what impression do you form of the stranger after reading first chapter
Answers
The first chapter is one of the most excellent examples of the writer's aptitude, he builds up the suspense so deftly around the character of the 'stranger' that it makes us keep on turning pages until we have reached the end. Most of the details regarding the persona and visage of the stranger comes to us through his encounter with Mrs Hall. He arrives one wintry day in February, through a biting wind and a driving snow, the last snowfall of the year, a curious character walking from Bramblehurst railway station and carrying a little black portmanteau in his thickly gloved hand. He was wrapped from head to foot, physically wrapped in mystery so to speak, and the brim of his soft felt hat hid every inch of his face except the shiny tip of his nose. The stranger arrives at Mrs Hall's establishments crying for a fire but no light is shed as to his antecedents. He comes across as a gruff, possibly rude, curiously strange character, indisposed towards talking, craving solitude and with no wish to make any kind of talk that veers towards his personal condition. Even inside the inn, he was completely wrapped in his clothes and kept his face averted, thwarting Mrs Hall's efforts at small talk. Later on in the chapter, Mrs Hall chances upon him as heavily bandaged, a serviette covered the lower part of his face, all his forehead except the blue glasses was also covered with a bandage, another on his ears, leaving not a scrap of his face exposed except the pink, peaked nose. The thick black hair, projected in curious tails and horns, giving him the strangest appearance conceivable. Evidently, the first chapter establishes the strangeness of the stranger, from his physicality to his personality, with great care and utmost detail, and presenting him as a mystery wrapped from head to toe which will be unraveled in due course.