In "The Possibility of Evil," Jackson uses foreshadowing to provide subtle clues about the conflict which will take place. In the opening of the story, for example, Jackson describes Miss Strangeworth which includes an example of foreshadowing:
It bothered Miss Strangeworth to think of people wanting to carry them away, to take them into strange towns and down strange streets….
This line suggests that something bad will happen to her roses and, in fact, foreshadows the story's closing scene when her roses are massacred.
Next, we can find another example of foreshadowing when Miss Strangeworth is walking around the town:
Many people seemed disturbed recently, Miss Strangeworth thought.
This line suggests that there is an uneasy atmosphere in the town and, in doing so, foreshadows Miss Strangeworth's next bout of poisoned pen letters.
Finally, Jackson also uses foreshadowing to hint at Miss Strangeworth's intended victims. The following sentence provides one such example:
Don and Helen Crane were really the two most infatuated young parents she had every known, she thought indulgently.
The use of the word "indulgently" infers that Miss Strangeworth is not being open and honest with the Crane family. While she acts friendly in conversation, she feels, in fact, that they are not good parents and this foreshadows the poison pen letter that she later sends to them.
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