The contrast in this approach is shown in the language used. For example, in ‘The Darkness Out There, Lively writes:
“And, somewhere, presumably, the crumbling rusty scraps of metal and cloth and ... bones?”
The ellipses and the question mark highlight the uncertainty that is present throughout this story and show the implicit nature of ‘The Darkness Out There.’ In contrast, Dickens’ use of language shows the explicit nature of ‘The Signalman.’ When he mentions the figure, he speaks of it directly as “the spectre,” and “the ghost,” thus showing how openly the unknown is explored.
In ‘The Darkness Out There,’ Lively uses the characters ages to explore the unknown. Sandra and Kerry are adolescents on the brink of being plunged into the adult world of work. Sandra is shown to be full of dreams such as:
“One day she would have a place in the country, but not like this.” However, she does not know for sure what will happen to her. Kerry is shown to be more certain about what he is going to do but the unpredictability of growing up is made clear by the description, “His chin was explosive with acne,” this shows that he is a teenager and on the verge of adulthood. The use of the word “explosive,” also creates tension, showing the abrupt changes that can go on, in the characters life and in the story.
Kerry is used by Lively in a different way to explore the unknown and create tension. The fact that Sandra’s character suspects that he is not to be trusted and says, “Some people you only have to look at to know they’re not up to much,” looks at the way things are not always as they seem. Kerry turns out to be the opposite to the suspicious character that Sandra thinks him to be. In the end “His anger eclipsed his acne,” and Lively portrays him to be a caring, mature boy. This illuminates Sandra’s naivety. Her innocence is used to cause tension in the story, she is portrayed as the helpless young maiden by Lively and this has connotations to gothic horror therefore, the readers find themselves expecting something bad to happen to her. Lively does this deliberately and this can be seen when she, after discussing newspaper articles about rapists and armed attackers, writes, “He rose from the plough beyond the hedge.” This is the first mention of Kerry and the short sentence, with no mention who “he” is, makes his entrance shocking to the reader, especially as Lively has mentioned the stories in the papers.
Dickens uses his characters in a completely different way from Lively yet still utilises them to investigate the unknown. Lively lets the reader get to know the characters and this pulls their attention into the story, thus making the twist at the end of the plot seem all the more shocking. However, Dickens slowly builds up the tension by not naming his characters at all and by the end of the text the reader still does not know anything about the narrator and hardly anything about the signalman. This distances the reader and the reader not being able to predict what the signalman is going to say next causes some of the tension in the story. An example of this unpredictability is when the characters are talking and the signalman keeps looking at the bell:
“He twice broke off with a fallen colour, turned his face towards the little bell when it did not ring ... and looked out towards the red light.”
This unpredictable behaviour helps create some of the tension in the story
However, other tension in the story is caused by Dickens using the first person for his narrative. This may seem to have the opposite effect than the way he distances the reader but it still causes tension. It draws them into the story so it feels that the events of ‘The Signalman’ are happening to them. By way of contrast, Lively has written ‘The Darkness Out There’ in the third person. In doing this she distances the reader but also she can allow the perspective of the story to change and not just be through one of the main character’s eyes. This creates tension because there is the unknown element of the characters’ thoughts and the potential to shock the reader. This is noticeable in the way Lively portrays Mrs Rutter, she lets the reader become close to the character but from the beginning implies that there is something hidden about her character. This is shown when Lively describes Mrs Rutter.
“A creamy smiling pool of a face in which her eyes snapped and darted.” The first metaphor shows the ‘nice old woman’ side of her personality, whereas the second brings to mind a bird of prey, something threatening and not at all a “nice old woman.”
The characters and their situation are a way of creating tension within the text, in both stories the text features an isolated person being visited by outsiders. In ‘The Darkness Out There,’ the outsiders are Kerry and Sandra and they intrude on the private home of Mrs Rutter. In ‘The Signalman,’ the intruder is the Narrator and he intrudes on the workplace and home of the signalman. The intrusion in both of the stories is made clearer because the characters that are visited are affected by their surroundings. The signalman’s lugubrious character with his, “Saturnine face,” is obviously affected by the, “Barbarous, depressing and forbidding air,” of the railway cutting. Mrs Rutter in ‘The Darkness Out There,’ is affected in more subtle ways but also in this story the setting mimics the character’s personality. The visible part, i.e. Nether Cottage, is cosy and comforting, but the part that is more indistinct, i.e. Packers End, is not so cosy, “A rank place.” The name of the cottage is also used by Lively to show that Mrs Rutter’s personality has a hidden part, ‘Nether’ meaning below or underground. In some places in both of these stories the characters seem almost part of the setting.
This idea is definitely explored more in ‘The Signalman.’ Dickens suggests that the cutting might house elements of the supernatural when he writes, “As if I had left the natural world.” He also says that it had an, “Earthy, deadly smell,” suggesting death and graveyards. The signalman is portrayed as part of the setting when he is seen as, “A spirit not a man.” This also shows how openly the gothic elements of the story are explored.
The style is also used to create tension in both, but in different ways. In ‘The Signalman’ the style is formal which nowadays distances the reader but in the time when Dickens was writing the public would have spoken more formally so it would not distance them as much. There is still an element of formality though, show in the language used, e.g. “One would have thought,” and, “He turned himself about.” Also Dickens uses long and very descriptive sentences. This creates tension because the reader gets a very clear picture what the setting is like.
In ‘The Darkness Out There,’ however, the style is very different. Lively uses very informal, language and it is as if the story is being told directly to you. This impression is also given by the conversational, textured paragraphs and sentences, such as; “With the light suddenly shutting off the bare, wide sky of the field. Packer’s End.” This makes the reader feel closer to the characters and their predicament therefore the tension and shock at the end is greater.
In summary, both Dickens and Lively create tension through their use of plot, characters, style and setting. The eerie “Packers End” matches the claustrophobia enhancing setting of ‘The Signalman’. Dickens’ anonymous characters of the narrator and the signalman keep the readers on edge in ‘The Signalman,’ whereas Sandra’s naivety, Kerry’s suspicious nature and Mrs Rutter’s seeming innocence then the abrupt exposure of true character build up tension and surprise in ‘The Darkness Out There.’ Dickens’ compacted plot works well to hold the reader’s attention and the build up to Lively’s final climax keeps her audience hooked to the end. On the whole both authors use events of their time well to create suspense. I feel that although Dickens appears to do this more effectively, the seeming normality yet the sense of unease about ‘The Darkness Out There’ creates just as much tension.