What is the Stranger, and how does it fit into the story?
STRANGER
(To CAMILLA, as she passes) Have you found the Yellow Sign?
NAOTALBA
Come, my prince, we shall consult the scriptures!
NAOTALBA takes THALE by the arm, and they move to EXEUNT .
STRANGER
(To THALE, as he passes) Have you found the Yellow Sign?
CASSILDA
What are you?
STRANGER
(To CASSILDA) Have you found the Yellow Sign?
CASSILDA stares at him in horror, then slowly retreats behind the THRONE.
- The Mask, Act II, Scene 6.
The Stranger, sometimes referred to as "the man in the pallid mask," is yet another cryptic part of the mythology of the King in Yellow. The few hints available in the existing stories describe the Stranger as the prophetic herald who appears in Yhtill before the arrival of the King. It is a specter of death, echoing the ominous visitor in "The Masque of the Red Death," by Poe. Of course, those who believe The King in Yellow to actually exist would say that Poe is the one echoing the more ancient story.
"He was tall and very thin, and covered from head to foot like a dead man prepared for the grave. The mask which covered his face — or was it really a mask? — the mask which covered his face was so much like the face of a dead man that the nearest eye could not see the difference. And yet all this might have been acceptable — but the masquerader whom nobody knew had made himself look like the Red Death itself! His clothes were spotted with blood. And the mask over his face was covered with the terrible red spots…or perhaps it was indeed his face!"
-"Masque of the Red Death" by E.A. Poe.
In The King in Yellow, Chambers does so much with so little - providing in his stories only hints of a deeper plot - besides mentioning the Stranger in the quotations from the play, it may also appear in the stories, as the organist in "In the Court of the Dragon" and the watchman in "The Yellow Sign":
" I felt a faint chill, and my heart sank; and yet, his going and coming were no affair of mine. I looked at him: I could not look away from his black figure and his white face. When he was exactly opposite me, he turned and sent across the church, straight into my eyes, a look of hate, intense and deadly: I have never seen any other like it; would to God I might never see it again! "
-from "In the Court of the Dragon" R.W. Chambers.
"As I turned, my listless glance included the man below in the churchyard. His face was toward me now, and with a perfectly involuntary movement I bent to see it. At the same moment he raised his head and looked at me. Instantly I thought of a coffin-worm. Whatever it was about the man that repelled me I did not know, but the impression of a plump white grave-worm was so intense and nauseating that I must have shown it in my expression, for he turned his puffy face away with a movement which made me think of a disturbed grub in a chestnut."
- from "The Yellow Sign" R.W. Chambers.
In both stories, the grub-faced creature is described as a man, but both stories also raise the question of whether it is actually human, or merely something that resembles a man. It is also not described as wearing a mask, but merely to be a person with a particularly horrific face. In The King in Yellow, the Stranger is told to remove its mask, and famously replies, "I wear no mask." Apparently, its face resembles a mask, referred to in the mythos as the 'Pallid Mask', and the realization that this is no mask is a horrifying revelation to Cassilda and Camilla. There is so little context, we are forced to draw our own conclusions.
The mask merits only a passing mention in the original stories, maddeningly without further explanation. Referring to it as the pallid mask raise the paradox that if it is indeed a mask, why does the Stranger deny that it is wearing a mask? Another lie, a misdirection, but to what end? Does the Stranger's face merely resemble the Pallid Mask, which is worn by the King in Yellow, which hides from us his true visage? Perhaps, like the god of Moses, man cannot bear to look upon the face of God.
“I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. . . . But . . . you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live” (Exodus 33:19–20)
The Phantom of Truth
The Amazing Devil, my current musical obsession, was certainly inspired by this character for their song, "King" as the pallid-faced, inhuman character stalks the hapless man, while the singer has visions of his torment:
Perhaps he is an illusion, a hallucination, the culmination of all of our guilt and fear, stalking us through the corridors of our mind, no more real than a dream. But dreams can carry truth and we ignore their messages at our own risk. Is he the warning from our subconscious that we are on the wrong path? Or a deception from the King in Yellow, sent to drive us like cattle into his abattoir? Characters in the stories begin to see the Stranger after exposure to the play, and it never turns out well for them. What would happen to you if the Stranger caught your eye?
In any case, we would love for you to make plans to view the effect that the Stranger will have on our characters in The Yellow Sign. Please consider joining us for the world premier of this original horror play at Playhouse in the Park in Murray, Kentucky November 11-13. Tickets will be available soon; please bookmark our site and keep coming back for more information. Consider signing up for our mailing list.
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