Monday, April 30, 2018

When does Miss Strangeworth stop calling Mr. Lewis "Tommy"?

Miss Strangeworth is very old-fashioned and particular about how people should address one another. She sees herself as the keeper of the flame concerning social etiquette in the town, a living connection to an idealized past, in which people were much more formally polite. That's why she stops calling Mr. Lewis by his Christian name. In Miss Strangeworth's prim and proper world, one simply doesn't address adults outside of one's family with such a degree of familiarity.
What we see here is evidence of Miss Strangeworth's double standards when it comes to social etiquette. Though outwardly the epitome of old-fashioned good manners, she's actually a mean, nasty old woman sending vicious poison-pen letters to anyone in the town she doesn't like. There are clearly two Miss Strangeworths at work here, and her insistence on calling Tommy Mr. Lewis highlights the stark contrast between the two—between the respectable face she presents to the world and her much darker interior self.


In "The Possibility of Evil," Miss Strangeworth stopped using Mr Lewis's name, "Tommy," on the day that he left high school and started working in the grocery. Likewise, it was also at this time that Mr Lewis stopped calling Miss Strangeworth by her first name, "Addie."
Evidently, for Miss Strangeworth, Tommy's move from high school to the workplace symbolised the end of their childhood friendship. In her mind, Mr Lewis was now a respectable member of her town and should be addressed accordingly.
Moreover, in referring to the fact that Mr Lewis is in the grocery while Miss Strangeworth is "living alone" suggests that a romantic connection had once occurred and that Mr Lewis's move to the grocery brought it to an end. By calling him "Mr Lewis," Miss Strangeworth, therefore, reinforces the end of his connection and the beginning of a more formal and business-like relationship.

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