When initially reading the story I was led to believe that the Signalman was rather odd. At first he doubted the narrator’s identity, even distrusted him, and was daunted by his past trauma, for example, “His attitude was one of such expectation and watchfulness”. There are more illustrations of his fear later on in the text: “Not even then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one step, and lifted his hand.”
Earlier on in the plot, the reader begins to get the impression that the Signalman is mentally unbalanced, as this crosses the narrator’s mind due to certain pieces of convincing evidence. Examples of such evidence are plentiful: “I have speculated since, whether there may have been infection in his mind”. Yet, the Signalman’s “manner” clears and we soon learn from his language and hobbies that he is actually well educated.
The following lines, “with readiness and with well-chosen words” and “taught himself a language down here”, and “He had also worked at fractions and decimals, and tried a little algebra” testify that he is an intelligent man. This clarifies that he is not stupid, which makes the reader more convinced that he couldn’t be so addled as to be seeing things. It makes the climax become more frightening. Thus, by putting minor amendments into the story for the reader to observe, Dickens has built up even more suspense.
Further tension is bred when the Signalman, during a conversation, “twice broke off with a fallen colour, turned his face towards the little bell when it did NOT ring, opened the door of the hut… and looked out towards the red light near the mouth of the tunnel.” On both of these occasions, he returned to the fire “with the inexplicable air upon him”. This phrase creates uncertainty because the events are unexpected and illogical and aren’t explained by the Signalman.
Also, the reader is kept intrigued after these events when the Signalman says he is a troubled man but doesn’t say why, so encouraging the reader to continue the story. When the narrator leaves he is told not to call down, but isn’t told why. Here Dickens has used his enticing style to advantage and lures the reader into turning the page.
The next night when the Signalman and narrator had gone into the signal box they recounted the previous night’s events. However, the Signalman took the narrator to be someone else. Whilst he talked to him, he spoke in a tone “a little above a whisper” which indicates to the reader that the Signalman is about to tell a secret and creates intimacy with added apprehension, which again seduces the reader.
Another gripping moment is the description of the spectre. This allures the reader because the Signalman “never saw the face” which presents an ominous sight. Also, on the next page, the reader is trapped in an atmosphere filled with uncertainty, as the narrator partially believes that there is a spirit in the tunnel. The following examples highlight this: “Resisting the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my spine” and “A disagreeable shudder crept over me”.
Just after the Signalman told the story of the beautiful lady who died “instantaneously” he and the narrator discussed the reality of the spectre. The narrator has enough reasonable explanations for the spectre’s appearances – yet the Signalman rejected each one. This suggests a supernatural, rather than natural, explanation is forthcoming for the reader and there are now great expectations about what will happen.
Also, the Signalman’s potent remarks produce anxiety: “the ghosts ring is a strange vibration in the bell that derives from nothing else” and “that you failed to hear it”. The previous examples show how the Signalman persuades the narrator that the ghost did ring, but that the narrator failed to hear it (or did not want to hear it). So the narrator’s thoughts that the Signalman had an over fertile imagination just flew out of the window!
The reader is again affected, and hopefully sympathetic, when it is clear that the Signalman is suffering mental torture: “in a extremity of feverish distress” and “A mere poor Signalman on this solitary station!” It is obvious that the Signalman is upset as he was getting extremely agitated, and asking so many questions, like “why not warn me plainly now?” This also leaves the reader more uncertain. In some sense, the Signalman could be described as the reader’s role model for reactions!
The narrator concludes that the Signalman is “intelligent, vigilant, painstaking and exact” so this persuades the reader that the Signalman is not seeing things, and therefore builds more anxiety. More mystery was caused the next night when the narrator saw a man using the exact posture and position that the Signalman said the spectre used. The narrator described it as a “nameless horror” and couldn’t “describe the thrill that seized upon him”. The reader next wonders what a small party of men were doing down on the line. Also, what a “little low hut, entirely new to” the narrator was doing there. This speculation is never given an answer.
When the narrator approached the men on the railway line, he asked what happened. When the men told him he changed his tone to a sympathetic one. E.g. “O, how did this happen, how did this happen? Now the narrator is worried, his sympathetic nature allows him to resort to repetition. This points out to the reader that the narrator was genuinely concerned for the Signalman and believed that he had been haunted. This brings the story to some sort of crescendo because something macabre has actually happened, based on what a man, now dead, had seen.
