# The Stranger — Darkwater character guide

> The Stranger in Darkwater by W. E. B. Du Bois.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** The stranger, You—you

**First appearance:** 0004-i-the-shadow-of-years

## Snapshot

An enigmatic presence who surfaces at charged gatherings, half witness and half accusation, addressing the narrator as 'you.'

## Who they are

He hovers at the edges of crowded rooms—the Pan-African meeting, the Crystal Palace throng—where history seems about to speak through ordinary faces. His tension is that he never quite declares himself; he is the question the narrator keeps failing to answer, the 'you' that implicates the reader. He matters because he turns the book's remembering into a confrontation, insisting that what happened to Coleridge-Taylor's father, to the Herero, to the woman in the Jim Crow line, is happening to someone being addressed.

## Relationships

### [The Woman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/darkwater_se/characters/the_woman)

_psychological_

A predatory and manipulative connection, with the Stranger exerting control over the Woman.

### [The Colonel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/darkwater_se/characters/the_colonel)

_rivalry_

A power struggle between two authoritative figures, each vying for dominance.

### [The Woman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/darkwater_se/characters/the_woman)

_psychological_

A predatory and manipulative connection, with the Stranger exerting control over the Woman.

### [The Colonel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/darkwater_se/characters/the_colonel)

_rivalry_

A power struggle between two authoritative figures, each vying for dominance.

## In the story

### [Darkwater](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/darkwater_se/chapters/darkwater)

The stranger embodies the external forces of oppression and the gaze of the white world.

### [The Princess of the Hither Isles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/darkwater_se/chapters/the-princess-of-the-hither-isles)

The king of Yonder Kingdom, who values gold and opposes the princess's quest, striking her hand off.

### [Jesus Christ in Texas](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/darkwater_se/chapters/jesus-christ-in-texas)

A mysterious, Christ-like figure with dark eyes and a cloak-like coat who challenges racial and moral norms throughout the chapter.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/darkwater_se/characters/the_stranger
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/darkwater_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/darkwater_se/characters