Introduction
“The three strangers” is one of the stories included in Thomas Hardy’s collection of ‘Wessex Tales”, originaly published in 1888, but the story first appeared on its own in “Longman’s Magazine” and bears the date of march in 1888. Its first readers in Hardy’s native dorset would have been well awae of the hard times than being experienced in rural areas and would therefore hane related sympathctically ot the condition hinted at in the story, which was set in the 1820s during a similar period of agricutture distress. The three streagers reveals the inter-relationship between the character of the inhabitants and the character of their environment.
Characters
Charley Jake
Descriped as a hedge carpenter “It is a man whose job is to keep hedge trimmed” It seems to be specific to this story.
Eliya New
Parish clerk, booming voice, plays the serpent a bass wind “instrument, descended from the cornet.
John Pitcher
Neighbouring dairyman, the shepherd’s father-in-law.
Shepherd fennel
Master of the house where the party is being had. Married a dairyman’s daughter and therefore into this property, higher crowstairs
Mrs Shepherd Fennel
Sensibly frugal, leeps control of her own in herited money for their future family. This probably saunded angair to men of the time, but seems forward thinkingly feminist to my modern ears.
The fiddler
A boy of these parts, about 12 years of age, who had a wonderful dexterity in jigs and reels, though his fingers were so small and short as to neccessitate a constant shifting for the high notes.
Constable
One of the guests is a man who is at first 50 years old. He is the first to ask why the first stranger is out alone on an empty road on such a terrible, rainy night. This investigative nature is explained later in the story, when he reveals that he is a constable. He helps lead the search party for the escaped criminal.
Summary
The reader is introduced to the residents and guests in the cottage, who number 19 in all. Evenything is very friendly and convivial in the cramped space of the cottage,s living room, where there is just enough space for dancing to the music of a viotin and serpent. Meanwhile, a stranger approaches the house and waits until the music dies down before knocking on the door. He is welcomed inside by the shepherd, sits in the chimney former to dry off, and is given tobacco and the lean of a pipe. He tells the company that he is from “further up the country”. He has hardly had time to get selled when there is a second hnock at the door and another stranger comes in. he says that he is on his way to costerbridge but would appreciate shelter from rain, plus a mug of mead which he is sure the shepherd’s wigs must have as he has seen her beehives outside. She is reluctant to given him much of this, but the shepherd is more hospitable and continues to refresh the stranger’s mug, much to his wife’s displeasure.
There is then discussions as to what the second stranger’s profession might be, given that the shepherd’s wife has become very surpicious of him. The stranger makes a game of it by dropping clues such as “the oddity of my trade is that, instead of setting mark upon me, it sets a mark upon my customers”. He then starts singing a song with words of his own, that soon tell the reader, that he is the new hangman who is about to start his duties at the local jail.
People start whispering among themselves that he has come on this night because there is to be a hanging at the jail in the morning, this being of a poor man grow several valleys away who, being unable to get work at this trade of clock-making, and his family staring, had stolen a sheep and been arrested. Sheep-stealing was a capital crime before 1832 and it is clear from the conversation that the sympathy of the locals is with the man who is about to be hanged.
There is then a third knock at the door and another men enters, begins to ask the way to somewhere, but then catches sight of someone else in the room, turns deathly pale, and runs off. The firing of a gun is heard in the distance, and the a second stranger, now revealed as the hangman, tells everyone that this is a signal that a prisoner has escaped from jail, at which everyone assumes that it must be the condemned man, and that he must be the man who has just arrived and left in a harry an seeing the hangman, although this ignores the fact that he could have had no idea as to what the hangman looked like-one of the guests at the party is the local constable, who is called upon by the hangman to organize a search party, which he, which he proceeds to do.
All the males rush off, lanterns in hand, while the woman go upstairs to attend to the baby who has started crying in distress at all the noise and hulla, ballo, with the room empty, two people return, these being the just two strangers who proceed to help themselves to cake and need before shaking hands and going their separate ways.
