Comparing Two Ghost Stories, The Woman in Black and The Signalman.

Comparing Two Ghost Stories, The Woman in Black and The Signalman

By Henry Cuthbertson

Ghost stories are very common and popular across all ages and people all over the world. Readers are scared and fascinated by these books, and although it is hard to say why ghost stories are so popular, it is probably because the existence of ghosts can be neither proved, nor disproved. In Britain, especially in Victorian times, ghost stories were traditionally told at Christmas. During Victorian times ghost stories were extremely popular, as there were not many other forms of entertainment. Many Victorian authors wrote popular ghost stories, including Charles Dickens with 'The Signalman', and also the well known 'A Christmas Carol'. Even more recently, many authors are still writing successful and popular ghost stories, such as Susan Hill's 'The Woman in Black'. Readers are still fascinated and scared by these books. Although it is hard to say why exactly ghost stories are so popular among people of all ages, but it is probably because the existence of ghost can be neither proved, nor disproved, unlike other horror stories, or science fiction. All ghost stories are different and I will compare two ghost stories, both of different lengths and both written at different times.

In 'The Woman in Black', the story starts on Christmas Eve, the time when, traditionally, ghost stories are shared. The scene is a large house where the narrator's family has just had ‘the first of their happy festive meals’ and is then gathering around the fire in the drawing room. This is a particularly happy and warm image, of a happy family, having fun at Christmas time.

Another short ghost story, 'The Signalman' by Charles Dickens, starts very differently. The story starts with the narrator, who has been out walking, trying to get the attention of the signalman, who is by the railway below him. The scene is less warm and friendly than that at the start of 'The Woman in Black', and many strange details are pointed out by the narrator, such as the signalman looking and acting like a 'spirit, and not a man', and also his surroundings being 'barbarous' and 'depressing'.

Already the two story are very different, 'The Woman in ...

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Already the two story are very different, 'The Woman in Black' having a very warm, friendly, and happy start to the story, which is quite a contrast to the start of 'The Signalman' which has a bleak and cold setting, which creates a quite unhappy atmosphere. In 'The Woman in Black' the ghost appears many times before the narrator, Arthur Kipps, discovers that she is in fact not real but a ghost. The first time he sees her is during the funeral of Mrs. Drablow. The ghost sits at the back of the church, which is when the narrator first notices her. He describes her as a young-looking woman, with a 'wasting disease' and a pale face with eyes 'sunken back into her head'. She was also wearing a relatively old fashioned style of clothing, like 'rusty looking' Victorian mourning clothes, also with a black bonnet on her head. Every time that Arthur Kipps saw the ghost she was always wearing the same clothes. Each time she appeared these clothes made a rustling sound, which adds to the atmosphere, and in a way, announces her presence, to the reader. Another event that is linked to the ghost is the noises out on the marsh which are heard, to the horror of the narrator. They are noises of a pony and trap walking out into the marshes, with a man and child on board, whom are pulled underneath the marsh and drowned.

The ghost in 'The Signalman' is never seen in person by the narrator, but is described to him by the signalman himself. The ghost in 'The Woman in Black' is described as female, but the ghost that the signalman describes is in a male form. The signalman does not describe how the ghost looks, but describes its actions, showing how it covered its face with one arm, and violently shook the other, whilst saying "Halloa! Below there! For God's sake, clear the way!" What the ghost said to the signalman is the same as what the narrator said to him at the beginning of the story. This could either be coincidence, or could possibly be the ghost acting through the narrator in some supernatural way. After each time that the ghost appeared to the signalman, an accident occurred, firstly a train crashed, and then a young woman travelling on one of the trains died suddenly and without any seeming cause.

Unlike the ghost who appears to the signalman, and only the signalman, the woman in black is seen by many people, not just Arthur Kipps. Every time the woman in black is seen by someone then a child dies. This has happened many times, which is why many people in the town of Crythin Gifford are very reluctant to talk about the ghost, or even Mrs. Drablow who was related to the ghost. Arthur Kipps, in 'The Woman in Black' eventually discovers the background of the ghost, who was a young woman, named Jennet Humfrye, the sister of Mrs. Alice Drablow, who was forced to give up her illegitimate baby son to her sister. Jennet Humfrye's son was killed one day when the pony and trap he was travelling accidentally veered off the path through the marsh and into the boggy mud of the marsh, where he drowned. The death of her son made Jennet furious and angry, and terribly sad, and she died 'of a broken heart'. This is the reason that her spirit could not rest, because it was angered by the death of her son, and wanted to get her revenge on the whole world. This is the reason for a child dying every time the woman in black is seen; it was her way of taking revenge on the world. At the end of the story, the woman in black kills Arthur Kipps' child, which fulfils the ghost's legacy of killing a child whenever she is seen. The woman in black is obviously a malignant ghost, only existing to cause pain and suffering to others, and seeking revenge for the loss of her own child, on innocent people.

In the case of the ghost who appears to the signalman, it is harder to say whether it is an evil spirit, or a benign one. In the end of the signalman, the signalman himself is killed, by a train, with the train driver carrying out the same actions, and saying the same words as the ghost had said. It is difficult to tell if the ghost was appearing to the signalman to torment and torture him, or whether it had been trying to save him, but did not have the means with which to do so effectively. I think that it was a benign spirit, which was trying to warn the signalman of his death, but could not do so.

Both stories have greatly chilling atmospheres, and the fact that they are written in the first person means that you can really get to understand the emotions of the character involved, especially in 'The Woman in Black'. These stories are great examples of ghost stories, and both, although they are very different, follow the same literary tradition of many other famous ghost stories.