The Setting in Hound of the Baskervilles and The Signalman

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The Setting in Hound of the Baskervilles and The Signalman

'The Hound of the Baskervilles' was written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

in 1902 carrying the genre of a horror story, whilst 'The Signalman'

was written by Charles Dickens in 1860, carrying the genre of a ghost

story.

Both writers use the same type of setting throughout the novels which

is dismal, shadowy and perspirating.

At the time when both novels were written, the readers who read both

of the novels believed that ghosts and huge hounds which prowled

moonless, glum heaths actually existed. This had a greater effect on

the reader in the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century than

it does today because not many people living in the modern world

believe in phantoms and huge beasts which roam around dingy places and

secluded heaths.

In the first chapter of 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' setting does

not seem to be terribly important to Conan Doyle because he focuses

more on describing the plot of the novel to the reader. In chapter one

Conan Doyle is describing to the reader, the plot which starts with

the gruesome death of Sir Charles Baskerville along with a little

background knowledge about Sherlock Holmes. That sets out the scene

for the reader whereas in 'The Signalman', Dickens does not describe

the plot to the reader at the start of the novel which tends to

confuse the reader a little because the reader can't predict what is

going to happen next in the text.

In both novels the writer creates the main setting where all of the

events take place to have the same effect on the reader. In 'The Hound

of the Baskervilles' the main setting is on Dartmoor ...

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... Hound of the Baskervilles' because the whole setting of Dartmoor gives

it, it's menacing atmosphere which makes it the ideal place for a

horror story to occur. In 'The Signalman' I don't think that using

setting to create atmosphere was terribly important to Dickens because

the traveller is there to tell the main body of the plot to the

reader.

I believe that when both books were published in Victorian times, the

Victorian readers who read 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' and 'The

Signalman' were greatly impacted by the ghost and horror stories into

actually believing that the ghost in 'The Signalman' and the huge

beast in 'The Hound of the Baskervilles' actually existed compared to

today where most modern-day people don't believe in these things,

which means that the impact of each story is much less on the reader.

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