Questions for Discussion
- 1. What hints and clues suggest the real relationship among the three strangers?
- 2. What is the function of the first four paragraphs? That is, how do they prepare the reader for the story that follows?
- 3. Is the story's stated chronological setting (late March, 182_) significant or peripheral? Explain.
- 4. How does Hardy use details to make us suspicious of the first stranger?
- 5. Why has Hardy chosen to narrate the story through a particular narrative point-of-view?
- 6. How do Hardy's use of local dialect and descriptions of landscape contribute to the story's atmosphere and setting?
- 7. What aspects of the story suggest that Hardy's concern is with plot rather than with character?
- 8. What aspects of the story suggest that Hardy is also concerned with implying or stating a theme or themes?
- 9. What are some of the major examples of irony in the story? Consider situational, verbal, and dramatic iriony.
- 10. What are the underlying attitudes of the guests towards the sheep-stealer?
- 11. Why should the story of the three strangers become a kind of folk legend that is told and re-told for fifty years?
- 12. How do point-of-view, setting, and characterization all reflect the story's legendary quality?
- 13. What elements and attitudes traditionally found in legends and folk-tales are present in "The Three Strangers"?
- 14. Although the story's atmosphere is suspenseful and even sometimes sombre, it is relieved by certain touches of humour: give and explain at least one example.
- 15. The hangman's riddle involving the "noose" and the "mark" contributes to the suspense, but also reveals something about his character: explain.
- 16. Explain Summers's deliberately hobnobbing with the new hangman,rather than doing his best to avoid the man who threatens his life.
- 17. Agree or disagree with William Van O'Connor's assessment that the story is not "wholly successful" because "[t]here is no inevitable connection betweenthe action or plot and meaning. The meaning of the story is made to carry seems superimposed, and therefore is arbitrary." (262)
- 18. Examine the illustration from the 1896 Osgood, McIlvaine Edition, Vol. 13, and consider how it would condition one's expectations before one actually reads the story:
Above: The highly atmospheric frontispiece in the 1896 volume of Wessex Tales in the Osgood, McIlvaine Complete Uniform Edition of the Wessex Novels, The Cottage at Upper Crowstairs (Vol. 13). [Click on the image to enlarge it.]
Multiple-choice Assessment Questions on Hardy's "The Three Strangers"
- 1. The protagonist of “The Three Strangers” is A. the escaped prisoner. B. Shepherd Fennel. C. Shepherdess Fennel. D. the stranger in cinder-gray.
- 2. The antagonist of “The Three Strangers” is A. the escaped prisoner. B. Shepherd Fennel. C. Shepherdess Fennel. D. the stranger in cinder-gray.
Notes for Question 3:
Verbal irony = the opposite is said from what is meant.
Dramatic irony = the contrast between what a character says or thinks, and what the reader knows to be true.
Situational irony = the difference between appearance and reality, or expectation and fulfillment.
- 3. What type of irony occurs at the end of the story?
A. verbal irony. B. conscious irony. C. dramatic irony. D. situational irony.
- 4. What narrative point of view does Hardy employ?
A. first-person, major character. B. first-person, minor character. C. limited omniscient. D. omniscient. E. objective.
- 5. What is the best statement of setting?
A. England during the nineteenth century. B. Rural Wessex (Dorset) in the 1820s. C. A lonely cottage on a desolate heath. D. The village of Upper Crowstairs.
- 6. What is the principal type of conflict in the story?
A. Man-against man B. Man-against-himslf C. Man-against-nature D. Man-against-environment.
- 7. How does Hardy generate suspense throughout the story?
A. By having the Fennels argue. B. By having the cannon at Casterbridge Gaol fired twice. C. By having the stranger in cinder-gray sing a song. D. By sending out a posse in the middle of the night.
- 8. What is the contribution of this passage to the story?
The fiddler was a boy of those parts, about twelve years of age, who had a wonderful dexterity in jigs and reels, though his fingers were so small and short as to necessitate a constant shifting for the high notes.
A. Indirect character revelation. B. Verisimilitude or realistic detail. C. Clarifying the chronological setting. D. Establishing the importance of a minor character.
- 9. Shepherdess Fennel wants to be hospitable, but is afraid that the cinder-gray stranger is going to consume all of their mead. What would a literary critic call this situation?
A. A plot line. B. A dilemma. C. A mystery. D. A complication.
- 10. The story’s ending is best described as
A. unresolved. B. unhappy. C. happy. D. indeterminate.
'I thought so. And so be I; and by your tongue you come from my neighbourhood.'
'But you would hardly have heard of me,' he said quickly. 'My time would be long before yours, ma'am, you see.'
This testimony to the youthfulness of his hostess had the effect of stopping her cross-examination.
- 11. The above passage involving direct discourse concludes with the author's providing
A. indirect presentation of character. B. direct presentation of character. C. inconsistent character motivation. D. evidence of a developing character.
- 12. According to the revelations at the end, the second stranger to arrive at the Fennels’ cottage is
A. the Casterbridge hangman. B. the escaped prisoner. C. Johnny Pitcher. D. the clock-maker.
- 13. The nocturnal landscape around the cottage is
A. picturesque slopes. B. treacherous flint escarpments. C. fertile uplands. D. cold and inhospitable.
- 14. These allusions to “a Timon or a Nebuchadnezzar”
A. establish the chronological setting. B. establish the geographical setting. C. lend universality to the story. D. are details that make the story seem realistic.
- 15. How many times did Hardy sell this story?
A. once. B. twice. C. three times. D. four times.
Subjective questions: answer ONE of the following.
A. How does Thomas Hardy develop various types of conflict in “The Three Strangers”?
B. How does Hardy lead readers to contemplate his theme about class and regional differences and social tensions at the end of the story?
C. What strategies does Hardy use to make this story believable?
Relevant Illustrations of Cottages from "A Thomas Hardy Gallery"
- Illustrations for Hardy's Short Fiction
- Hardy's Family Cottage at Higher Bockhampton, Dorset
- Hangman's Cottage at Colliton Park, The Walks, Dorchester
- Avice Caro's Cottage near Church-Hope, Portland
- Tess Durbeyfield's Cottage at Marlott village, Dorset.
Bibliography
Hardy, Thomas. "The Three Strangers." Longman's Magazine 1 (March 1883), 569-88; Harper's Weekly 3 March (pp. 135-5) and 10 March, 1883 (151). Rpt. in Volume IX of the Wessex Edition, Wessex Tales. London: Macmillan, 1912. Pp. 3-29.
Hardy, Thomas. Wessex Tales. Illustrated by Henry Macbeth-Raeburn. Volume Thirteen in the Complete Uniform Edition of the Wessex Novels. London: Osgood, McIlvaine, 1896.
O'Connor, William Van. "Cosmic Irony in Hardy's "The Three Strangers." English Journal 47 (Winter 1974), 75-84.
Pinion, F. B. A Hardy Companion. Trowbridge, Wiltshire: Macmillan, 1968.
Purdy, Richard L. Thomas Hardy: A Bibliographical Study. Oxford: Clarendon, 1954, rpt. 1978.
Ray, Martin. "Part One: Wessex Tales; 'The Three Strangers'." Thomas Hardy: A Textual Study of the Short Stories. Aldershot, Hants: Ashgate, 1997. Pp. 8-13
Roberts, James L. "Legend and Symbol in Hardy's 'The Three Strangers'." Nineteenth-Century Fiction 17, 2 (September 1962): 191-194.
Wright, Sarah Bird. Thomas Hardy A to Z: The Essential Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts on File, 2002.
Created 23 January 2017
Last modified 21 April 2024