Each writer had a setting and different historical background ‘The Signal Man’ was written in 1866 by Charles Dickens, the surroundings for his story was an old railway station with old steam trains. The Man with the Twisted Lip’ written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was written in 1860. This story was one of many Sherlock Holmes tales which display aspects of life in the last decade of Victorians reign. ‘The Red Room’ by H.G Wells was a Gothic horror story, which had traditional scenery at a castle (Loraine castle). ‘The Red Room’ was written in 1894, H.G Wells makes it obvious how ancient and old fashioned everything in the castle was. ‘The Withered Arm’ by Thomas Hardy was written in 1865 and located in Wessex, around Dorchester which Thomas Hardy calls Caster bridge the county town of Dorset where most of his stories were set.
‘The Signalman’ by Charles Dickens was set at an old rail way station, with steam trains. The idea of a signal box in the countryside and being manually operated, gives a sense of historical background for today’s readers.
‘The Man with the Twisted Lip’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was set in the streets of East London. A few years before the story was written a famous sequential killer ‘Jack the Ripper’ murdered people on the very same streets where the story was based on in the story it said
“An endless succession of sombre and deserted streets.
This gives the effect that the streets are frightening and vicious.
‘The Red Room’ by H.G Wells is a Gothic Horror story set in a traditional situation of an old castle, you find out in the story that the castle is old because it quotes:
“The castle and the deer-toned, old-fashioned furniture”. The title of the story immediately attracts the reader’s attention because of the word RED. This gives the effect of a hazards and danger
‘A Withered Arm’ by Thomas Hardly was set in Wessex where most of Thomas Hardly stories are set. The story I read was set in Dorchester, which Thomas Hardly refers to as Caster Bridge.
All four stories have differences and similarities, like 'The Signalman', 'The Man with the Twisted Lip and’ The Red Room” are all written in the first person but, ‘A Withered Arm’ was written in the third person. In all of the stories the writers have used positive and negative words like dark, ghostly, shadows, died and positive words like fashion, rhymes, candles and light. The story was told through the eyes of Rhoda then by Gertrude.
Out of all the stories I thought the best one was ‘The Man with the twisted Lip’ by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle because the story kept me interested in the story because you don’t know if it was a disappearance or a murder. At the end of the story when you find out that Mr St Clair was alive, I was surprised because Sherlock Holmes gathered allot of evidence to show that he was dead for example his coat washed up on the sea bank.
