The Possibility of Evil Essay

Must contradictory personalities get the best of us? “The Possibility of Evil”, a short story by Shirley Jackson focused on the odd behavior of Miss Strangeworth. Though Miss Strangeworth do not change throughout the story, people just don’t know how awful she is. Miss Strangeworth has written small anonyms notes filled with cruel comments about toward her towns folks throughout the story.

Miss Strangeworth enjoyed writing harsh letters to her neighbors, showing her jealous personality towards her neighbors. After thinking for a minute, although she had been phrasing the letter in the back of her mind all the way home, she wrote on a pink sheet with harsh words. She was pleased with the letter. I suppose Miss Strangeworth wrote this letter because deep down, she does not have a family and by letting this person feel terrible, it supposedly makes her feel better. Maybe if Miss Strangeworth was a little more outgoing, she might find the things she wants in life. She selected a green sheet this time and wrote quickly with harsher words. Again, Miss Strangeworth wrote another nasty letter to one of her neighbors.

I think that she wrote another letter since she is lonely and while this neighbor has a husband, she doesn’t; Miss Strangeworth yet again wants this person to feel unfortunate. This uncharacteristic behavior seems capable of deeply hurting people and it will certainly boomerang to her one day.

Writing harsh letters to her neighbors were just one part to her entertainment, she also has an amusement of thinking of the people who are reading her letters. She had been writing her letters and sometimes two to three every day for a week, sometimes no more than one in a month for the past year. Miss Strangeworth’s behavior of writing these letters was nonstop. As you can tell, she was practically obsessed by writing these negative letters. I think Miss Strangeworth has so many things that she desires, and the fact that she cannot acquire these desires makes