The first stranger is introduced as a “lonely pedestrian of supple frame”. There is something mysterious about him but we are not told what only that he “appeared tall” and he is “gaunt”. He may be around 40 years of age and his clothing is ‘fustian’. He stares at the cottage door of the Fennel’s which may be due to his fear but the reader feels this is unusual. However, when he enters the house we learn that he has ‘large, open eyes’ and a ‘rich deep voice’. He appears suspicious then he ‘went through the movement of searching his pockets” for his baccy-box when he knows he doesn’t have one. He sits in the fire place corner and tries not to be notices and we wonder whether he is hiding. When the second stranger arrives, the first stranger picks up a poker and we wonder whether this is an act of defence.
The second stranger is very different from the first. He is more ordinary and appears to be a drinker with the ‘grog blossoms’ on his nose. He appears impolite in that he hangs up his coat without being asked and drinks greedily of Mrs Fennel’s expensive mead. He is described repeatedly as the stranger ‘in cinder grey’ which relates him to ashes and death. He is keen to have the attention of the party and shocks them by singing of his job. We learn he is a hang-man. The first stranger starts to sing with him which shows his bravery given that he was probably very frightened. It also shows how clever he is in that he is befriending the hangman.
The hangman seems to enjoy making people fear him and this appears cruel and callous given that he has invited himself to the christening party.
The third strange is “short and small” and of “fair complexion” and dressed in a suit of dark clothes. When he sees the hangman he stands still and appears shocked and terrified. He runs away and then the reader learns that a prisoner has escaped from Casterbridge jail and that the hangman was due to hang him the next day. Given the structure of the story, the reader assumes that the escaped prisoner was the third stranger. Hardy is however tricking us to believe this as actually the first stranger turns out to be the convict. We are tricked even further when we read the first stranger is going to be part of the posse to catch the convict. The first stranger returns
and drinks more mead with the hangman. The hangman appears careless while the first stranger is again very clever in his reaction as he appears friendly and careless too.
When we learn that the first stranger was in fact the convict and the third stranger was in fact his brother, we admire the first stranger’s confidence. We learn that he was being hanged for sheep stealing but this was to feed his family so we don’t really see him as a criminal. At the end of the story we have sympathy for the first and third strangers.
