What is Miss Strangeworth's reputation in town?

Mrs. Strangeworth definitely has a reputation in town.  First, she thinks highly of herself and her place in the town.  She talks about how long her family has been there and about the statue of her grandfather that should have been put up in place of Ethan Allen.  “There wouldn’t have been a town here at all if it hadn’t been for my grandfather and the lumber mill.”  She is also known for growing beautiful roses and keeping them to herself instead of sharing them with visitors or the church. “…when she picked the roses at all, she set them in bowls and vases around the inside of the house her grandfather had built.”

Mrs. Strangeworth is also opinionated and bossy.  She is rather rude to the shopkeeper who does not remind her to buy tea.  She tells another customer that she is not looking well.  When she leaves the shop, she talks to the baby’s mother and dismisses her concerns as nothing.  When she walks to the post office to deliver her letters and she drops one, one of the children asked if she could be sending someone a check.  The response is, “Catch old Lady Strangeworth sending anybody a check!”  Everyone knows Mrs. Strangeworth, but not many people really like her.

Miss Strangeworth is a female Jekyll and Hyde. She is generally considered a conservative, respectable woman and a distinguished citizen because of her old family name. She is respected, but not especially well liked. We see indications that some of the townspeople may treat her deferentially, but regard her as a pest and a busybody. Perhaps some of them even sense intuitively that she is not as nice as she appears. 

Mr. Lewis, the grocer, does not like this woman because she is a nuisance. She buys everything in small quantities to give her an excuse for coming back frequently. She has nothing to do with her time, and her grocery shopping is a big event in her day. She believes she is a very important person in this little town and wants to be treated accordingly. She orders one chop, a box of strawberries, a can of cat food, and one tomato. This suggests that she will have to come back tomorrow for another chop, another can of cat food, and perhaps another tomato. There are half a dozen people in the store, but she takes precedence and makes Mr. Lewis wait while she thinks about what else she might need. She buys a quarter of a pound of tea at a time and expects Lewis to remember that she always buys her tea on Tuesdays.

Miss Strangeworth looked at him curiously and then said,”It’s Tuesday, Mr. Lewis. You forgot to remind me.”

“Did I? Sorry.”

“Imagine your forgetting that I always buy my tea on Tuesday,” Miss Strangeworth said gently. “A quarter pound of tea, please, Mr. Lewis.”

Her interaction with the grocer is important because it shows that he is a bit afraid of this sweet little old lady. He knows she could cause him trouble if he got on her bad side. She is a force to be reckoned with. Why doesn't she buy a pound of tea at a time? Why doesn't she buy a half-dozen cans of cat food? She likes being waited on, and she likes having something to do. She likes getting around in her town and chatting with people, always keeping an eye out for the possibility of evil. She has already poisoned Mr. Lewis's life by sending him one of her anonymous letters suggesting that his grandson may be robbing the cash register.

When Miss Strangeworth goes to mail her poison-pen letters at the post office, the behavior of the young people she encounters tells a lot about what they think of her.

There was always a group of young people around the post office…. Most of the children stood back respectfully as Miss Strangeworth passed, silenced briefly in her presence, and some of the older children greeted her, saying soberly, “Hello, Miss Strangeworth.”

When she accidentally drops the letter to Don Crane on the floor at the post office, Dave Harris tells his girlfriend Linda Stewart he will hand-carry it to the Cranes' home, suggesting tht there might be a check in it. Linda's response shows her dislike. 

“Catch old lady Strangeworth sending anybody a cheque,” Linda said. “Throw it in the post office. Why do anyone a favour?”

So Miss Strangeworth is respected, feared a little, but not really liked by anyone. She has a dark side, like Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll, which she keeps hidden from the world until she accidentally drops her poison-pen letter to Don Crane on the post-office floor.

The matter of Miss Strangeworth's reputation is an interesting thing to think about. The narrative voice in the story is omniscient, yet much of the time it seems almost as though the story is being described via Miss Strangeworth's own thoughts. So when we read the statement "the town was proud of Miss Strangeworth and her roses and her house," the line comes across somewhat like a bit of self-assurance that Miss Strangeworth herself might have decided was true. Prior to that line, delivered as Miss Strangeworth is walking home from the grocery store, we have already seen multiple people acting uneasy when Miss Strangeworth talks to them. It seems as though there is another underlying feeling about her beyond the pride that she both feels and believes others feel about her.

After the scene in her house where we witness Miss Strangeworth writing several rude notes to people in her town, we begin to see what she is really like. Miss Strangeworth writes her notes anonymously, consciously choosing to spread suspicion in spite of having no factual cause, because she feels that she is doing a service for everyone in helping people be on guard against possible problems. But as it turns out, her method of anonymous gossip to warn people of possible evils in the world is worse than any evil she imagines they might encounter; Miss Strangeworth is the "possible evil" in the town.

In light of our discovery of her true nature, it is easy to see through the words that describe her after she leaves her house to mail the rude letters she has just written. When she arrives at the post office, the narrative says:

Most of the children stood back respectfully as Miss Strangeworth passed, silenced briefly in her presence, and some of the older children greeted her; saying soberly, "Hello, Miss Strangeworth."

If we visualize this scene in our heads, "respect" is perhaps not the word that comes to mind. The children had been happily skating and hanging out together before she emerged in the darkening evening to mail her letters. It seems like all of them froze. It is odd that children happily playing would suddenly cease all movement and noise in someone's presence unless they had a reason to stop. The feeling of discomfort is heavy here.

Miss Strangeworth is oblivious to the feelings of other people in regard to herself. Her own pride blinds her, causing Miss Strangeworth to have to speculate about people's thoughts. And because she is prideful, she never imagines they think of her in any other light than a positive one. Whether there had been respect for Miss Strangeworth before, we ultimately see that her facade is about to be torn away in the last line of the story. She cries about the "evil" that could have caused someone to destroy her roses (ironically not realizing that her own behavior is the evil that led to it).

It is not likely that the destruction of the acclaimed rose garden will go unnoticed. As an act of revenge and rage, it is rather likely that the mere destruction will not be the last thing that the rose-destroyer does about the injury he or she has received. He or she is likely to tell somebody about who and what provoked the deed. People will begin to put together the evidence and realize that the notes they have been receiving for the past year have all been written by the same person. Will the townsfolk pity her for the loss of her roses? Will people feel the "pride" that we were told they felt for Miss Strangeworth? Judging by the damage we have already seen alluded to in the story, it is not likely that Miss Strangeworth's reputation is going to come out of this situation unscathed.

How is Miss Strangeworth perceived by other characters?

Initially in the story, the other characters see Miss Adela Strangeworth as a lovely old lady in whom they can freely confide. For example, Helen Crane mentions to Miss Strangeworth her worries that her baby isn't developing fast enough, and the children in the town treat her respectfully as she goes to the post office.

This is because Miss Strangeworth is careful to keep her identity as the writer of the poison pen letters a secret. As she notes, "she had always made a point of mailing her letters very secretly."

We can imagine, once she is found out at the end of the story, that the townspeople will treat her very differently from now on. We can also imagine that she will blame the rest of the townspeople for being evil to her and not acknowledge that she brought the situation on herself.