The search party eventually catches up with the third stranger, there is a wonderfully comic interlude as the constable, who has clearly never been in such a situation before, proceeds to make an arrest, although the only words that come to mind for such an occasion are,”yet money or life”. The man is then esarted back to the cottage, where two officers from the jail a local magistrated have arrived. The constable presents his prisoner, only to be told that he has wrong man.
As the reader might have guessed by now, the description of the wanted man fits the first stranger, not he third. The arrested man explains that he is the brother of the longemned mand and had been on his way to visit him at the jail for the last time before his execution. On entering the cottage it had not been the sight of the hangman that had agitated him but that of his brother, and it was his fear of going the game away and behaying the escape that had caused him to flee the scene. Needless to say, the condemned man is never seen again, much to the relief of all concerned bar the hangman.
Hardy gives the impression that “the three strangers” is based on local folklore, as is evident from the concluding line, “the arrival of the three strangers— is a story as well known as ever in the country about highter crowstairs”. To a modern reader the story does not start well, due to Hardy’s convolution prase style that produce the opening. Among the few features of agriculture England which retain an appearance but little modified by the lapse of centuries may be reckoned the long grassy and furzy down, coombs as they are called…! Hardy is more readable when giving dialogue rather than description, buy the story is 6 pages old before the 1st character says anything.
However, the effort of persevering is wasthwhile, because once the story gets going it flows along at considerable pace. Particularly notable are the humour sorrounding the constable, mentioned avove, the interplay between the strangers and his wife over how generous they should be towards the strangers and the charecterisations of the first two strangers.
Given the dramatic nature of the tale and the reliance an a single scene for most of the action, it should not surprise anyone that Hardy later dramatized the story as “The three way farers”. It was first performed in 1893 and by was staged by professional companies several times Hardy’s lifetime. All in all, this is a very enjoyable story that is worth the trouble to discover and read.
Setting
Time Setting
The story takes place over the course of one night. The narrator reveals the time to be eight in the evening of 28in march. The author removed the exact year, but we known this story took place during 1820s. the narrator is actually telling this story.
Location Setting
Hardy’s story takes place in the English countryside in the cottage named higher crowstairs. The narrator situates this small cottage in a coomb, which is short valley typically faind in southern England. The story begins with rain outside the cottage, but inside there is warm happiness, due to a gathering for the birth and christening of a baby. 19 people have packed themselves into the cottage. The guests have pushed the furniture out of the way to make room for dancing.
Symbolism
Island Symbolism
Though this story does not take place on an actual island, writers sometimes make use of Island symbolism when describing remote building on land.
Moon Symbolism
At this time in history, people really did believe that eerie things happened at full moon-that people turned into werewolves, or that the moon could turn you mad. An ambulance driver friend has told-full moons tend to reveal mental illness, resulting in more ambulance calls out during a full moon
Story structure
Narration
Told by a narration long after the supposed event, this is a story in the tall tale tradition. This is not an omniscient narrator, but a local personality. So we can deduce that parts of it have been made up for colour, for instance, the scene in which criminal and executiers share stolen cake and mead together, one failing to recognise the other. It adds colour to the story to think this happen, but who was there to witness it. The room was empty, which is precisely why the ment went
Short Coming
The shortcoming of this little party is that they are overly influenced by appearance. They are unable to correctly guess who the strangers are. They are looking closely at shoes and baby language, reading intention into body language when we can’t possibly know someone’s inner thoughts just from their demeanour.
Desire
The party wannts to enjoy a christening with merrymaking. After the strangers turn up and the third one scarpers, their desivs changes. The man jump into superhero mode and want to save the day by tracking down the supposed criminal.
Opponent
Their constructed opponent is the third man, though the guy they’re after is actually the first man. They’re most scared of the 2nd man.
Plan
They will take lanterns and weapons and find the 3rd man in the slippery darkness. Then they will turn him in the anthorites and receive pats on the back
Anagnorises
They learn that they’re got the wrong man, and that they have judged the strangers incorrectly.
