Strangeworth In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

The story “The Possibility of Evil,” by Shirley Jackson, is about a woman named Adela Strangeworth and her life in the small town that she lives in. Miss Strangeworth is a seemingly nice, elderly woman, who lives on Pleasant Street in her beautiful house surrounded by roses. Having family ties to this town dating back over 100 years Miss Strangeworth considers herself the matriarch of her town and as such decides to try and rid it of evil by sending anonymous letters, full of gossip and suspicion, to her neighbors in the hopes of making them aware of the evil surrounding them. In the end sending those letters backfires when she accidentally drops one of the letters she’s going to mail breaking her anonymity and resulting in her most prized possession, her roses, being destroyed. The central idea of this story is not to judge someone based upon their outward appearance because it does not reflect their heart(or looks can be deceiving). …show more content…
Throughout the story we become familiar with the habits of Miss Strangeworth and see that when it comes to her everyday tasks she always does the same thing. Miss Strangeworth always bought her tea on Tuesday, stopped in front of her gate to gaze at her house and roses, and used a dull stub pencil when she wrote her anonymous letters. In “The Possibility of Evil” we also see that the outward appearance of Miss Strangeworth is that of someone who friendly and doesn’t see ill of anyone. This appearance is deceiving because later on we learn that Miss Strangeworth is sharing mean-spirited truths that are meant to cause tension in the relationships of the town’s people. The stark contrast between the way Miss Strangeworth carries herself in public, versus what she does in private, supports the central idea that looks can be