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... goes on to talk to the farmers wife about why he is going to Casterbridge but doesnt actually tell you what he has to do for work in Casterbridge. When the farmer asks what the two strangers do for work and the second stranger does not reply immediately it makes you wonder what he has to hide. When the first stranger says very suddenly Anybody may know my trade I, a Wheel wright. It could either make you think that he was proud of being a wheel wright or he wants to tell people what he does so that nobody starts questioning him. The second stranger then sings a song to tell people what he does which is an executioner.
When the third stranger arrives it makes the reader start to question about what is the link between the three strangers and what it has to do with the second stranger being an executioner. When the third stranger starts to ask directions he hears the executioner singing his song about the next day and what he has to do and see the first stranger singing along and he turns and runs. It makes you wonder why seeing and hearing these two men has made him flee. When the gun shot goes off to tell the area that a prisoner has escaped the reader would probably think that the third stranger was the escapee and that is why he ran when he heard the executioners song. At the end of this story the exposition makes the reader realise what actually happened and who all of the three strangers were. I believe that this mystery story was designed to make you think about who is who and to make you guess throughout the story.
This would entertain the reader, as they would want to read on so to find what happens in the end. When Hardy talks about the mystery as if it had been based on fact it has the effect on the reader which makes you think that it could have been a true story. When Maupassant begins his story A Vendetta he, like Hardy, describes the surrounding area in detail. Like Hardy he tells the reader the points about the area, which develop a sense of mystery like (I dont have the story! ) Maupassant's introduction is different to Hardy's because Maupassant goes straight in to introducing the characters but Hardy describes the area before he mentions the farmer and his family. The mood to these openings is different because Hardy concentrates on making the reader think about the mysterious area first but Maupassant doesnt make the story seem very mysterious at first. The two stories have very different openings, Hardy's story begins with a christening but Maupassant's begins with a horrific Murder.
The two different openings create different senses of Mystery. Hardy creates a sense of mystery that is happy but still has a curious and strange part including the three strangers. Maupassant makes you know that his story is going to have a sad weird story line and from the beginning you can guess what the old woman is going to do. The way in which Hardy's story is focused around a community and Maupassant's around the isolation of the old woman creates different senses of mystery because the old woman has nobody to share her problems with and nobody can see her training the dog. But despite the cottage in The Three Strangers being in the middle of nowhere the community is there at the time of the story so a lot of people are involved and nothing that the strangers tell the farmer is kept secret. The mystery of how the old woman will enact her vendetta is presented to the reader in the form of a series of questions this intensifies the readers interest in the psychology of revenge and the way it makes the reader think.
This is different to Hardy's approach to mystery, Hardy puts many intriguing clues throughout the story some are Red Herrings and some help the reader to decipher the story. This means that the reader may guess wrong at what happens. The clues throughout the story are built in and very subtle. The way in which she trains the dog to bound at the throat of a dummy is a clue in itself because it makes you think about why she is training the dog to do this and who she is going to get the dog to attack. These clues intensify the readers interest in the old womans psychology because it makes the reader wonder if the old woman is sane and why she is going so far to get her revenge.
The end of A Vendetta is horrific compared to Hardy's ending. The horrific ending leaves the reader feeling altogether more uptight and shocked. It also leaves you feeling slightly curious because it makes you think about what can happen and what can be done just to get revenge. Hardy's story leaves you feeling more entertained because the ending is a happy one with the first stranger getting away and not being caught again. I think that the reason why each mystery story was effective was because they both made the reader think about what is going to happen and to make assumptions. With Thomas Hardy's The Three Strangers Hardy concentrated on writing a story in which the mystery involves a community and what the whole community does about mysterious goings on.
With Guy de Maupassant's A Vendetta Maupassant focused on issues surrounding the conditions and psychology surrounding vengeance. His story was effective in its own way that it made you think about different things to what you thought about with Hardy's story. In this story you thought more about why the old woman was doing what she did where as in The Three Strangers you are thinking more about who everybody is and what is their purpose. I believe that although both stories use the usual devices of the traditional mystery story like lonely and hostile environments, bizarre behavior and puzzling relationships between people, an explanation with a scattering of clues some of which are Red Herrings.
There is much more to mystery stories than meets the eye. They are not just entertaining to read, but they leave the reader thinking about the morality of a legal system. Which will hang a starving man for stealing a sheep to feed his family and thinking about the nature of a society in which there seems no legal system, in which those who suffered in the form of vengeance must administer justice of any form. The mysteries set by the stories are developed and resolved at the literal level of the narrative, but the mystery of the relationship between justice, revenge and morality remains.
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