A good mystery story is written to tease the readers, never letting them know what will happen next. The readers are constantly misled to make them get more involved in the story. A mystery story should be comforting sending a message that life’s mysteries can be solved and always have an explanation at the end. They can also carry hidden meanings and messages. For example all of life’s mysteries and problems have a solution.
My study is of two mystery stories ‘A Vendetta’ and ‘The Three Strangers’. I will be looking at the way mystery is built and sustained and the purposes of the two writers. The main aim of a writer is to entertain their readers; in order to do this they must use clues, red herrings and twists to prevent their readers from predicting the ending.
I believe that Thomas Hardy is writing a story about the issues that can surround a small and close community. For example the characters willingness to let in complete strangers, possibly suggesting that rural close community’s are naive. While I think that Maupassant is writing about the issue that surround revenge. For instance the widow believes that what she is doing is right. She believes killing Nicolas for murdering her son is justice; she even believes that God would condone it.
In Thomas Hardy’s ‘The Three Strangers’ he used a deserted setting for his story, this creates mystery because the characters are alone and anything can happen, as there is no one to stop it. The weather in the story is ghastly. It gives a perfect example of chiaroscuro. The dark, stormy night compared to the joyous, welcoming and bright cottage. Hardy uses language to show how isolated the characters are, for example “lonely cottage”, “detached”, “undefended” and “exposed” so the readers appreciate how essential this is to the story.
The way Hardy sets the scene is realistic; it is set out how the reader’s would imagine a country cottage to be, rural and bucolic. This is important to a reader because they must be able visualise the scene and to identify with it, in order for them to be able to relate to the story. The readers do relate to the story because it is most likely set in rural England, possibly in an area like Wessex. This gives the impression that because it is a known place that the story could be true.
At the beginning of the story the characters are at a christening so the community seems friendly, cosy, close and happy. Making the readers wonder if this is a mystery story, which usually has a disturbing side, why is this community so happy? It also shows that the event that the mystery is all about has not occurred yet.
Thomas Hardy creates the first stranger as a mysterious character by placing him outside on a rainy night of the full moon. This could just be a coincidence, however it is not very likely. Someone wouldn’t normally be out on such a night in the middle of the country. So it begs the question what would be so important that the stranger would leave shelter for on a night like that. The full moon also could make readers superstitious, as when Hardy wrote this tale many people were. Hardy also uses language to point out how odd this man is, “He belonged to the black-coated tribes of men” men with black coats usually have a cryptic look about them as if they had something to hide, or they wish to blend in, not to be seen. Also “The absence of all notes of life in that direction seemed to clinch his intentions, and he knocked at the door” meaning he doesn’t want anyone to see him going in to the cottage making the readers doubtful of him straight away.
The first stranger’s movement is slow confirming that he is cautious about going into the cottage. If it was such a bad night then most people would want to get inside straight away; then why doesn’t he? When the stranger enters the house he seems keen not to disclose much information about himself; when the shepherds wife recognises his accent he quickly changes the subject. He doesn’t tell them anything, not even his name. So the readers would be apprehensive of such a private person. When we realise that the stranger is supposedly a smoker but he has no equipment that a smoker would have, a reader would also find this suspicious. The first stranger doesn’t give us many clues as to what his occupation is; at first we only know that he has to dress well: ”I must find a suit better fit for working days”. Then later in the story we find out he is a wheel wright, however the readers would think he was lying because he hid his hands.” You may generally tell what a man is by his claws…the hands of the man in the chimney corner instinctively sought the shade”. He would only hide his hands if it gave away some information he did not want the other characters to know. For instance if his hands were not in bad condition as a wheel wright would be then he is not what he claims to be.
When the second stranger arrives he volunteers more information about himself than the first but will not state his occupation. This builds mystery and to tease the readers Hardy uses a riddle to tell them what his profession. In order for our attention to be on the strangers Hardy makes the other guests have shocked responses. ”Oh he’s the -!; whispered the people”.
