How the Authors of The Signalman and The Red Room Use First-Person Narrative

How the Authors of The Signalman and The Red Room Use First-Person Narrative

In this essay two novels will be compared. The first written by

Charles Dickens entitled, `The Signalman` and the second is H G Wells’

`The Red Room`. I seek to find out how first person narration is used

to manipulate the thoughts and feelings of the readers and how the two

are similar.

The two poems are both similar in that they are both pre 1914 prose

about ghosts and are based on the supernatural, the two tales also

create suspense and tension in the atmosphere surrounding the

characters.

The stories are written in first person native for example, the

authors of `The Red Room` and `The Signalman` both tell the story

using speech as the main technique telling the story through the

narrator, “Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to

you?” this makes the reader feel closer to the character due to his

personal experience.

The Signalman

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At the start of `The Signalman` the atmosphere is bizarre. The story

begins in a deep, damp cutting adjacent to a tunnel with a railway

running through it, which is described as `barbarous`, `depressing`

and with `forbidding air`. The scene is set at twilight therefore

because of the darkness the two men don’t get to see each other

properly and this enhances the mysterious element of the story. At the

point in which he’s just about to go down `the cutting`, a vibration

shakes the ground, Dickens writes, `vague vibration in the earth and

air`, which describes the movement, he also uses a lot effective

adjectives like, `violent` and `pulsation`, which conveys fears and

adds to the tension which is building up, but this time it was just a

train passing and the tension is lost. Dickens describes the cutting

as being, “Extremely deep and unusually precipitous” and “Solitary and

dismal”, he uses the detailed description to give the setting an eerie

edge. The story only takes place within the cutting. The two men meet

at the cutting at night, “I will come at eleven”, Dickens says, this

sustains the tension due to the darkness and our own knowledge that

the supernatural experiences always occur at night.

The narrator feels very sympathetic towards The Signalman, as he keeps

revisiting him to find out more about his life and his experiences,

“But I expressly intend to make you another visit”, the narrator also

talks about an “infection in the mind” and “deception of his sense of

sight” and recommends `The Signalman` to see a doctor, when he sees

the ghost, which reveals his level of concern for his new