Comparison of The Red Room and The Signalman

Comparison of The Red Room and The Signalman.

The two stories we were asked to compare had one common themes which

were the building of fear and suspense throughout.

One clear difference between the stories was the function of fear in

the stories. In the 'The Red Room' the author does not only use fear

as a means of evolving the story but also places it at the centre of

the story. 'The Signalman' uses fear of the supernatural as a means of

making the story more believable as done in 'The Red Room'. Although

both stories are equally frightening, I feel that 'The Red Room'

contains much more suspense than 'The Signalman', I think that the

excess of suspense in 'The Red Room' is due to it having more

characters and actions.

Both stories are written as first person narrative, however, in 'The

Red Room' the horrific events happen to the narrator himself, while in

the 'The Signalman' the events are witnessed by the narrator while

they actually happen to the Signalman.

Both narrators seem to be well-educated, scientific men, which is

typical of victorian times. Neither of them seems willing to believe

in the supernatural. In 'The Red Room' the narrator does not believe

the warnings of the inhabitants of the house concerning the

supernatural content of the room, his over- confident belief in

science makes him aroogant and he is then proven wrong. As for 'The

Signalman' the narrator assumes that the Signalman is hallucinating,

due to his life of solitude and depressing routines, when he hears of

his visions of the spectre, he is similar to the narrator of 'The Red

Room' as he is also arrogantly confident that there is a scientific

explanation to his visions, and like him he is aslo proven wrong.

Using t...

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...suitable atmosphere for the supernatural visitations which

haunt the Signalman. This setting emphasises the solitude and

uneasiness, making it ideal for the mysterious and dreadful events

that follow. This helps prepare the reader for the catastrophe with

which the story ends.

A final similarity is how neither story ends with a proper scientific

explanation, therefore neither of the narrators can use science as

'the answer' because what has happened through out the two stories has

no scientific explanation. In my opinion, this leaves the readers with

an uneasy feeling about the supernatural and the chaos it may cause. A

fear of the supernatural lives deep inside some people, and not so

deep in others. But stories such as these can cause even the most

rational of people to wonder if there are things in the world which

can not and should not be explained.