Who Is Miss Strangeworth's Character In The Possibility Of Evil

People aren’t all they appear to be. Shirley Jackson’s story, “The Possibility of Evil,” is told from the perspective of a 71-year old lady named Adela Strangeworth. Miss Strangeworth is an old woman who has lived in this town all her life. Miss Strangeworth’s character can be analyzed by considering what she does, what the narrator says about her, and how other characters interact with her.

Throughout, “The Possibility of Evil,” Miss Strangeworth says and does things that leads the reader to think a certain way about her character. A word that describes Miss Strangeworth’s character would be meddlesome. For instance, over the course of the pages 370-371, Adela is writing her letters to people about her suspicions. On page 370, her letter states, “ Have you found out yet what they were all laughing about after you left the bridge club on Thursday? Or is the wife really always the last one to know?” In this particular letter, she is interfering in another couples relationship. She is meddling in Mr. and Mrs.
On page 368, Miss Strangeworth is having a conversation with Helen Crane. “ ‘She just seems -- slow,’ ” Helen Crane said. ‘Nonsense. All babies are different. Some of them develop much more quickly than other.’ ” This is showing how Miss Strangeworth is trying to make Helen Crane beel better. The, skip over to page 370, Miss Strangeworth addresses her first letter to Helen Crane. The letter states, “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children, should they?” These two excerpts from the book shows how she is sneaky. Miss Strangeworth says one thing in person; but then, contradicts everything she said in person by what she says in her letter to them. In other words, she is nice to their face, but incredibly rude in the letter. These are what shows that her character is sneaky, or two-faced