Discuss how Charles Dickens creates an atmosphere ghost story.

Andrew Braganca

Discuss how Charles Dickens creates an atmosphere ghost story

The Signalman is a fictional first person narrative, short story based in 1866. The Famous English author named Charles Dickens wrote it. The story was first published, in a Christmas magazine. There are two main characters in this story the narrator and the signalman. Charles Dickens builds an atmosphere through the narrators’ words and through the signalman what he sees. He also builds up an atmospheric feeling through the odd and unusual way the signalman behaves. Through the description of the setting and the narrator’s feeling the reader is drown into a sense of atmosphere and suspense that keeps the reader wanting to find out more about the signalman. We see the story through setting also the narrators inner thoughts, creates this atmosphere.

We are not directly told that the signalman is a ghost. The narrator tells us his feelings, ‘where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head, he turned himself about and looked down the line. There was something remarkable in his manner of doing so, though I could not have said for my life, what, ‘’. This is mysterious behavior. The first impression the narrator got was he found the signalman rather daunting. As they begin to talk again the signalman becomes slightly hostile and the narrator speculates that he might be a ghost “This was a spirit”. This is a very tense point in the novel because the ghost’s identity may have already been revealed; the signalman begins to show fear and asks if they have met before. It makes you think, why should the signalman show any fear? After their conversation the man leaves and the signalman tells him that on his return journey not call out those words. “Halloa! Below there”. It builds tension over what these words really mean to the signalman and why he is scared of them. The signalman himself looks mysterious “A dark sallow man”.

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The story is set in the nineteenth century, a time when supernatural powers were still believable, so someone reading this at the time would feel more of the pressure. The scene is set within a deep cutting at twilight and because of the darkness the two men don’t get to see each other properly until they are face to face which is too late, if the signalman gets killed. “I was near enough to have touched him”. It makes you have the, “don’t go down there” feeling, so the tension is built up in this way. The closer they get to each other. Just before the narrator he goes down the stet cutting an unknown vibration shakes the ground “vague vibration in the earth and air” Dickens uses a lot of adjectives, for example such as “unnatural valley” and “violent pulsation’’ this captures the senses and adds to the tension, he also uses the metaphors “angry sunset” that personifies the scene, this is implied into language the signalman is angry. This could have been the final climax to the building of suspense atmosphere, but this ends up just being a train.

The cutting dark; this darkness creates the atmosphere and mood. It is also described as being ‘’extremely deep and unusual precipitous’’ and ‘’solitary and dismal’’. It seems like the place is very isolated and cut off from the real world, the perfect place for supernatural happenings. The tunnel also creates suspense. Why did he look down there in the first place, and what could be down there, it is described as ‘’barbarous, depressing and forbidding’’. The smells and surroundings make him a little reluctant to descend “Air of reluctance”. The story is only spread over two days, but that is all it takes for him to get involved. The two men meet at night at eleven, this keeps the atmosphere dark and gloomy, this atmosphere would be lost if they were to meet on a sunny day. Also the darkness impairs the narrators’ vision so he can’t be sure what’s out there.

The language Charles Dickens uses is fairly epically old fashion for e.g. he commonly uses the word ‘thus’. The language used creates the atmosphere; Dickens has a way of creating the mood atmosphere and suspense, he adds fear to his story by using word such as ‘monstrous’ he draws the readers into the story right from the beginning and makes the readers read on. When the narrator is speaking about the incident he fuels our imagination, which makes the story interesting.

When the narrator first came to talk direct to the signalman he said, ‘you look at me I said, forcing a smile’ this shows narrator was feeling fear and was held in.

The narrator was well educated, the signalman was not, the way you can tell this is when the narrator, had direct speech with the signalman. It also said “a poor hand at figures” shows the signalman “missed used his opportunity”.

Throughout the story the mood is set by powerful words, such as violent pulsation, if this was a film there would be likely to have thunder and lighting. The mood also set by the words such as “gloomy” and “deadly smell” this shows fear in the story.

I found the signal man behavior was odd when he was “standing between the rails on the way by which the train had lately passed” this was when I fist realised that the signal man must be a ghost.