As you can see above, both stories are ghost stories, however they are very different from each other. For instance, the story of Crossing Over has a ghost in its plot. Whereas, The Signalman has no ghost, but there are mysterious activities taking place, hinting to us that there may be a ghost. In the end, we realise that it was not a ghost, but was only a premonition of the signalman’s death.
The plot and structure of the two stories are both very different generally. Nevertheless, there are a few similarities:
Both stories have a resolved ending. In the story of Crossing Over, we realise it was the girl who had been killed, and in the story of The Signalman, we finally realise what the signalman was seeing.
Both stories have a twist in the tale. In Crossing Over, we realise it was actually the girl who was killed, and not the dog as we were cleverly led to believe. In the story of The Signalman, we realise that the ghostly appearances that the signalman saw were not of a ghost as we were led to believe, but a premonition of his death.
Both the stories are written for adults. We know this because they both are stories with an unhappy or disturbing ending. Children might be uncomfortable or insecure.
Lastly, they are both stories of ghost genres. However, this may not be true as it depends on what you think the definition of a Ghost Story is. If you thought that the definition of a ghost story was a story that featured a ghost, then you will not think that ‘The Signalman’ is not a ghost story, as it does not have a ghost. However, if you thought the definition of a ghost story was a story that was frightening or contained spooky activities, than you would think that they were both ghost stories.
The stories have similar purposes although there are many differences. Obviously, both writers set out to earn a living from their work. Aside from this, Crossing Over was written to help people explore the ideas and question people about the existence of an afterlife. Catherine Storr, as a psychiatrist and a writer, probably wanted to explore the phenomenon of the human psyche. She tried to do this by making us believe we were seeing events through a normal human’s view point, when in fact, we were seeing them from a ghost’s view point. She could only reveal this at the end of her story if she wished to create an intense atmosphere and a surprised response from her reader.
In contrast to this, The Signalman by Charles Dickens was written for very different reason. It gives a very biased opinion of how unpleasant the railways were in Mid-Victorian Britain. Railways were a relatively new phenomenon. Many people were opposed to the idea arguing that railways would ruin the countryside and ruin their way of life. They were considered noisy, dangerous and polluting. Perhaps Charles Dickens wrote the story to scare/frighten people who supported the invention of the railways, arguing the idea that the railways were unfit, and could injure or cause death.
During Victorian times, many people were religious. Therefore by including a ghostly appearance of a premonition, he could have been suggesting that God was in disapproval of the railways. This would create a big impact upon the people as they may conclude that travelling on the railways would be committing a sin, and being in support of the railways would earn them an unwanted and unpleasant afterlife.
The use of language in The Signalman and Crossing Over is very different. Catherine Storr’s uses language for dramatic effect by including a darkened sky in her story to make to event to follow seem very disturbed and unpleasant “It was beginning to get dark, and a fine drizzling rain made the pavements slippery.” This makes the reader anticipate the following event and makes them want to read on. At the beginning, the girl seems very ordinary and the story begins with a pleasant picture. “She had started out full of enthusiasm.“ There then follows a new paragraph. This short sentence creates a pause, the pause emphasizes the unpleasantness of the events that follows, creating tension and builds up the atmosphere. “Woolly hair, permanently matted and dirty.” and “Togo backed and growled and showed his teeth” paints a grim picture of the dog. “…road surface. Blood. Blood made her feel sick.” It is unusual to have a sentence that contained just one word, the word “blood”, however she is using it as a sentence to create emphasis. The use of the short sentences highlights her thoughts and makes her seem weak and vulnerable which builds up the atmosphere.
Charles Dickens also uses language in an interesting way. He uses the five senses, figures of speech, emotive language and also varies his length of sentences. “Vague vibration” and “violent pulsation” are both use of senses of feeling and hearing and draws the reader into the story. These make the reader feel very disgusted at the trains’ behaviour. He tries to make the railways seem nasty, and everything said is negative, such as “The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitate, it was made through a clammy stone that became oozier and wetter as I went down.” The below is related to unpleasant places which builds up the mood. The words “oozier and wetter” are uses of emotive language and add to this effect.
Lastly, Charles Dickens uses short sentences to create a dramatic pause and puts stress on what’s happening and builds up the atmosphere as the readers does not know what will happen and tries to guess, but are surprised at the out come. This can be shown be the speech “Haloa, below there.”
The settings of the stories are highly different from each other. The story of ‘Crossing Over’ is set in around modern day where people may be trying to find out the truth about the supernatural and what happens to you when you die. They may question if there is such a thing as afterlife or whether ghosts exists. Another clue that tells us about the setting is the amount of cars there were in the story, and the checkout girls at the supermarket.
Before arriving at a conclusion about which story best fits the ghost genre, it is necessary to define the features of a ghost story. The definition of a ghost story could be a story that features a ghost, such as Crossing Over by Catherine Storr. However, the definition of a ghost story was could also be a story that was frightening or contained chilling activities, such as The Signalman by Charles Dickens.
I think ‘The Signalman’; by Charles Dickens is the better story. It seems to have more substance and builds up the atmosphere in a more dramatic way Crossing Over. This is probably because it describes things using a larger amount of details, as well as using words that build up the atmosphere. By doing this, the atmosphere of the story is exaggerated to create tension in the readers.
In contrast to this, the other story is not frightening, but has a ghost for a different reason. As I said before, I do not think that the story was written to be a ghost story or to scare people. Instead, it was probably only written to explore around the ideas of the existence of an afterlife. However, after it was written, it fell under the classification of the Ghost genre because it has a ghost included in the story.