Miss Strangeworth Symbolism

Many parents or adults try to teach or guide loved ones out of being caring, although, this can cause people to unknowingly discourage or hurt those they are trying to help. In “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth tries to eliminate all the evil within her town but betrays her town by being the cause of the evil. In “The Fall of a City” by Alden Nowlan, Teddy’s Uncle makes fun of Teddy for using his imagination by playing with paper dolls. Miss Strangeworth and Teddy’s Uncle guides the townspeople and Teddy out of love, however, this affects the townspeople and Teddy negatively which leads to betrayal; thus, they both attempt to regulate the townspeople and Teddy but are ironically being evil themselves and affect others negatively while doing so. Jackson illustrates Miss Strangeworth’s betrayal displays the deceptiveness of her personality and revealing of her true self, but …show more content…
In other words, in Teddy’s paper kingdom, Teddy appears to be King Theodore who rules the “Kingdom of Upalia”, and his uncle “...[resembles] Zikla, Duke of Anders” who is the “general in the Upalian army, and in 2043 [when] the Danovans had invaded Upalia a second time, [and King Theodore is] aided by a renegade force under the command of Zikla.”, which exhibits that Teddy trusts and appreciates his uncle, that he made a character for his uncle (130, 132, 131). Yet, when his uncle mocks and betrays Teddy, Teddy simulates the betrayal with King Theodore and Zikla: “On the day of victory, the Duke of Anders was brought to Theodoresburg in chains and hanged in the city square.” and “Paper dolls!... He could never explain; they would never let him explain [his reasons for playing with them to his uncle]”(131, 133). Additionally, his uncle’s character attempts to help King Theodore as best as he could just like how his uncle, but ends up betraying the king like