How does Charles Dickens create suspense and tension in the signalman?

Saira Hamid

English coursework

The signal man.

How does Charles Dickens create suspense and tension in the signalman?

In the Charles Dickens’ story the narrator meets the signalman who is confessing to him his problems. The narrator comes every night to find out that the signalman was seeing a ghost of a man, who was pointing out that certain train accidents are going to happen. After a few days the narrator goes peacefully to the signalman’s shed, and finds out that he mysteriously died.

The signalman at the train station sees sightings of a ghost in the distance. However the figure is trying to tell the signalman something important, but each time the signalman sees this figure doing some actions something bad always happens, this is where Dickens creates the suspense and tension.

To add to the tension Dickens adds a narrator to the story, this is done to emphasise various points more and to spook the audience out. The suspense and tension is created in various different ways I am going to explore these factors: the characters, the setting of the place and the time at which incidents happen.

The very first line spoken by the narrator is negative, and puts thoughts into our minds about bad things happening because it portrays the fact about height and if something is down, it makes it seem very mysterious:

“Halloa! Below there!”

The word halloa is a very old fashioned word and no one says it anymore, but if you say it now, the way the word flows, therefore it generates a spooky effect. Also the fact that the narrator is shouting it to the signalman, but the signalman doesn’t quite know where the noise is coming from and looks straight down the line to see where it was coming from as if he has heard it before, is very scary because it makes us wonder why the signal man is looking down the line when the narrator is shouting from above. However once we have read the story everything fits into place, because the signalman has heard that same phrase from the figure.

Once the signalman realises where the voice is coming from the narrator asks him if he can come down from the bridge, when he is down the signalman is not quite sure whether or not the narrator is a ghost:

“Monstrous thought…was a spirit”

But we know by reading the story he is not a ghost but then again the narrator begins to wonder if the signalman is a ghost because he hasn’t said anything to the narrator. The narrator tries to make conversation with the narrator and Dickens shows this through indirect speech:

“This was a lonesome post ...

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Once the signalman realises where the voice is coming from the narrator asks him if he can come down from the bridge, when he is down the signalman is not quite sure whether or not the narrator is a ghost:

“Monstrous thought…was a spirit”

But we know by reading the story he is not a ghost but then again the narrator begins to wonder if the signalman is a ghost because he hasn’t said anything to the narrator. The narrator tries to make conversation with the narrator and Dickens shows this through indirect speech:

“This was a lonesome post to occupy”

If we were to say this in direct speech we would probably say something like this: “this is a lonesome post to occupy, isn’t it?” if we use the direct form of speech in the story it wouldn’t create the same tense atmosphere, and the interpretations would be different.

But because the signalman isn’t giving a reply to the narrator the narrator has to think what reply he would get from the signalman. So the narrator wonders whether or not the signalman is a ghost:

“That this was a spirit”

That was the narrator’s first instinct but later on in the paragraph he is relieved to have realised that the signalman was just scared of him, because he had thought that he had seen him before, near the red light. This idea of the red light makes us think of danger, and red lights are only indicated when something bad is about to happen so this adds to the tension of the story for the audience reading it.

As the narrator and signalman begin to have a conversation we start to find out more about the signalman and his character, this also adds to the suspense and tension of the story, because the characters make the story. The signalman is devoted to his job, nothing means more to him than his occupation, and he is a perfectionist everything he does has to be perfect:

“Exact and vigilant”

The signalman would even leave a conversation halfway or stop what he was doing and attend his work. Once he had completed it he would then come back and carry on with what he was previously doing. At this point the narrator thinks that he should feel safe whilst in the presence of the signalman, but then again on the other hand he thinks that there is something creepy about him. This increases the suspense for the audience because it makes us think about what is going to happen next and why does the narrator think that there is something strange about him. Does the narrator know something we don’t? But then again some people would take no notice of it and say that it’s not strange at all. He’s only doing his job.

Dickens also makes the story effective by describing the setting of the train station. This is particularly important because it was set at night, and train stations’ at night are very mysterious, spooky and have a very eerie, ghostly atmosphere. The narrator describes the station:

“…Solitary and dismal”

This describes the signal box as a very miserable, dull place to be, this adds to the tension:

“Dripping-wet wall”

This sends an instant chill down your spine, because the thought of dampness and the cold along with the dull atmosphere just adds to the effect of something bad happening. The narrator also gives his view of his first instincts as he saw the station:

“Struck chill to me… as if I had left the natural world”

This suggests that it was a very scary place to be especially at that time of night. Some people may interpret this as though the narrator feels as if he has left this world and gone into the supernatural world, of ghost and ghouls, where most things are daunting. Others may take it as though he is scared and it reminds him of the other world of the dead. This links in with the story that the signalman begins to tell:

“One moonlight night”

The moonlight reminds us of sinister things such as the witches, this creates an eerie atmosphere.

The setting of the story also adds to the suspense and tension because it has been written a bit like a diary.

Dickens splits the story into three meetings and the third one being when the narrator goes back to find out that the signalman is dead; this is the twist to the story because it is very unexpected. Each of the two meetings has a climax point to it but nothing ever happens and this is very effective because it makes the audience anxious, because they want to know what happens next. The meeting involves the signalman telling him about the “spectre” that he sees in the tunnel.

In conclusion I think that Dickens has created the suspense and tension in this story very well. He has kept a few themes throughout the story such as dark, danger and red which symbolises the fact that something bad is going to happen. Also Dickens focuses on the “down” theme like everything is below this could be the fact that a grave is deep and you have to look down into it. So all through this story until the end we have this image of bad things happening but they never actually happen, until the twist at the end when the narrator comes back and finds out the signalman is dead. So the whole story is built up to this ending, this is where the suspense and tension adds to the affect of the story.