Character Analysis Of Miss Strangeworth In The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

The hidden secret of Miss Strangeworth leaves everyone speechless. Within the short story “The Possibility of Evil” written by Shirley Jackson, the main character, Miss Strangeworth, has a secret that no one would have expected for a seemingly nice elderly lady. In Miss Strangeworth’s down time, she secretly writes cruel and inconsiderate letters to people within her town. These actions would label Miss Strangeworth as a bully. The unbearable letters she writes, the way she goes about them, and her love and dedication for writing them proves that she is very much a bully.
The unbearable letters Miss Strangeworth writes are written so harshly it seems like she writes them to purposely bully people within her town. In the story, Miss Strangeworth writes a letter to Helen Crane which states, “Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children, should they?” (Jackson 3). This letter she wrote shows the reader how rude Miss Strangeworth really is. She is not holding anything back while writing this letter considering her word choice to describe Helen’s child, such as idiot. Miss Strangeworth rudely phrased her letter and obviously does not care if it hurts Helen Crane’s feelings. The article “The Online Disinhibition Effect” by Suler, J. helps prove that the approach Miss Strangeworth took with her letter classifies her as a bully. In the article

For a seemingly sweet elderly lady, the readers would not have imagined her to be a bully or even a slight bit of rude for that matter. However, little did anyone know that Miss Strangeworth was hiding an unbearable secret. The cruel letters she writes to people in her town, the way she goes about them, and her love for writing them proves that she is very much a bully. Miss Strangeworth is one of the reasons why people should watch out for who they