Miss Adela Strangeworth

Miss Strangeworth is the central character of “A Possibility of Evil.” She is a 71-year-old woman who has lived in the same house in the same town all her life. She prides herself on her family’s established history in the town – her grandfather built the first house on Pleasant Street, where she still lives – and is known for her luscious rose garden.

Miss Strangeworth is characterized as kind and friendly early on in the story, but Jackson subtly includes contextual details about her that alert readers to her more malicious nature. She does not, for example, ever give her roses to inquiring tourists, too concerned about transplanting them into “strange” places that are not Pleasant Street. Once readers learn that she has a hobby of mailing anonymous gossip to people of the town, her nature as someone uncomfortable with change comes to light. Miss Strangeworth...