The ambience gets even more chilling when the narrator discovers how the Signalman died. The spectre foretold the Signalman’s own death, but its even further tension-packed when you realise that the spectre actually led the Signalman to his own death. This completes the ghoulishness of the tale as the reader seems to realise that the spectre was driving the Signalman towards insanity, and when he was completely insane the Signalman’s possession by the spectre would lead to his own death by someone trying to warn him of his death. This is the ironic twist that makes the tale so memorable.
The variety of language that Dickens selected, together with the supernatural events and the apprehensive style of the story produces a gripping mystery that is full of paradox.
The Pit and the Pendulum:
This story is written about a man sentenced to death during the Spanish Inquisition, a ‘holy war’ between Protestants and Catholics. In this study I shall be examining how factors of horror and suspense influence the readers and can draw them into the deep “pit” of Poe’s imagination.
One of the first things I observed was that Poe deliberately mentions the word “death” twice in the first paragraph, to make sure the reader is disturbed by the horror of the thought. Then, to emphasise that this punishment of death was clear to the man, Poe mentions hallucinations that the prisoner had, such as “voices seemed merged into one dreamy indeterminate hum”.
He starts the horror immediately, without a build up of suspense, which is supported by the man running in and out of consciousness right from the beginning of the story. The hallucinations are a good indication of how terrified the victim was, and so, this influences the reader to almost go through the same terror and mental torment as the character in the story.
Some of the words and phrases clearly convey the horror of the narrator’s situation; for example the monk’s lips were “thin with the intensity of their expression of firmness”. This is another pivotal point, which creates more aversion, as the “firmness” in the monk’s “expression” made clear that absolutely no mercy was being shown at all.
Another point of note is the way in which Poe uses the repetition of “no” four times. The effect is to clarify to the reader that he cannot think properly with all the pressure surrounding him (and the realisation that he’s going to die). Also, it describes more revulsion, for instance “in delirium” and “…even in the grave all is not lost”. This really sets the scene, by insisting that the reader understand exactly what is going on, especially by the mention of “Hades”, as this really turns up the heat. It is easy to feel sorry for the narrator because the power of his tortured mind is driving him to insanity, which is defined when the narrator manages to see “white slender angels” from seven thin candles.
When he wakes up in his dungeon, the prisoner only knows that the floor is “damp and hard”, as he was too afraid to “employ” his heavenly “vision” and was faced with grim reality. This again raises abhorrence, but it also builds a slight tension in the mind, as the reader doesn’t know what was actually in the place, or even in its shadows. He was, in fact “aghast” when opening his eyes because he didn’t know what calamity he would be opening them to! When he did open his eyes, his “worst thoughts, then, were confirmed” as he was stranded in total darkness.
Most of the evil and horror of this story is generated by a menacing atmosphere and the sense of apprehension – the way that the reader has to wait until it’s convenient for the author to describe what has happened. This keeps the reader “glued” to the book. For example, when the narrator woke up in the dungeon, Poe didn’t get straight to the point, but waited by describing what was already known to hold ‘taut’ the strain of suspense and aversion. The air was pregnant with tension.
While reading the story, I was taken through the loathing, which was present in the narrator’s mind. This created complete and utter horror, as its every last aspect was fully expounded to me. The way in which Poe does this is unique, because it is the main factor behind the whole repulsive atmosphere. Some of the phrases vividly convey his terror, such as “The intensity of the darkness seemed to oppress and stifle me”, and “The agony of suspense grew at length intolerable”. At first, he believes that his punishment is “the auto-da-fés”, yet he soon finds out that it isn’t, so again the reader’s mind is changed, and is thrown into uncertainty, as one doesn’t know what the narrator’s punishment is. So now, Poe has just left us guessing.
The essential point that creates anticipation is the way Poe toys with the reader’s mind, yet the reader is lured by the charisma of the narrator’s thoughts and ideas, so one is compelled to keep on reading. A good example of the way Poe affects the reader is when he talks about rumours “but yet strange, and too ghastly to repeat”. The reader now wants to hear these rumours, and so continues reading.
Even more suspense is added when the victim falls, as like him, I was trying to figure out what had caused his mishap. Then, on recovery from his fall, he realised that his head was dangling over some kind of abyss. Dismayed at the narrator’s discovery, we, as readers, are utterly shocked at finding the unholy fate in hand for him, and are even more repulsed when we realise that his persecutors have been watching his every motion, like the lazy swing of a pendulum. Also, there is evidence that the victim is tortured mentally as well as physically: “Agitation of spirit kept me awake”. So, more revulsion is created, and also a sense of wonder in imagining what his persecutors would try next.
