Charles Dickens' The Signalman
In every good ghost story I have ever read the writer builds an air of
mystery and apprehension as the story unfolds, until the climax. This
serves to both keep the reader interested and question what is going
to happen next but makes them feel scared and anxious.
In my essay intend to explore how Charles Dickens creates an
atmosphere of mystery and suspense in 'the signalman'. I will do this
in three ways: By the description of setting, characters and by the
imagery and literary techniques used.
This ghost story is set in a 19th century railway cutting, which seems
to be remote and desolate. All the way through the story the cutting
is described as a 'solitary and dismissal place'. This serves to make
the reader think of how lonely and isolated the cutting is.
It is described as a 'Great dungeon' with a 'deadly smell'. This tells
me that it would not be a comfortable and rewarding place to work.
When the narrator is down the cutting the opening of the tunnel is
described as an 'Entrance to a black tunnel'. This suggests that it is
the entrance to the tunnel of death. This becomes true as the story
unravels.
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The air is then described as 'Barbarous, Depressing an Forbidding'.
This gives the reader a picture of a savage and uncivilised place.
This point is later backed up.
'A vague vibration in the earth and air' then ' a violent pulsation'
and an 'oncoming rush and vapour'. This caption suggests that the
effect of the train is that of an earth-shaking monster. The trains'
steam can be seen as smoke from its mouth. The word 'violent' hints at
a hostile creature.
As the narrator descends he describes the stone as 'clammy… that
became oozier and wetter as it went down'. Here the writer uses
thermal and tactile images creating an unpleasant impression when
read.
'A rough zigzagged descending path … cutting was extremely deep and
usually precipitous'.
The beginning of the story mentions an “...odor of death...” (Allende 232). This smell, along with “...the stench of corpses.” (Allende 234), is something that the reader can bring into the story and imagine theirself. For most readers, this smell is unimaginable and brings the
Suspense and Tension in The Red Room by H.G.Wells and The Signalman by Charles Dickens
The aim of this essay is to explore the way in which the two authors
Born in 1812 Charles Dickens grew up in a small town in London. Dickens grew up in a poor family. His family, sent to debtors∙ jail before he became old enough to fend for himself, convinced him to find work and stay out of the jail. Dickens worked anywhere, from law offices to newspapers as a young child. (∜New Standard Encyclopedia∠D-155) A Christmas Carol, written by Dickens, has changed many things in the world today, especially Christmas traditions and religion.
When someone hears the word “ghost”, what comes to their mind? Do they think of ghost stories like The Shining, Casper the Friendly Ghost, or Field Mice and Buffalo? How about the gory murder mysteries where a ghost comes back to haunt their murderer? Well has anyone ever thought about something as simple as a ghost story leading to someone being obsessed to the point of insanity? When I say obsessed, I don’t mean obsessed like scared; I mean “obsessed” as in a sense of possession or an obscene liking of. In Oke of Okehurst the author demonstrates how obsession drives William and Alice Oke to insanity.
The telling of a ghost story entails more than the text itself. Lighting, environment, tone of voice, and many other factors affect how well a ghost story is told. As one can see by reading the following story, simply reading a ghost story on paper does not have the same effect as hearing it performed by the teller in a fitting atmosphere. The following story was told one night in a dark, shadowy room filled with five or six college guys. The teller used long pauses, emphasis on certain words, and body gestures to make the story all the more believable and chilling.
The particular story I collected takes place in Philadelphia, where ghost stories are plentiful. Philadelphia is an old city with a rich cultural heritage, and our founding fathers made history in the place that was once our nation’s capital (Eidmann). Many believe that their spirits and spirits of those from colonial times still lurk around. It is easy to feel like spirits are around when in a place where many people have lived and died before, and in a place that is filled with old buildings and landmarks. All of these factors make this city a perfect place for a ghost story.
To support my believe I used two short stories “House of Usher” and”House taken over”.The first story”Fall of House of Usher”which is a gothic story includes characteristics like death and decaying setting,haunted houses/castles,madness,ghost and vampires etc. The second story that will also support my believe is “House
This story, although somewhat unique in its exact plot, contains many elements that make it a typical and traditional ghost story. These elements suggest common fears in today’s society of people in general, and children specifically.
This also ties in with the theme of supernatural. Irving also describes, “ There was a contagion in the very air that blew from that haunted region; it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams and fancies infecting all the land” (Irving 1). This helps us readers imagine the atmosphere and the theme of supernatural within the town. The mentioning of the hauntings brings up the past once
"In the Fog" by Milton Geiger and "The Hitchhiker" by Lucille Fletcher are both suspenseful stories. The stories will send a chill up your spine. Both stories will leave the reader with a spooky feeling and will leave the reader on the edge of their seat. "In the Fog" and "The Hitchhiker" are similar in ways in regards to ghosts, humans and the setting.
Atmosphere in Charles Dickens' The Signalman 'The Signal-man' is a ghostly thriller by Charles Dickens. Based on an apparently hallucinating signal-man and the tales of his hallucinations, the story is seen through the eyes of the narrator, a man told of the signal-mans troubles during conversations with the signal-man himself. From the beginning of the story, the atmosphere is both eerie and gloomy. To produce this type of atmosphere, Dickens had to draw on several different aspects of English literature-mostly through description and use of language. The setting is described meticulously, producing vivid images in the mind of the reader.
mind and it did not exist. We are told by the narrator that he thought
The Victorian era was a main development stage for the ghost story genre and it was becoming increasingly popular among readers.
Charles Dickens’s novel Hard Times critiques the use of extreme utilitarianism as an acceptable means to governing a society in which citizens are able to lead happy, productive, flourishing lives. “Just the facts,”19th century English utilitarianism argued, are all one needs to flourish. Those answers that we can arrive at by way of mathematical, logical reasoning are all needed to live a full human life. Hard Times shows however that a “just the facts” philosophy creates a community inhospitable to the needs of one another, a society nearly void of human compassion, and one lacking in morality. Underlying the novel’s argument is the Aristotelian concept that the primary purpose of government is to correctly educate citizens in morality and, consequentially, to cultivate an upright social environment where all are inspired to flourish.