In ‘The Three Strangers’ Timothy Summers (the first stranger) seems to be a polite and good mannered man but when he was approaching the house he was acting shifty this makes everyone think he was the escaped prisoner but when he gets inside our opinions of him start to change. When he asked to enter the house his rich deep voice said “friends, I ask leave to come in and rest a while” and Shepherd Fennel agreed and let the man in. Inside the man’s manner changed slightly as he relaxes in the chimney corner but his mind was still about him and when asked where his home was he got out of answering the question by flattering Mrs Fennel. He then asked for a pipe and gave the reason that he had dropped his and with the happy, party mood that was in the house Shepherd Fennel gave him a pipe and with that the stranger settled in the corner. By this time we think of the stranger that he might have just been a man going home, but by the end we realise that he was the prisoner.
The second stranger enters rudely by just saying “I’m soaked to the skin” and then enters. He immediately seems to make himself at home he hangs his coat up and walks over to the table and his manner was rude all the time. Shepherd Fennel is the only character that doesn’t change. He starts off happy because he is having a party for the christening of his second girl and even at the end once they had chased the third stranger he is sympathetic to Timothy Summers, saying to the constable that he was not a liar for saying he was a wheelwright, as he meant the wheels of time. Timothy Summers and Kerry are very much alike in the stories because Kerry is the one who has his life planned he knows that he is going to the garage to work and Timothy Summers is very much the same because he stole the sheep to feed his family but he did it in daylight and he did it in front of the farmer, he knew what he was going to do and did it.
The second stranger and Mrs Rutter are very much alike they are both rude, Mrs Rutter saying or doing inappropriate things like saying to Sandra “you’ll be courting before long” when it was really none of her business and the second stranger did this when he entered Shepherd Fennel’s house he hung up his coat and made himself at home with out even being asked. But the main reason why they are alike is because Mrs Rutter killed the German pilot and the second stranger is an executioner so he too kills people, but for a living. Sandra and Shepherd Fennel are not dissimilar they are both out to have a good time Shepherd Fennel because it is the christening of his second daughter and Sandra just “wished there was Susie to have a giggle with”, but Sandra then realises at the end of the story that life is not all about fun and she grows up, and looks up to Kerry.
The mood at the start of each story is the same because ‘The Darkness Out There’ starts with Sandra walking through a field on a hot day with the wind blowing in her hair and flowers either side of her, and in ‘The Three Strangers’ there is a party for the christening of Shepherd Fennels second girl. ‘Jubilant’ and ‘happy’ would be two words that would describe the mood at the start of the story in ‘The Three Strangers’ and ‘blissful’ and ‘peaceful’ would be two words that describe the mood at the start in ‘The Three Strangers’. At the start of ‘The Three Strangers’ Thomas Hardy uses words like: ‘glorification’ and ‘cheerful rustic’, this emphasizes the point that although the weather was atrocious they were still having an enjoyable time in the cheerful rural house lighted by half a dozen candles. In ‘The Darkness Out There’ words that help set the mood in the opening are flowers, daisies and vetch, these make the point that she was surrounded by flowers and how nice it would be, “polleny summer grass that glinted in the sun” this also helps emphasize the fact that the sun was blazing down on her and it was a beautiful summer day.
Both of the stories have a twist in the tale. In ‘The Darkness Out There’ the twist is that in the beginning Kerry is the one who is made out to be sort of a loser and Sandra makes herself out to be the one who is grown up and important but in the end we find out that Kerry is the grown up one, he is an excellent judge of character (“I don’t go much on her”) and Sandra is the naïve young girl and she realises this in the end. In ‘The Three Strangers’ the twist of the tale is that at first we are made to think that the first stranger is a man wandering home on that night when he asks leave to rest awhile, but things keep on looking worse as they later find out he is not wearing his own clothes, this makes us weary towards him. When the second stranger arrives we think of him as being a man of the law because of the things he is wearing, but he acts more rudely than anyone. The second stranger also tells the guests that a prisoner has escaped and immediately the reader is made to think that the first stranger is the prisoner but then as he seems to talk to the executioner our views change. The third stranger is the one who is made out to be the escaped prisoner because he runs off at what we think is the sight of the executioner but really it is the sight of his brother, the first stranger (the escaped prisoner). The effect on the reader of the story not ending in the way that they would’ve expected it to is that it adds more suspense to the story and also makes the reader consider different points of the story.
