I will start by looking at the plot and the main difference of the two stories.
In ‘The Signalman’, the narrator meets a person who experiences something terrible each time he sees a vision. This leads to him seeing a vision, relating to his own death. In ‘The Red Room’ a man takes up a challenge to go into a room, which is feared as it is seen by others as being haunted. The main similarities are that they both have a twist towards the end but they also have differences as ‘The Signalman’ answers all the questions that the reader could be thinking about, in his/her head. ‘The Red Room’, in contrast doesn’t and leaves a mystery to be solved by the reader. The mystery here is a question of whether there is a ghost or the man’s fear is the reason why the candles blow out. The mystery in ‘The Signalman’ is about why the signalman keeps seeing these visions?
Because of the mysteries and a twist in both stories, it means the two stories both contain typical elements of a supernatural story.
In the two stories the narrators are the main characters. Between them there are a lot of similarities but very few differences; they are both wealthy and educated young men, which is made obvious because of the way they are spoken to. In addition they are also both skeptical and rational as they only believe in what they see or can prove, which is shown in the beginning when he says:
“eight and twenty years I have lived and never a ghost have I seen yet.”
This shows us that the narrator in ‘The Red Room’ has never seen a ghost , and will only believe in ghosts when he has seen one.
The narrator in ‘The Signalman’ is also rational, shown when he says:
“Do listen for a moment to the wind in this unnatural valley…and to the wild harp it makes of the telephone wires.”
Here he is trying to find a natural explanation of the sounds he is hearing as he thinks there is something wrong in the signalman’s head which is why he keeps seeing these visions.
The two young men have also changed at the end of the story from how they thought at the beginning because of their experience. The only difference is that the man in ‘The Red Room’ seeks out for supernatural but in
