Compare and Contrast the two short stories 'The Signalman' by Dickens and 'The Withered arm' by Harely.

Another main character in ‘The Withered Arm’ is Gertrude who is ‘years younger than he,’ they say. She’s beautiful and a complete lady. ‘She is rather short sweet and kind.’ She is shy and ‘a woman of common sense’. She is kind especially when she sees Rhoda’s son on his own staring. She gives things to his mother Rhoda for him like shoes, which shows us that she is kind hearted. When her arm becomes withered she changes. She starts to become obsessed with her arm. She believes in potions and spells and she believes in superstitions, she is very desperate to find a cure for her arm because Farmer Lodge will not love her unless she finds a cure for her arm. She is desperate because she says ‘If I could only again be as I was when he first saw me’ she is not as caring as she was before, she says ‘O Lord hand someone guilty or innocent person soon’. This is saying she doesn’t care if someone dies as long as her arm is cured. She goes behind her husband’s back to get what she wants done.

In this story there are many supernatural events such as Gertrude’s arm becoming withered. People believe it was Rhoda because they call her a witch. Rhoda sees a victim one night with ghosts where she stabs Gertrude with her nails. The next morning her arm is withered.

‘The Signalman’ written by Charles Dickens has a mysterious side to the story. The story begins with a spooky and isolated atmosphere. There was a barbarous, depressing and forbidding air. With those few opening phrases we can gather that it is a ghost story. There is not much dialogue within the opening story just description of the setting. ‘Dripping wet walls of jagged stones’ although there is dialogue it starts with the narrator saying ‘hello below there.’ He says this to the signalman who is surprised when he says it.

There are only two main characters in the story the signalman and the narrator. The signalman works on the railroad and lives small wooden box. He is a middle aged man who is very hardworking and well spoken although he is a very quiet man. He is a lonely man so in his spare time he taught himself a language. The other character in the story is the narrator; he is a strong character and does not believe in ghosts because there is no proof. He gets to no the signalman because he was passing by and he saw him down in the valley. Once he got to know the signalman he visited frequently because he was curious about him. When he visited him he was very supportive and caring as if there was something on his mind.

The story is written in the first persons through the narrator. This makes the reader more involved and a part of the story because we see it from the narrators view. The characters use formal language. Charles Dickens builds up tension by implying things and not explaining them.

        The most enjoyable story is ‘The Signalman’ by Charles Dickens because it involves the reader; I believe it is a key factor to make a story interesting. I also think that the story is interesting because there are twists in the story holding the reader in suspense.