Preview

The Possibility of Evil

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
280 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Possibility of Evil
In “The Possibility of Evil” The main character Mrs. Strangeworth shows one personality and keeps the other private. The one she shows gets others people impression as a kind and respected old lady. Mrs. Strangeworth’s private personality was very rude and disrespectful. The author uses characterization to show two sides of Mrs. Strangeworth’s personality.
Mrs. Strangeworth’s public personality was like her beautiful rose house. Everyone in town everyone around the neighborhood would greet her wherever she would go. She was known as a helpful and happy person in the eyes of other. She seems also to worry about other people’s health. Everyone knew her around the small town and everyone seemed to like her. She was a Perfectionist following everyday routines.
Mrs. Strange worth also had a thorny side to her private personality. She would write others letters without a signed name on who had sent them. Mrs. Strangeworth’s letters would say hurtful and rude things to others. She was very self- conscious person because the letters that she would make a mistake on she would burn and therefore masking her mistake for no one else to see. Miss Strangeworth believed she knows what’s best for others and her letters address personal issues that don’t concern her, such as her letter addressed to Mrs. Harper where she asks “Is the wife really always the last one to know?”
Mrs. Strangeworth wasn’t who she was pretending to be. Her private personality and her public personality led to the destruction of her beautiful roses. For pretending to be someone she is not this happened. This also can be taken as a lesson. Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not be

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Miss Strangeworth is a 71-year-old woman. She lives in the house that her grandfather built and has roses that she praises in her front yard. She has blue eyes and a cat. Miss Strangeworth…

    • 372 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mrs. Hopkins was the wife of the governor of Hardford. She was depicted as a religiously focused young women with some unusual qualities. She had a physical, mental weakness that left her incapable of understanding or reason. However this disease had been growing for several years. To overcome or distract herself she would fully devote her time to reading and writing and even wrote many books. Mr. Hopkins was a loving man and would tend to his wife’s needs; however, he would never make his grief seen, especially in front of his wife. But because she went looking for trouble in men’s business she got hurt and for that he blames…

    • 1655 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Regency England displays Emma’s naivety in which her pride and vanity causes her to meddle with other characters, blindsided by her own wrongdoings. The omniscient voice “The real evils, indeed, of Emma’s situation were the power of having too much her own way, and a disposition to think a little too well of herself…” aligns the reader with Emma encouraging her own imaginative mind and vanity where her actions cause her to act in problematic ways other characters. The repetition of personal pronouns, “I have none of the usual inducements of women to marry…I never have been in love…I do not think I ever shall.” explores Emma’s belief that her wealth allows her to be financially secure with reassurance that others will not treat her like Miss Bates for her decision to remain single. The use of narrator’s anthypophora in “Why she did not like Jane Fairfax...she saw in her the really accomplished young woman, which she wanted to be thought herself.” exhibits Emma’s jealousy as she sees Jane as a threat to her ego because she may carry more accomplishments than herself which leads to her initial dislike of Jane. The prominence of pride and vanity creates problems as a consequence as it blindsides one’s better judgement. One’s importance of materialistic items continues to be a main feature in the modern…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miss Strangeworth portrays herself to be a woman who is one of the kindest older ladies around but, looks can be deceiving. Miss Strangeworth gives this façade that everything is perfect in her quaint town and that everyone is content. Miss Strangeworth, a cunning character in the short story “The Possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, has a double life that no one expected. Within this quaint town, the roses are flourishing and the house stands tall and beautifully. But behind closed doors, Miss Strangeworth is secretive, proud and controlling.…

    • 546 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One such example is when the attorney general Henderson tells Mrs. Peters that because she is married to the sheriff, she is married to the law and therefore is a reliable follower of the law. Mrs. Peters' response "Not--just that way," is very interesting in that it suggests that over the course of the play, she has found a different aspect of her identity, perhaps and an empowered woman and not just a housewife. Another interesting quote from Glaspell’s play is when Mrs. Hale states that women "all go through the same things--it's all just a different kind of the same thing." While Minnie Wright’s dealt with her particular situation differently than either Mrs. Peters or Mrs. Hale, they all seem to reject male dominancy to some degree. This concept of female identity and solidarity has a huge impact on the outcome of the play, as Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters decide, despite breaking the law, to conceal the evidence they uncovered that could be used to convict Mrs. Wright for the murder of her…

    • 637 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Miss Strangeworth lives alone in her family house on Pleasant Street, and she acts as the perfect person in the community. Miss Strangeworth seems to be a friendly grandmotherly person in the public, and also a representative for the town. “No one in the town would dare to disturb Strangeworth during her afternoon nap.” (pg.6).…

    • 512 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The story begins when she and her husband have just moved into a colonial mansion to relieve her chronic nervousness. An ailment her husband has conveniently diagnosed. The husband is a physician and in the beginning of her writing she has nothing but good things to say about him, which is very obedient of her. She speaks of her husband as if he is a father figure and nothing like an equal, which is so important in a relationship. She writes, "He is very careful and loving, and hardly lets me stir without special direction." It is in this manner that she first delicately speaks of his total control over her without meaning to and how she has no choices whatsoever. This control is perhaps so imbedded in our main character that it is even seen in her secret writing; "John says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition...so I will let it alone and talk about the house." Her husband suggests enormous amounts of bed rest and no human interaction…

