Analysis Of The Possibility Of Evil By Shirley Jackson

“The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson is about an elderly woman named Miss. Strangeworth who sees that there is “evil” in her town. She tries to fix the problem by anonymously sending letters to other people. Miss. Strangeworth feels that it is her responsibility to keep the town safe from the “evil”. First, Miss. Strangeworth sees that there are evil things going on in town, so she tries to rid them with her letters. For example on page thirty- two it says, “Mr. Lewis would never had imagined that his grandson might be lifting petty cash from the store register.” The author wrote this as if Miss. Strangeworth never sent that letter, then Mr. Lewis’ grandson would still be lifting petty cash, which in this case is an evil act. Also on page thirty-two it states “Mrs. Chandler, the librarian, and Linda Stewart’s parents would have gone unsuspectingly ahead with their lives, never aware of possible evil lurking.” In other words, if it wasn’t for Miss. Strangeworth’s letters, there would still be evil in her town. In Miss. Strangeworth’s mind, she feels that if her letters were never sent, the people in her town wouldn’t be aware of the possible evil “lurking.”

Strangeworth claims that the town she lives in is her own, so she doesn’t want evil in it. On page twenty-five, the author states, “There were so many wicked people left in the world and only one Strangeworth left to fix it.” To summarize what she feels, the town is hers and she needs to rid the town of evil. Additionally, on page thirty-three, it states, “The town where she lived had to be kept clean and sweet, but people everywhere were lustful and degraded and needed to be watched.” In other words, the town wasn’t in good shape and Miss. Strangeworth wanted to keep it “evil-free”. She feels that she is the only one who could keep away the evil people. (Conclusion Statement