The Possibility Of Evil Analysis

Sometimes, things happen beyond our control. The short story, “The Possibility of Evil”, by Shirley Jackson, is about a prideful old lady named Miss Strangeworth. She anonymously sent critical letters out to her town to “rid the town of evil”. Miss Strangeworth is defeated by forces beyond her control when she falls out of love with Mr. Lewis, dropped her letter, and had her roses ruined. She had tried and prevented these things from happening, but the force of fate is beyond her control. Miss Strangeworth had no idea what was coming. Love is determined by fate. It’s controlled by a force greater than all of us. Miss Strangeworth was once in love with Mr.Lewis, back in highschool. They, “ had been … to highschool dances… ; but now, Mr.Lewis was behind the counter in the grocery, and Miss Strangewroth was living alone.”(Jackson). Even though they seemed in love, the force of fate made it end tragically. They no longer date, or even call each other by their first names. Now, Miss Strangeworth lievs alone …show more content…
For years, she had been discretly sending these critical letters to the people of her town, trying to make it a “better place”. She never would’ve thought that one day, it would all get ruined because of a greater force. When putting her letter into the mailbox, like she had done plenty of times, the third letter, “got caught on the edge and fell outside, onto the ground at Miss Strangeworth’s feet.”(Jackson). For some reason, Miss Strangeworth wasn’t paying attention and walked away from her letters. The kids that happened to be standing across the street noticed and decided to deliver the letter for her and let the recipient know who its from. The greater force of fate made this happen. Miss Strangeworth would’ve never voluntarily let that happen, but she was once again defeated by a greater force. Miss Strangeworth really has no control over what happened that