    • 756 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Metaphor

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Besides their similarities, Miss Hancock and Charlottes mother are so different that they contrast each other. Miss Hancock is unmarried woman who encourages Charlotte to be expressive. On the other hand, Charlotte’s Mother doesn’t support or care much about Charlotte’s enthusiasm for the subject. As a child, playing with toys wasn’t allowed because it made a mess “A toy ceased to be a toy once it left the toy cupboard” (p 65). Miss Hancock loves teaching children, so if she were Charlotte’s mother, she would tell her to make as much of a mess as she wants. Miss Hancock and Charlotte’s mother are an example of character foil.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Trifles Feminist Analysis

    • 2287 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Hale and Mrs. Peters become the two main characters during their investigation, Mrs. Hale recalls the good times of Mrs. Wright’s life. There was once a time when she was known as Minnie Foster. Minnie “used to wear pretty clothes and be lively-singing in the choir (778).” Before marriage, Minnie was an upbeat girl who took part in her community, but now, she does not even take part of the Ladies Aid. Unfortunately, once she committed to a marriage with Mr. Wright, Minnie changed her way of being, and it was not a good change for her persona. Her house was disheveled with unwashed things and she was not properly kept herself which shows to prove that she is not the lively girl she once was. She became a more reserved woman and seemed to not care about anything, though she was trying her best to survive by keeping busying with her…

    • 2287 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first trait of a disturbed personality is present as The Misfit kills the kids right in front of the grandmother with no care and no mercy. This scene also depicts the trait of a macabre situation as The Misfit and his crew gun down the family. Next, Shirley Jackson’s “The Possibility of Evil”, tells the story of an elderly lady that thinks her job is to keep her town away from evil, however, in the end she gets more than what she bargained for. The disturbed personality in this story is the one of Miss Strangeworth as she assumes it is her prime duty to keep evil out the town like she is some sort of angel. In the town that Miss Strangeworth lived in, the residents looked up to her only because she was more affluent than them.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the short story “The Possibility of Evil” Shirley Jackson uses several symbols to tell her story about Miss Strangeworth.One symobol that Shirley Jackson uses are the roses that Miss Strangeworth holds dear in her heart.The roses are a symbol of what she loves in the story showing that she loves nothing else just her roses. Another symbol that Shirley Jackson gives is the letters that Miss Strangeworth writes to people about what she doesn't like about them.The letter represent the evil in Miss Strangeworth, and the hate in her heart throw out the story you will find out that she writes these to people in secret and talks bad of them and points out what she doesn't like. Shirley Jackson gives us another symbol and it's the lock door in…

    • 230 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Examples Of Social Norms

    • 1456 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The play begins with a criminal investigation taking place at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Wright. Mr. Wright was found dead in their bed with a rope around his neck, with his wife being the largest suspect. Mr. Henderson, the county attorney, Mr. Peters, the sheriff, and Mr. Hale, a neighbor and friend to Mr. Wright, gather around discussing the matter, while Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale stand off to the side, patiently waiting to be a help to personal connection if the men see fit (1362). Throughout the story, the men make light of any problem or important matter that the women may have, or have to offer. They initially notice how dirty and untidy Mrs. Wrights home is, and because this is very unordinary for the women of that time period, 1916, that made Mrs. Wright that much more suspicious. The men also bring up that though Mrs. Wright is held for murder, she is too busy worrying about her perseveres, an unimportant matter to any of the men (1365). Glaspell connected her title with the theme of her story with a comment made by one of her male characters, Mr. Hale, "Well, women are used to worrying over trifles". As though any problem, or worry a women may have is unimportant and exaggerated compared to any "real" issue, that a man might have. Near the end of the story, the women feel sympathetic towards Mrs. Wright for they know how it feels to be a women and they feel that perhaps her actions were justified, for her husband did strangle her beloved bird. Though they have gathered much evidence to close the case, the men do not feel as if their input will be worthy of solving the…

    • 1456 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Good Country People

    • 1620 Words
    • 7 Pages

    2) The relationship between Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell is that Mrs. Freeman’s husband works for Mrs. Hopewell and they are friends and every morning they sit and gossip and eat breakfast together. Mrs. Hopewell likes to call Mrs. Freeman a “lady” and that her family is a bunch of “good country people” (185). This might just be because Mrs. Freeman agrees with every single thing Mrs. Hopewell says, and also says, “I always said so myself” (186).Their names are significant because Mrs. Hopewell likes to hope for new things in her life. “Nothing is perfect!” is one of her favorite sayings that she says constantly (185). Mrs. Hopewell doesn’t like to think that her daughter will ever grow up, she has thought this way since her daughter had a bad accident; “she thought of her still as a child because it tore her heart to think instead of the poor stout girl…

    • 1620 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Everybody has evil in them. No matter how nice, pleasant, or sweet that person is; everyone carries evil inside. Whether they show it or psychology know they are evil, is up to them. In the “possibility of Evil” by Shirley Jackson, Miss Strangeworth has that evil in her and it is expressed through her age, education, and personal ambition.…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Darcy's Letter

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages

    She is inconsiderate in her language, ‘I cannot help myself laughing myself at your surprise to-morrow...’ She does not understand the true consequences of her actions and the effect it will have on her family and friends. She also writes “What a good joke it will be!” if she signs her name “Lydia Wickham” on a letter to her parents which is a very immature way of telling your entire family of your whereabouts. Lydia is so thoughtless in this letter, and even though she is telling Ms Forster about a very serious issue, she manages to ask her to tell Sally to mend one of her gowns before sending it to her. This is very immature of her, and through this letter, we establish a new view of her character. Lydia ends her letter with the sentence, “I hope you will drink to our good journey” as if she wants us to be entirely accepting of the situation and to treat it as though it is like a normal…

    • 692 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays