sends anonymous letters regarding the scandalous rumors going around the small village. When she carelessly drops one of her letters, the town gets a glimpse of her true versatile character behind the town gossip. Miss Strangeworth’s multi-faceted personality is revealed throughout the story, as seen in her speech and actions, the narrator’s descriptions, and her interactions with others. Miss Strangeworth’s character is built up by her words and actions, through which the reader can see her multiple personalities. At first, Miss Strangeworth comforts Helen Crane when she says “‘Nonsense.…
evil is a very common theme found in many literature pieces and it turns out that it is also found in this novel. In the first place, a piece of evidence that shows the theme of good vs. evil is, “At first I thought that, to go into the store and to use the tractor, I would have to ask permission each time. But then I had a worse thought: He was not going to give me any of the keys at all, to anything” (216). This shows that Mr. Loomis is a bad man and he is being very mean to an innocent Ann.…