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.
First, Miss Adela Stangeworth was always polite and friendly towards everyone, but it is only a false image that she gives to the others. When she went to the grocery store “Miss Strangeworth had to stop every minutes or so to say good morning to someone or to ask after someone’s health” (Jackson, 1941, p. 165). Everyone likes her and they “wave at her or call out good morning” (Jackson, 1941, p. 165) when she arrives somewhere. She talks to everybody to know all their problems so it is easier for her after to write them rude letter. At the beginning, it is hard to see what her personality really is, but more the story advances, more her character is revealed and the friendly old lady that she was, turns into an evil woman. …show more content…
Her appearance was a priority for her, she always dresses “herself carefully”. Her house was a real museum; the roses in front of her house are always perfectly cute and inside, everything thing is at its place. When she writes letter, she always uses the same paper than everyone in the city and she mails them after dinner, when it is darker outside so nobody can see her. Everything she does is always meticulously planned. Jackson lets the readers think than “she was fond of doing things exactly right” (Jackson, 1941, p. 169). At the end even if she tried to do everything perfectly, a small detail destroyed all her reputation of a tidy
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.
First, Miss Adela Stangeworth was always polite and friendly towards everyone, but it is only a false image that she gives to the others. When she went to the grocery store “Miss Strangeworth had to stop every minutes or so to say good morning to someone or to ask after someone’s health” (Jackson, 1941, p. 165). Everyone likes her and they “wave at her or call out good morning” (Jackson, 1941, p. 165) when she arrives somewhere. She talks to everybody to know all their problems so it is easier for her after to write them rude letter. At the beginning, it is hard to see what her personality really is, but more the story advances, more her character is revealed and the friendly old lady that she was, turns into an evil woman. …show more content…
Her appearance was a priority for her, she always dresses “herself carefully”. Her house was a real museum; the roses in front of her house are always perfectly cute and inside, everything thing is at its place. When she writes letter, she always uses the same paper than everyone in the city and she mails them after dinner, when it is darker outside so nobody can see her. Everything she does is always meticulously planned. Jackson lets the readers think than “she was fond of doing things exactly right” (Jackson, 1941, p. 169). At the end even if she tried to do everything perfectly, a small detail destroyed all her reputation of a tidy