Hadleyburg
When approached as an allegory that plays out the fall from Eden, Hadleyburg represents a kind of ironic version of Eden. It never really was a place of innocence free of corruption, but before the stranger arrived and revealed the existence of the corruption already there, the town had the reputation of a being honest and innocent. It was a burg that had the appearance of being an Eden-like paradise of moral perfection.
The Richards
In this Eden, only one married couple are featured in detail, Edward and Mary Richards. They are portrayed as representing all married couples, no better or worse than any others and so become the Adam and Eve of this particular allegorical Eden. Like their counterparts, Edwin and Mary are tempted by a serpent slithering into their garden who lures with the potential of making them richer.
The Stranger
Allegorically speaking, of course, this makes the stranger the symbolic equivalent of the serpent. Or just plain Satan since he can disguise his appearance to make himself unrecognizable at one point from how he looked at a previous point.
Barclay Goodson
The only resident of the town that anyone can conceive as having actually done the good deed for which the stranger’s sack of gold is a reward is Barclay Goodson. Not a native, his criticism of the town made him an outcast. Important to note is that the stranger’s plan for revenge is on hold until Goodson dies because he knows Goodson could obstruct that plan and also because he can exploit the town’s feelings. His name is Goodson, he’s physically dead, but the resurrection of his spirit drives the town’s redemption. Allegorically speaking, this one should be easy to figure out. Goodson, that’s the key.
The Sack of Gold
Many of the town’s most prominent citizens are specially targeted by the stranger for revelation of their corruption. He not only leads the town to believe that the dead Goodson is the engine of their good fortune, but also exploits his death and their greed to stimulate even greater corruption getting them to falsely declare (and come to believe) that in the past they had helped Goodson in some way powerful way. He does this because he has secretly informed each of them that Goodson isolated each of them individually for a long-held desire to be able to one day pay back their alleged acts of kindness. The machination of revenge thus becomes one in which gold is rewarded for betraying special bond of friendship and loyalty. The sack of gold from the allegorical perspective is endowed with symbolic linkage to the 30 pieces of silver which Judas accepted for betraying Jesus, the good son of God.
