“The Signalman was too educated to be at such a low rank”
This could be a symbolic time for the playwright to show that if he is too educated to be at that rank, then things may not be what they seem, giving an eerie sense of fear and a supernatural atmosphere to the play. It would be looked upon as timeless and a feeling of never growing old. This is obvious as it is an old ghost story in an isolated location, but in a modern train setting. This could appear to be mystical.
‘The Red Room’ has an extremely unique setting. The links in with how H.G. Wells creates an eerie and mysterious setting. He does this by cleverly putting ‘The Red Room’ isolated away from the rest of the house. The room itself is very dark,
“And looking around that large shadowy room, with its large shadowy bays, its recesses and alcoves, one could well understand the legends that had sprouted in its black corner, its germinating darkness.”
The writer has shown in this quote that the descriptive context shown is like the pit of a devil’s cave, although this may be, when the light is on it creates shadows, yet as soon as these shadows are created, they disappear quicker than lightening. Nothing is what it seems in ‘The Red Room’, this generates an eerie mood of mystery.
“…examined the fastenings of several windows before closing the shutters, leant forward and looked up the blackness of the chimney”.
This quote proves that the room was not as it seemed, this creates an eerie and mysterious atmosphere that the room is at the bottom of a pit as it is at the bottom of the chimney.
The setting to ‘The Signalman’ contributes to creating fear in the sense that Dickens does this on purpose. It is deliberate that the setting to ‘The Signalman’ is based in an isolated place where mind trickery is possible, we as an audience can relate to the situation therefore we as an audience put the role of the play as if we as an audience are first person.
“Is there any path which I can come down and speak to you?”
This quote shows that the signalman outside the train track is seen to be in complete isolation creating an eerie feeling and base of fear, it does this by; putting an image into the audience’s heads that there is no way down, no way through and no way that everything as it seems. Therefore this will generate the power of fear coming into the story.
The description of the characters in the story helps to create an eerie and mysterious atmosphere by enclosing old characters into the short story of ‘The Red Room’, this in effect gives a theme to the short story, the theme of an olden style setting and characters; we as an audience recollect this information to appeal as an eerie atmosphere and trepidation.
“The old man with the cough jerked his head back so suddenly that it startled me…‘If’ I said a little louder”
This quote is showing the age of the characters; the fact that the characters are of such a high age is showing a link as to how old the red room must be, and to have such a reputation for such a long time, will build up a colossal reputation which inevitably creates an extreme eerie atmosphere and a sense of fear and mystery. H.G Wells has completed his task of generating suspense just through the characters themselves;
“The old man supported himself by a single crutch, his eyes were covered by a shade, and his lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pink from his yellow decaying teeth”
This quote proves that although H.G Wells has just put a description of the characters, he has generated to a great extent more.
The characters in ‘The Signalman’ are different to ‘The Red Room’, the characters are the same in the sense that they help to create an eerie and mysterious atmosphere, yet they are completely different when it comes down to how they create an eerie and mysterious atmosphere. ‘The Signalman’ has just the main character as a young educated man yet in an isolated location, this could be seen as a reflection to the character itself.
“He was a dark sallow man…His post was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw”
This quote shows a description of the man in his appearance, and also a description of his nature; from this we can tell that the character is not going to be straight forward, there is going to be something out of the ordinary about this character. This brings the essay question into perspective; this is a critical way in which Charles Dickens creates an eerie atmosphere and a sense of fear and mystery in the short story.
The language devices in ‘The Red Room’ are created from diminutive words, phrases, and lines of dialogue and literacy techniques. These contribute to the eerie atmosphere of the short story.
“…until you come to a door, and through that is a spiral staircase, and half way up that is a landing and another door covered with baize. Go through that and down the long corridor to the end, and the red room is on your left up the steps.”
This is a very long quote with extreme meaning to it; it is seen the red room to be isolated from the rest of the house, this could be a clear indication from H.G Wells, isolated and distant, the red room should stay this way. ‘The Red Room’ has modest phrases and descriptive context that generate a greater feeling of mysterious nature;
“…chilly, echoing passage.”
This quote shows how old fashioned the house must be, again linking the language device to the sense of fear.
The language devices in ‘The Signalman’ differ from ‘The Red Room’ as the context is different. ‘The Signalman’ has a lot of information that leads the plot further, yet these are shown through language devices.
“A beautiful young lady had died instantaneously in one of the compartments… ”
This quotation illustrates how a plot twist from using a language device, can show that in this location, anything is possible, right up to the extreme extent of death. Charles Dickens has situated this information so that it will get the audience thinking about all the different possibilities of what is capable and all the supernatural activities that go on around the setting. This use of a language device has proven extremely effective; word phrases and lines of dialogue are extremely practical in the context.
“As to an imaginary cry…”
This quote demonstrates the eccentric activity going on; this is an exceedingly powerful metaphor as not only does it create a question to be solved in ones mind, but it generates an eerie atmosphere that things are occurring out of the ordinary, this may well link to the signalman himself or could be a puzzling plot to the short story. This was very cleverly added by Charles Dickens as he left a cliff hanger metaphor.
‘The Red Room’ is like any typical ghost story, with typical ghost story conventions. This can be shown through context by H.G Wells and the way his descriptive text portrays anything symbolic to be an additional extra in the short story.
“The ornaments and conveniences of the room about them were ghostly – the thoughts of vanished men, which still haunted rather than participating in the world of to-day”
This quotation emphasizes the ghostly atmosphere that surrounds the room; an ornament is symbolic to a ghost story, it is a decorative piece which portrays an old fashioned background when used in description, especially in a ghost story. This is shown in the old nature of ‘The Red Room’.
In ‘The Signalman’ there is a lot of typical ghost story features, similar to ‘The Red Room’ there are symbolic additions, yet between the two there are different conventional features.
“I walked by the side of the down Line of rails (with a very disagreeable sensation of a train coming behind me)”
This quotation generates the feeling that all is not as it seems; there may be something additional to what meets the eye. This conjures a ghostly sense of fear. The fact that a rail line is mentioned is a superior symbol to have in the short story, walking along train tracks is dangerous therefore it generates the feeling of danger. Charles Dickens has done this extremely well to create a supernatural, eerie atmosphere and a sense of fear and mystery in the story.
In conclusion, the techniques used in both short stories that I have analyzed and compared during the course of my essay, have been effective and illustrative to create a supernatural and eerie atmosphere in both short stories.
The writer’s techniques to create these atmospheres were demonstrated via ‘short poignant’ sentences. This technique was particularly effective as it was to the point and did not leave any loose ends; also it generated the appropriate atmosphere required for the outcome.
Out of the two short stories, ‘The Signalman’ has the most eerie atmosphere and sense of fear as it includes a death in the story which immediately causes the story to develop into a mystery. However both authors delivered their short stories in a very effective and enticing manner.
By Chris Messina