Spark Notes

  The Possibility of Evil By: Shirley Jackson- Spark Notes

Summary

  Ever since the small town was built, the beautiful Strangeworth house, with its beautiful blossoming and sweet smelling roses, on Pleasant street. Now, it was home to a lady named Miss Strangeworth who was seventy-one years old. Miss Strangeworth cared an awful lot about her town and the eye-catching roses on her front lawn. She wanted to protect her town from evil but without her family, the town would stay to be evil. Every night, Miss Strangeworth would write letters to the people in her town who she thought needed some sort of guidance or help. The letters she wrote we thought to be harsh and insensitive but Miss Strangeworth made sure the letters were anonymous. All she wanted was for her town to be clean and sweet with no evil.
  One day while she was delivering some of her letters to the post office, she heard the voices of the children talking about "evil" things. As Miss Strangeworth walked away in amazement of how terrible her town was becoming, she dropped one of the letters. As she walked away still amazed, she didn't realize that she had dropped the letter but of the children she heard talking before, did. After picking up the letter, the child decided that he was going to deliver it to the person it was addressed to. When Miss Strangeworth woke up the next morning, she found a familiar letter on the hall of her door step. She the began crying silently for the wickedness of the world when she read the words "LOOK OUT AT WHAT USED TO BE YOUR ROSES."

List of Characters
- Miss Strangeworth
- Mr. Lewis
- Mrs. Harper
- Don and Helen Crane
- The Cranes Baby
- Billy Moore
- Miss Chandler
- Linda Stewart
- Dave Harris

Analysis of Major Characters
- Miss Strangeworth
  Miss Strangeworth can be analyzed in both physical appearance and how she acts.
 In Miss Strangeworths physical appearance, you'd think that she's a lovely sweet elder lady. She's dainty and wears sun hats and long skirts and she greets people in her town with a friendly smile and wave. She even stops and makes conversation with everyone in her town to see how they're doing. Therefore, her physical appearance may seem sweet but there could be more behind just an elderly woman who plants roses and talks to people in her spare time.
  In Miss Strangeworths ways, she's an older sweet lady who just wants the best for her town and is very protective over the roses that are spread ever so nicely on her lawn. In a way, those letters were meant to help the people of her town for guidance but Miss Strangeworth was very secretive about it and made the letters harsh and insensitive. There would have to be more beyond he fact of Miss Strangeworth writing these letters or that deep down inside, she could have an evil soul herself. In my opinion, I think Miss Strangeworth writes those letters to people in her town to show how she truly feels about them and the town altogether, but beings though she is a Strangeworth, she doesn't want to sacrifice having not one good person in the town of wickedness.

Important Quotations
- "Miss Strangeworth never gave away any of her roses [...] the roses belonged on Pleasant street, and it bothered Miss Strangeworth to think of people wanting to carry them away, to take them into strange towns and down strange streets."

- " She slipped her letter into the slot, and two of them fell inside. The third one caught on the edge and fell outside onto the ground to Miss Strangeworths feet. She did not notice it..."

- " ' Old Lady Strangeworth's getting death' he said, looking after her and hold his hands onto the letter he had picked up... 'Its for Dan Crane... this letter... might as well take it on over."'

- " Miss Strangeworth was a Strangeworth of Pleasant street. Her hand did not shake as she opened the envelope and unfolded the sheet of green paper inside. She began to cry silently for the wickedness of the world when she read the words: 'Look out at what used to be your roses.'"


Themes
- Don't judge a book by it's cover.
- You can't trust everyone.
- Evil is in the eye of the beholder.

Symbols
- Letters
- Roses

- The letters symbolize evil in a way because they were insensitive and harsh. They were supposed to help people and guide the people in the town into the right direction but instead it provoked the people and made them want to do more evil things.
- The roses symbolize protection because Miss Strangeworth protected them from the evil that goes on in the town and she wasn't under the impression that if she kept growing out those roses, it would help bring evil into a town that was once sweet.