To keep our curiosity, the writer slowly introduces the main character, the signal man. At first he, like the setting is mysterious. We are told that he had a “saturine face”, which suggests he may have been afraid to show his face as ‘saturine’ means dark and gloomy and his face at this stage may have been un-clear.
The narrator clearly expresses that he had “ a latent fear of me”, which means that the signal man was unsure of him and had some existing fear but it was not yet confirmed or developed. The narrator believes that he is “exact and ingulant” and the safest of men employed”, which starts to build our curiosity not only of the man as he is gloomy and exact, but the plot. We start to expect that something bad will happen and even a major twist in the plot.
In addition, we are told that he “perused the fixed eyes” and that the signal man gave “grave dark regards” which adds more to our little understanding of the mysterious character. ‘Grave dark regards’ is made to sound as a warning as I believe he talked slowly, unsure of the man’s (narrator) up coming actions.
‘The Signal Man’ is a ghost story, and as any story develops the writer must introduce the spectre. To keep our interest in the book, he portrays the narrator’s feelings against the signal man’s visions. Dickens writes, “a disagreeable shudder crept over me”, which suggests he was scared of the man’s story but refused to believe it. He may have refused to believe this as in those days, religion was much dominant than it is now and in England around this time was Christian, and some parts of the teachings see spectres as unclean and as blasphemy. However, the narrator does not come over as religious, he is more scientific and perhaps believes it is the signal man’s own delusions.
The signal man was said to have talked “a tone lower than a whisper”, that suggests he was weary of talking. The word ‘whisper’ to me is used possibly because the writer wants to create a feeling to explore his personality further but at the same time, make us question why the signal man is like this. The narrator believes that the man was “exact” and uses “the up most passion”, that tells us he was either afraid of fast movements or of something, or he was trying to show respect for the narrator.
In the story, the sight of the second appearance is talked about. We see the narrator becoming very agitated with the signal man and he clearly refuses to accept the vision. He tries to assure the signal man that “if I was a living man – the bell did not ring at those times”. I believe that the narrator could have said this in an angry and peevish way as I expect he was annoyed with the signal man. Furthermore, the signal man tells us that “the ghost was gone”, suggesting possibly he just vanished. This may sound dramatic as he uses four quick words that work well. If Dickens did not want this to happen, I would suggest that he let the ghost fade or walk away, which does not have such a great impact.
In the signal man, the narrator comes over as strong and vigilant, but yet in some parts frightened. When the signal man talks about the ghost the narrator seems to cover up the truth (if it is) and make excuses. He told him it was an “infection in his mind” and “it must be a disease of the delicate nerves”, which makes it sound as the narrator is trying to make it false. The word ‘infection’ sounds brutal. If you have one, there may be something wrong with your body and this is what they may have thought as antibiotics were still not invented yet. The narrator may have said these things because at the time of the story, people just started to explore the idea of medicine and why the brain works the way it does. The narrator may be using this as an excuse so that he can think that there is something wrong with his mind.
In addition to this, the narrator tries to persuade the man on how his “imagination miss leads him”. It suggests that he saw it only in his mind and it did not exist. We are told by the narrator that he thought “how best to improve this advantage”, which shows he was prepared to cunningly better his situation and power over the signal by securing his claim to a diseased brain.
From his mysterious sightings and from the way he acts, I believe that the signal man is portrayed as a haunted and secretive man. The narrator however, is conveyed as a person who will not believe in the invisible and tries to make up his excuses. This may be why for such a religious era; he did not show any signs of holiness, as he does not believe in the unseen. It is clear he is frightened of what there could be.
