Dickens’ portrayal of the cutting makes us very nervous and almost scared because we do not understand why this man is visiting such a barren place that he has obviously never been to before. Dickens uses many adjectives to create a detailed picture of the cutting our minds, these include “precipitate”, “dismal”, “barbarous”, “deadly”, and “forbidding”. He always describes the tunnel in the same manner – “gloomier entrance” and “massive architecture”.
At the start of the story Dickens uses confusion to build up the tension. The first line plunges into the story straight away. “Halloa! Below there!” This makes us want to read on to find who has spoken these words, whom they are shouting to and why they are doing so. The next example of confusion is when the Signalman doesn’t reply to the question, “Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?” The Signalman just stands there and looks at the writer. It is not until the writer is near enough to touch the Signalman that he “stirs”.
As the writer starts to communicate with the Signalman, we are given a more information about his appearance. We are told that his eyebrows are thick and that he has an odd skin tone, this paints a picture of a very mysterious looking man. This adds to his bizarre behaviour. He thinks that he has seen the writer before, near the mouth of the train tunnel and he seems to be looking at the bell in his hut, when it had not rung, as though it had done so. As the story progresses, we learn that this man is “troubled” by a spectre that appears at intermittent intervals and when this spectre has appeared, a terrible occurrence happens. The
Signalman seems to be very disturbed by the spectre, be ‘wiped the drops from his forehead’ showing his nerves, and so making us feel nervous.
This story has a lot of irony entwined into the plot. At first, the Signalman looks down the tunnel because he thinks that it is the ghost that is shouting and then the writer thinks that the Signalman may be a ghost also because of his highly odd appearance and behaviour.
As the Signalman is telling us the story of the spectres appearances, the writer constantly interrupts him; this makes us anxious, as we want to hear the rest of the story. Dickens’ use of ‘painful personification, like ‘angry sunset’ and ‘violent pulsation’ contribute greatly to the story's impact because they hint that something bad, shocking, unexpected and even painful will happen later on in the story. Short sentences and repetition also make us feel tense. He tells us that every time the spectre shows itself there are deaths. We presume that there will be another one, soon, and we do not know who it will be.
There is a tremendous contrast between the Signalman and the writer; the writer being calm and collected, understanding and interested whilst the Signalman is agitated, stressed, tense and worried. This is confusing, because we do not know whether the Signalman is actually or the writer is having some sort of effect over him.
We can see the reasoning in the Signalman’s story - there are some interesting elements to it. The spectre seems to always appear in exactly the same place (underneath the danger light -perhaps suggesting it has something to do with danger.), always says “Halloa! Below there!” and covers it’s eyes and waves. This makes us suspicious, it always has the same warning, yet different events have occurred, no connection can be made between the actions of the spectre and the accidents and still, it continues.
The first thing that hits you when you read ‘The Darkness Out There’ is the title. The Darkness’ is ambiguous and we do not know what ‘Out There’ means. We do not know whether it means out there in the big wide world or if the story is set inside a building and the darkness is outside of it.
We are aware, from very early on in the story that Sandra has had a very sheltered life; we are informed that her mother regularly compliments her and that these complements are always running through her mind. She even thinks about the fact that somebody once said she had “pretty feet.” This leads us into the conclusion she is very superficial and image-driven. Sandra seems to have a very idealistic view of how she would like her life to be. “She would fall in love and she would get a good job and she would have one of those new Singers that do zigzag stitch and make an embroidered silk coat.” She has very little ambition to go far in life.
Packer’s Wood is mentioned very early on in the story. The very first time it’s name is said is shocking and curious; it ends the paragraph in a sentence of it’s own. This makes the reader’s eyes rush quickly to the next paragraph, as we do not know what on earth Packer’s End could be. We are then told that a German plane came down there in the wartime and that the aircrew were killed, rumour had it that you could hear them talking to each other, “chattering in German on their radios”. When the local children were younger, they were scared of it because they thought that there were “witches and wolves and tigers” but now that they were older, they understood about the German plane. And now, they had heard other things, such as a girl being attacked by “gypsy types”. This adds to the build-up of tension in the story because we do not know what is going to happen. Questions come forth in our minds, like, Is Sandra going to be attacked like that other girl? Are there ghosts in Packer’s Wood from the German pilots? Yet, all the time, we are still wondering about the ever-ambiguous “Darkness” and what it will turn out to be.
Mrs Rutter’s initial appearance is typical of an old person. She has a wonky leg after an operation and her environment is filled with memoirs of her lengthy lifetime. However, hints are dropped about a darker side to her. “I do like young people” This is just a very unjustified and bizarre comment to make. She seems to get Sandra to do some odd things such as washing her underwear and getting her to pull her skirt up. “There’s only me to see if you’re showing a bit of bum.” Mrs Rutter also seems to be a very nosy person; she makes a comment on Pat, saying that it’s a shame she never married. Lively emphasises the ‘evil’ in her eyes “glinting”, “snapped and darted”. These words paint a picture of an evil woman, who either is plotting something or has a terrible past. Which ever is true, there is more to this old woman than initially meets the eye.
Kerry’ s initial appearance is quite greasy, he has “licked-down hair” and quite bad acne on his face. However, Kerry is the first person to suggest that there is something wrong with the Mrs Rutter, “I don’t go much on her. Although, he has a plan in life, similar to Sandra, he also very down to earth, he wants to work as a mechanic.
‘The Signalman’ ends in an extremely unexpected way. As we, the readers are expecting a death, we are half expecting it to be either the writer or another, unknown party. When first reading the short story, we are totally shocked by the fact that this death is in fact the
Signalman. We learn that the train driver, driving the vehicle that killed the Signalman was waving his arm in the way that the spectre had previously done and had covered his eyes, in the same manner as the spectre as to not see the impact of the train upon the man.
‘The Darkness Out There’ ends in an unexpected way as we think, despite the hints, that Mrs Rutter is a nice old lady, we are shocked to discover that she had ever done anything as evil as letting a young man die, lonely in terrible pain. The fact that it was a young man and not an older one makes it even more shocking because she said, more than once during the story, “I like young people.”
Both of the stories entail a death of some kind and have a very surprising ending. Another connection between both ‘The Signalman’ and ‘The Darkness Out There’ is that they both have sinister settings, the cutting in ‘The Signalman’ and Packer’s Wood in ‘The Darkness Out There’, also, both of these settings are seen at night, which makes the reader suspicious of supernatural occurrences. Dickens and Lively both developed methods of dropping hints and clues, both leading to a build-up of tension. Comparisons between the authors’ characterisation skills can be pinpointed, both of the stories have characters that have positions of responsibility and both contain one character look for the truth and what to do in awkward, pressing situations.
I think that both stories build up tension in ways, though different, successful. ‘The Darkness Out There’ emulates the hate of English people to the Germans, whether they had personally done anything to them or not. It also looks at why we lash out when in pain. Mrs Rutter was grieving the loss of her husband, and the fact she would never have children. She took this pain out on the aircraft pilot yet, years later does not regret it at all. I think that ‘The Signalman’ has morals in it. You must not judge people by appearances and I think that it also makes people think that they should expect the unexpected, they do not know what is going to happen in their lives, just prepare for anything.