When the third stranger arrives and then runs when he sees the other strangers it gives the readers a clue about their relationship. He gave the first stranger a knowing look “his eyes lightened on the stranger in cinder grey. Therefore the third stranger must know the first stranger and have something to tell him. Hardy also presents a red herring so the readers will think the third stranger is guilty. “He had turned, closed the door and fled” and “the distant sound of a gun reverberated through the air”. The gun means that a prisoner has escaped and because the third stranger ran it makes him appear to be the escaped prisoner, fleeing at the sight of the hangman.
At the end of the story Hardy reveals the strangers’ relationship; I think this satisfies the readers because by that point they would be desperate to find out the ending and to see the mystery solved. Then Hardy talks about the story as if it is a fact, almost like it was an urban legend. This creates the impression that it could be a true story.
Maupassant also uses the setting of his story to create mystery. This story though it is still based on solitude like Hardy’s, it has a much more morbid and sinister feel to it. The language is more fierce, “gash”, dangerous” “The wind harasses the sea remorsefully”; “It roars” and “pierces” There is a different mood to the start of these two stories as ‘A Vendetta’ starts with death; the woman is a widow and then her son is killed soon into the story. However ’The Three Strangers’ starts with life and happiness; there is a birth and christening. The effect of these two openings is different. It has a sense of chiaroscuro, Maupassant’s story has a dark start but Hardy’s is light and cheerful. In Hardy’s story the beginning makes the community rejoice and come closer together but in Maupassants story it makes the widow Saverini even more isolated. It builds mystery it both because you would wonder what could happen in such a joyful place and wonder what the old and feeble widow Saverini was going to do now, how would she act out her vengeance. ‘A Vendetta’ it is not the same kind of mystery as in the three strangers because there are not any suspects.
Maupassant concentrates on a main character in his story, so he uses a series of questions to make you think about the psychology of revenge after the widow Saverini asks herself how she is going to carry out her revenge she says that she is doing it because she promised it to her dead son. So it is possible that the widow Saverini feels that killing her son’s murderer is the only way to justify his death. In Italy at the time Maupassant wrote this story there was no real authority so you had to justify their own crimes. So ‘A Vendetta’ is probably the type of situation that happened a lot then. There is a great sense of irony in ‘A Vendetta’ because widow Saverini prays to God to help her kill her son’s murderer. It defeats the object of Christianity to forgive and turn the other cheek. It is about her seeking retribution.
In ‘The Three Strangers’ Hardy uses many clues, however ‘A Vendetta’ is told in a very personal way, so it can’t be told in the same way. The questions are those questions that are in widow Severna’s head. ‘The Three Strangers’ is told from an outsider’s perspective and so no such detail can be told so Hardy must use clues. Another reason for the directness of ‘A Vendetta’ is that the story is much shorter than Hardy’s so there can’t be many clues.
Another similarity that the stories share is an exposition at the end. In ‘A Vendetta’ there were more obvious clues than ‘The Three Strangers’ such as the numerous allusions to the dog. “Maddened with hunger” and with one terrific bound the animal leapt at the dummy’s throat”. The way widow Saverini carries out these tests on the dog makes the readers more involved in her state of mind. It is a some-what disturbing way to carry out her revenge. Though the readers are still left wondering if we should side with the widow, after all her son was murder. In a way it seems just to take a life for a life.
‘A vendetta’ has a horrible ending but you can be sure it’s the end. The murderer is dead and the widow Saverini has carried out her revenge. However in the three strangers the man got away with his crime, or did he has he only got away with it now but will be caught later. The story could continue. This leaves readers feeling slightly uncertain. Another uncertainty the readers feel is; is this man really a criminal? Does stealing a sheep to feed your family deserve the death penalty. Though the readers have to remember that the wool trade and farming was very important in Wessex at the time, I think that most readers would feel that the punishment was to punitive.
I conclude that these stories are similar in the way that they both use clues to build mystery in their stories, they both use a remote setting to give the impression of isolation and they both explain their story at the end. They are different because ‘A Vendetta’ uses an inside perspective, concentrates on only one character, has a horrifying but to the point ending and the entire story has a sinister fell to it. ‘The Three Strangers’ used an outside perspective, had many characters, it had a pleasant but uncertain ending and though there were moments of reference to death the story was much more light hearted and did not contain any murders or deaths.
I thought that both these stories were effective and the writers used their techniques well in both stories, such as language and detail to give a well-structured story. I enjoyed them both.
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