How do the Authors of At Least Two Short Stories Create and Atmosphere of Fear and Supernatural?

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William Bowles.

How do the Authors of At Least Two Short Stories Create and Atmosphere of Fear and Supernatural?

The two short stories ‘The Red Room’ by H.G Wells and ‘The Signalman’ by Charles Dickens follow in the tradition of gothic horror tales. Both authors write their story from a first person narrative perspective. The main protagonist is the narrator in ‘The Red Room’ but in ‘The Signalman’ it is an observer with the Signalman as the main character. These tales of macabre, fantastic and supernatural happenings are in mystical settings. The use of characterisation, structure, language, setting and vocabulary creates a supernatural sense of fear and tension. The authors adopt clever techniques to enhance the numinous atmosphere.

‘The Signalman’ begins by setting a mystifying scene that incorporates the characterisation. Charles Dickens uses words like ‘shadowed, deep, rough, unusually precipitous and clammy’. This develops an early sense of stepping out of realism and creates curiosity. The narrator’s descent into the tunnel is controlled by gloomy and miserable language. ‘down in the deep trench’ and ‘great dungeon’ These metaphors supply a depressing and eerie feel to the story’s progression and describing the tunnel as a dungeon starts to give the story a sense of fear, urgency and doom. As the story progresses, the further the character descends, the more he advances into surrealism. There is linguistic stress on the tunnel being ‘barbarous, depressing, forbidding, dismal, earthy and deadly’. These adjectives provide the story with an ominous setting and also build up fear and tension by expressing the idea of being trapped in the tunnel.

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Charles Dickens develops a detailed characterisation of the Signalman to give

awareness of the supernaturalism and the peculiar unfolding of the story. ‘His attitude

was one of such expectation and watchfulness’. This creates an element of tension

because the reader is puzzled as to what to expect to happen. The tale develops a

detailed description allowing you to picture the image for yourself. ‘He was a dark

sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows.’ By picturing this nebulous

figure in you mind you can sense the paranormal atmosphere the author ...

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