Teaching Honesty
The opening paragraph sets the ironic tone for the story’s complex examination of the nature of corruption. A history of Hadleyburg is quickly delineated, focusing on the position given to its reputation for honesty. This reputation becomes the backbone of their educational bias: “throughout the formative years temptations were kept out of the way of the young people, so that their honesty could have every chance to harden and solidify” The irony, of course, is that it impossible to learn honesty if one doesn’t have the actual opportunity to be dishonest.
Fire with Fire
The central driving irony of the narrative is the mechanics of the stranger’s revenge upon the town. It’s complication action which is dependent upon exposing the inherent dishonesty, greed and corruption of the residents of a town which prides itself on its honesty. In order to reveal deceit lying beneath the façade, the stranger uses deceit himself. On the topic of hypocrisy, let’s just say it’s a draw.
Goodson, Samaritan
It is ironic that of all the residents of this town priding itself on decency and honesty, there is universal agreement that the only person who could conceivably have been the Samaritan who helped the stranger and deserves the gold is Barclay Goodson, a man who is not only dead, but was born in raised in a completely different town.
Hell or Hadleyburg
The ultimate calculation of the level of corruption attained by this honest town in the stranger’s estimation extends well beyond the pale. In fact, he makes it plain that a town know for its honesty should be, ironically, avoided as a destination even when the only alternative is the most extreme choice possible:
“‘Go, and reform—or, mark my words—some day, for your sins you will die and go to hell or Hadleyburg—TRY AND MAKE IT THE FORMER.’”
New Hadleyburg
In the end, the stranger’s vengeance taken out upon Hadleyburg has the result of forcing the residents to petition—and receive—the right to change the name of the town (to what is yet another mystery) and to adopt a particularly ironic, if quite sincerely appropriate, town motto: “Lead us Into Temptation.” At last, they learned the lesson that you can’t teach honesty without offering the option to act dishonestly.
