The Possibility of Evil
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The Possibility of Evil" is a 1965 short story by Shirley Jackson. Published in the Saturday Evening Post three months after her death, it won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best mystery short story of that year.
While not as well-known or read as her earlier classic, "The Lottery", it has become more appreciated as Jackson's talent and influence have become better appreciated outside the horror community since her death. It, too, is being assigned in high school English classes.
[edit] Plot
The story follows Mrs. Strangeworth, a single elderly woman living in a small town. She is known among her townsfolk for the garden of beautiful roses she keeps in front of her house. She is also adored by many of the visitors to her huge town because of her many years of residence there. They know, however, that she is the writer of anonymous, malicious notes to various people informing them of gossip and rumors about their friends and hated ones. The notes often insinuate or suggest surreptitious love affairs, saying things like "Or is the wife really always the last to know? " She bases a lot of the information received in these notes on speculation rather than proof. The revelations in the notes she sends have caused rifts in more than one family and led to the ending of relationships. Due to some carelessness on Mrs. Strangeworth's part (she dropped one of the three letters), two local teens (Linda and the Harris boy), both among her victims, deliver the letter to the recipient(the Cranes).
The story ends with Mrs. Strangeworth herself opening a note similar to the ones she has sent others, saying "LOOK OUT AT WHAT USED TO BE YOUR ROSES"
[edit] Themes
Like "The Lottery", "The Possibility of Evil" concerns itself with the darkness that lies beneath the placid surface of an American small town.
Mrs. Strangeworth is an evil woman who wants people to follow her and not be evil. She makes problems to solve problems. She points out faults of others in order to maintain her status, not to create a better community.
