Thomas Hardy’s short story “The Three Strangers” is about what happens when three different guys arrive at a party uninvited, one at a time. The first one is a criminal, the second is the hangman who’s scheduled to put the criminal to death, and the third is the criminal's brother.
What’s the theme of the story?
Well, sometimes you define “theme” as “a broad topic that comes into play throughout the story.” In that case, the themes of "The Three Strangers" include hunger, theft, crime, punishment, sympathy, and justice; friendship, family, neighborliness, strangers, and outsiders; births and christenings, etc.
More often, in discussing literature, you define “theme” as “something true about life (or society or humanity) that the story reveals.”
In that case, here are some themes we can take from “The Three Strangers.”
1. People often jump to conclusions and make the wrong assumptions. We need to pay attention to details and not allow ourselves to be unduly influenced by first impressions.
As you read the story, you’re led to believe that the third stranger who crashes the party is the criminal that everybody’s looking for. And of course, that’s who the townspeople capture. But then they realize that it was really the first stranger who they should have been after, and now they can’t catch him because it’s too dark.
2. Showing good hospitality to others often requires restraint.
As the party goes on, we see that the family who’s hosting it has to make some sacrifices. The guests are drinking too much mead, but the hosts let it happen so that they don’t upset anyone. The musicians keep playing when the hosts asked them to take breaks, but they just let it slide. One guest does something rude and annoying to the hostess, who ignores it. Part of the reason that the party is so much fun is because the hosts are willing to relax and not insist that everything be done a certain way.
3. We can label people with words like “criminal” or “thief,” but that doesn’t change the fact that we’re all still human and have certain things in common.
Toward the end of the story, after the constable has led the townspeople on the hunt for the criminal, two of the strangers sneak back into the house and share a snack together:
“The other had by this time finished the mead in the mug, after which, shaking hands heartily at the door, and wishing each other well, they went their several ways.”
It was the criminal and the hangman! With his “criminal” label shed, the man was just a man, whose company was enjoyed by the other. They ate together, shook hands, and offered kind words to each other.
4. True authority is earned by actions and respect, not conferred by titles or symbols.
Check out how silly and ineffectual the constable is in this story, even though he’s supposedly in charge of the hunt to find the criminal. Here he is, talking about how he can’t start the search unless he has his staff (his stick) with him:
“'But I can't do nothing without my staff--can I, William, and John, and Charles Jake? No; for there's the king's royal crown a painted on en in yaller and gold, and the lion and the unicorn, so as when I raise en up and hit my prisoner, 'tis made a lawful blow thereby. I wouldn't 'tempt to take up a man without my staff--no, not I. If I hadn't the law to gie me courage, why, instead o' my taking up him he might take up me!'”
With this ridiculous speech, the constable reveals how he’s cowardly and how he hides behind the staff as a symbol of authority. He wears a gray uniform and calls himself a king’s man. But none of that confers true authority on him.
It’s important to note that these are the themes that just one reader has noticed in “The Three Strangers.” You could use the content of the story to draw out many other different themes, or you could interpret the ones listed here in different ways.
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