When the narrator woke up after he drank the drugged drink, he realised that there was a “sulphurous light” in his chamber and, most importantly, that he was tied up. These new circumstances, which generated even more horror and fear, were made worse by the presence of rats. As well as being able to visualise the pendulum, we readers are also able to imagine the hissing noise from it. We are empowered to hear this in our minds because of Poe’s detailed description, but above all, the most horrific thing about the pendulum is the time that it took to make it’s way down. This was not mercifully swift, but a long, drawn out process as “days passed” before it came down.
As it descended the pendulum mentally tortured the narrator making him struggle like a bird in a cage trying fruitlessly to escape from his incarceration. He intended to escape from the pendulum after it came down to “fray the serge” of his robe. This makes the reader feel more and more disturbed as the word “fray” reminds the reader of mentally “frayed nerves” as well as resembling the word “spray” from a spray of blood.
Also, when the reader finds that his plan has failed, a sense of sorrow and despondency enters one’s mind.
Another aspect for concern is the clever use of repetition that Poe employs. He uses the word “Down” at the beginning of one paragraph after another to describe the constant downward path of the pendulum. He does this for three paragraphs, and the effect is to intensify the level of dismay in the story – yet again. When the narrator came up with his second escape plan, to get the rats to bite off his bonds, Poe describes the rats’ techniques using alliteration, that is, “the vermin frequently fastened their sharp fangs into my fingers”.
At the end of the novelette the narrator is trapped in a situation where he’s being pushed into the pit of red-hot iron by closing walls. While this is happening the narrator gains the compassion of the reader, because of how his feelings are expressed. For example, “Fool! Might I not have known…” and when he “shrank back”, he displayed his vulnerability, so this clarified that all hope was lost. When all hope was dead, and both the reader and the narrator had given up, death seemed inevitable, but then there was an extremely clever twist – the narrator was saved by the French General who had just invaded Toledo!
Above all, Poe’s imaginative use of language was the main factor responsible for the construction of terror and suspense. For example, sharp, cutting words like “locution” and “endeavouring” were used instead of milder words to fulfil the need for Horror.
My Conclusion:
The first similarity between the two stories is that they’re both written as the events happened (using the present tense). “The Pit and the Pendulum” generally, is a well-written story with high levels of both suspense and horror, whereas “The Signalman” projects a lot of apprehension, but not as much horror as “The Pit and the Pendulum”. In “The Pit and the Pendulum”, we, as readers, visualise and even hear his thoughts and feelings. i.e. as readers, there is complete and utter horror for us by experiencing the narrator’s sufferings. This horror increased when we found that the narrator’s persecutors enjoyed watching him suffer. For example, when he dislodged “a small fragment” and let it fall into the pit, a trapdoor opened and then shut again, leaving present for a few seconds, “a faint gleam of light”. We also manage to see exactly how disgusting and sick minded the narrator’s torturers were. So the readers are living through the narrator’s experiences in a vivid way. Again, this is where more revulsion is experienced.
In “The Pit and the Pendulum”, Poe creates more trepidation through the atmosphere he introduces, and also more dread and uncertainty than Dickens. This is unique, as both these descriptions were valid right from the beginning, to claim the reader’s interest. For example, the story even started with the dire sentence: “I was sick – sick unto death with that long agony”. This kind of language influences frightfully drastic thoughts of terror, and the reader is discreetly drawn into this, as one is led to investigate the reasons for the narrator’s discomfort.
Even though the amount of suspense in “The Pit and the Pendulum” isn’t as good as that in “The Signalman”, the way that Poe did it is still highly skilled. The main source of suspense in the story, is achieved when Poe starts using his imagination to lead the reader on, so we, as readers, are given hope, but each hope is dashed. This pattern is repeated throughout the story, and Poe’s aim of using this tactic is fulfilled – by creating thorough abhorrence.
Where tension is concerned, “The Signalman” is a little more intense than “The Pit and the Pendulum” for various reasons. For example, most of the uncertainty in “The Signalman” is built by the clever use of circumstance and events in the story. Dickens built most of the suspense throughout the tale, by writing in ideas, which make his readers realise the suspense for themselves. Thus, Dickens appealed to the readers’ intellects, keeping them spellbound.
While both authors’ style is different, both are entertaining and Dickens’ descriptive detail contrasts with Poe’s more morbid depth of imagination.
