Miss Strangeworth In Shirley Jackson's The Possibility Of Evil

The Truth of Miss Strangeworth

In order to rid the world of evil, we must first inspect our own character before we scrutinize others. Shirley Jackson’s story, “The Possibility of Evil”, examines the character of Miss Strangeworth. Miss Strangeworth believes it is her responsibility to correct and point out the evil in others around her. 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. First, Miss Strangeworth’s character can be examined by assessing what she says and does. Evident through her actions, Miss Strangeworth is an arrogant woman. She believes that she is superior to others due to the fact that she has lived in the town

When she speaks and converses with others, she is critical towards them. She only focuses on the negative in others, rather than seeing the goodness in them. This is visible when the story describes, “Miss Strangeworth sighed and turned away. There was so much evil in people. Even in a little town like this one, there was still so much evil.” This confirms that Miss Strangeworth was a judgemental woman, and she chose only to see the evil in the world. Another factor that reveals her character is how she react to the Crane baby. Helen Crane is a mother of a newborn baby, and she tells Miss Strangeworth that she is concerned that her baby hasn’t sat up on her own or crawled around. After this encounter, Miss Strangeworth goes home and writes an anonymous letter addressed to the Cranes. The text claims, “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: Didn’t you ever see an idiot child before? Some people just shouldn’t have children should they?”. This quote in the story reveals Miss Strangeworth’s true disposition. She is very condemnatory toward, not only the Crane baby, but also the parents. Her use of the words “idiot baby” show that she is not considerate of the family’s feelings. Without a doubt, her view’s of other characters and her