In both of the stories the author creates suspense by make the setting of the story very detailed to set the right scene and also by adding twists which change what the reader would’ve first thought. In ‘The Three Strangers’ the start creates suspense when the first stranger is walking along towards the house “there was caution in the regularity of his tread” this immediately makes the reader think that he might be trying to get away from someone or something and then to add to this “strode on through the rain with out a pause” and also “from the direction of the distant town” these all add to the thought that he might be trying to get away from something. The second stranger helps add more tension to the story when we find out that he is an executioner and also that someone had escaped from the prison in the town, we think that the first stranger might be the prisoner and that he might be arrested because the executioner would notice him, but the first stranger tries to blend in by passing the executioner the mug of mead pretending that he was someone from the party. The suspense immediately ends when the third stranger arrives because we think he is the prisoner and so it has the twist which makes the reader think again about the prisoner. In ‘The Darkness Out There’ the suspense begins when Sandra is walking past Packers End, a place where she has feared for years. She thinks that there is rapists who prowl in there “two blokes came out of Packers End, they had a knife”, then she runs in to Kerry who is hiding behind a hedge, this is a false climax to the story as the reader thinks it is a rapist.
In ‘The Darkness Out There’ a lot of description is used, this gives a better sense of reality to the story, “chintzy mass from which cushions oozed” this gives an unpleasant impression the word “oozed” makes the reader think of slime or gunk “there was a smell of cabbage”, “smelt of damp and mouse” the descriptions all help add effect to the surroundings that they are in. “‘The Three Strangers’ also uses lots of description, “lighted by half a dozen candles, having wicks only a trifle smaller than the grease they which enveloped them”, “the cottage was stained with wet”, “birds were blown inside out like umbrellas” the descriptions add effect to the story so the reader knows the weather was atrocious and it would be strange for anyone to be walking in it and especially at night. In ‘The Three Strangers’ there is not a lot of direct speech, it is only when the strangers enter and they talk to Shepherd Fennel, “I’ll fill your pipe”, “I must ask you to lend me a pipe”. In ‘The Darkness Out There’ there is a lot more direct speech as Sandra and Kerry talk and also Sandra and Mrs Rutter talk together a lot. This is because Sandra and Mrs Rutter are very much alike as they both like sewing and they both think they are more important than they are. ‘The Darkness Out There’ is told in a third person narrative although when Mrs Rutter is telling them the story about when the German plane came down that is in first person narrative. ‘The Three Strangers’ is all in third person narrative as Thomas Hardy is always telling the story. The language that it used in the two stories is different in ‘The Darkness Out There’ there is no use of old fashioned language. This may be because Mrs Rutter would be the only one who would speak any and she is talking to children so it would be inappropriate for the story. ‘The Three Strangers’ uses old fashioned language. I think this might also be because it is set on the moors where there is only a small town which might be more likely to talk more old fashioned and also there is only one child in it, so it could be used as the child isn’t spoken to. In ‘The Darkness Out There’ Mrs Rutter uses slang. This is inappropriate because she is talking to children she also uses a very colloquial tone of language when she is talking to the children, she doesn’t try to make a good impression she just uses a normal everyday language. In ‘The Three Strangers’ there are many long words and long sentences this enables the sentences to have a lot of detailed descriptions in them. Long words are used to make the description more descriptive and more realistic, “unprepossessing” is used when the word ugly or unattractive could have been but using longer words adds more feeling. ‘The Darkness Out There’ doesn’t use many long words and the sentences are also very short, but it has its own effect. When Mrs Rutter is speaking, short sentences seem to make it as if she is talking very quickly and very much to the point, “Look at the little cornflowers. And the daisies.”
The theme of the story in ‘The Darkness Out There’ is about growing up and we realise this in the end when Sandra says she felt older and looked up to Kerry. The theme in ‘The Three Strangers’ is also about growing up as Timothy Summers had to swallow his pride to steal the sheep in broad daylight and he did it to look after his family. I think the point Thomas Hardy was trying to make is that you can’t judge people on the appearance and I also think Penelope Lively was making the same point but also she was saying that bad things aren’t outside there inside us if we let them in.
Overall I think the best story was ‘The Three Strangers’, this is because it always had bits in it where you wasn’t sure what would happen .e.g. when the executioner walked in you wasn’t sure if he would recognise Timothy Summers as the first stranger. ‘‘The Darkness Out There’ made its cliff-hangers too obvious e.g. when Sandra was walking along and Kerry jumped out from behind a bush. We were made to think that it was a rapist jumping out from the context of what Sandra was saying, but it was made obvious that it wouldn’t be someone who was going to get her because it was too early in the story, unless she was to get away. The worldview apparent in each story is that Thomas Hardy deals with more social issues and Penelope Lively deals with more psychology (how people behave). I think the more optimistic of the two is ‘The Three Strangers’ because it shows that people can be gratified if a deed is done to help other, Timothy Summers stealing the sheep to feed his family and then not being searched for, compared to Mrs Rutter killing a German pilot and being punished by having to live alone.