The Opening Paragraph.
Dickens immediately presents in “The Signalman” an uncertain atmosphere which makes us, the readers, curious as to what will happen. At the very beginning, the narrator calls out to the Signalman. Strangely, the Signalman looks down the line, instead of behind him, where the call was coming from. This, in my opinion, is intentionally done so that the reader is left curious, wondering why he did not respond directly to the narrator; perhaps he was deliberately ignoring the narrator, but why? This, in my opinion, is intentionally planted in the story as the reader is left curious to wondering, why, and clearly it has worked. This technique used by Dickens is effective as it as the reader is left in suspense wondering why he didn’t respond directly to the narrator, thinking up possible solutions as to why. Perhaps the Signalman was deliberately ignoring him, perhaps he knew him? There are also numerous possibilities of the narrator, interestingly, wants to speak to the Signalman. Perhaps they are relatives? Or maybe the narrator is looking for job, and the Signalman is ignoring him because he does not want to be pestered. The Signalman also avoids looking in his direction. This is peculiar as we do not know whether he is deliberately avoiding him as we are not given a reason from the beginning. This opening paragraph is very puzzling as the reader just constantly thinks “why?” However, in my opinion this is the perfect foundation to build upon more tension and suspense, as that is what Dickens’ deliberately plants so that the reader is captured and hooked to the story.
The Signalman’s Behaviour.
Though out the story, Dickens’ convinces us that the Signalman is troubled as he acts unnaturally and strangely. At first, we are made to think that the Signalman is rather unwelcoming, as when the narrator makes eye-to-eye contact with him, he take a step back and, strangely lifts his hand, “Not even then removing his eyes from mine, he stepped back one step, and lifted his hand.” At this point, I believe the Signalman is curious about the narrator, as he does not know who he is, and why he is here. The narrator also considers a few things after the Signalman was rather unwelcoming towards him. He thinks that the Signalman could possibly be insane, which he implies by saying, “There may have been infection in this mind.” He also describes the Signalman as being “saturnine.” By this, is referring to the Signalman as a dark and gloomy person, and that he realised something was troubling him. However, he was to change his opinion, as he got to know the Signalman. After a conversation with the Signalman, he is told that the Signalman is encountering a problem, which he openly admits, “I am troubled sir.” The Signalman clearly feels he know the narrator enough to confide in him and reveal to him that he has a problem, which is unsettling him and making him unhappy. In my opinion this is rather strange and awkward, as the Signalman barely knows the narrator, who is practically a strange to him, and yet he is confiding in him. However, he then asks the narrator, “This is a cruel haunting of me. What can I do?” This clearly shows that the Signalman is desperate as he is pleading to the narrator. Now he realise the Signalman has a problem, he feels sorry and pitiful for him. “His pain of mind was most pitiable to see.” The narrator has clearly seen and understood that he is troubled, and feels sorry for him. However, the narrator as totally different opinion he had from when he first saw him. Although he feels sorry for him, he realises that the Signalman is just a normal man. “I had proved the man to be intelligent, vigilant, painstaking and exact.” He’s come to the conclusion that the Signalman is normal as he has learned he is quite intelligent, and that he is very efficient at his work, meaning he reliable and sensible. “One of the safest of men to be employed.” This strange, unwelcoming and unnatural behaviour creates a lot of suspense, as the reader is left wondering why he acts in such a strange way. However, when the suspense is broken, another problem is revealed, the actual problem which is disturbing the Signalman.
Spectre’s Appearance.
The Signalman behaves very awkwardly in the story. This is due to the spectre’s appearance, which disturbed him. This participates greatly in the way suspense and tension is created. One way suspense and tension is created when the narrator is made to wait one night before he is told the stories, “It is very difficult to import sir. It is very difficult to speak of. If ever you make another visit, I will try to tell you.” In particular, this creates more suspense as you are made to wait, wonder and think what the story may be. When the spectre appears twice, both times, a death follows. The first time, the spectre appeared, it was by a red light in the tunnel and it called out, “Look out! Look out!” warning the Signalman. Later, after the spectre’s appearance, a train crash occurred were many were killed and injured. The second appearance occurred seven months later and this time it had a spectre in the position of mourning. The next death soon followed, and victim was a young lady on a train. These sights and vision of the spectre explained by the Signalman startled and frightened the narrator as starts to show the typical signs of fear and shock, “I could think of nothing to say, any purpose, and my mouth was very dry.” However, the narrator fights this off, and attempts to convince us that the spectre’s appearance and signs are just coincidental. “This was a remarkable coincidence.” He also explains, that he feels sorry for the Signalman which could indicate that he himself is not totally convinced. “It was the mental torture of a conscious man.” If the narrator was not to be convinced of the spectre’s appearance, explained by the Signalman, he was in for a shock the next day.
The Death of the Signalman.
After the Signalman is frightened by the Spectre’s appearance and acts strangely due to, we, the readers, are then expecting something tragic to occur, like an accident. Before the narrator meets the Signalman again, he goes for a stroll down the brink. As he walks down, he realises and sees “an appearance of a man with his sleeve across his eyes; passionately waving his arms.” We learn that the fact that he is so shocked and mortified, is because he is convinced for a short while that he is now seeing the spectre. After that short while, the narrator sees a “little group of other men standing at a short distance, to which he seemed to be rehearsing the gesture he made.” At this very point he realises that he has not only seen a spectre, but at a scene where an accident has happened. He then went down to investigate, and at that point when he goes down to question the men and ask what has happened, we were left on our edge wondering who it was. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the “grand-finale” of the story. It was quite a disappointment really, because the reader can narrow the death victim easily, the Signalman, which it turns out to be. I believe the story is disappointing in the way it is due to the perspective it is written from. The narrator, the person who the Signalman confides in, unfortunately explains the story, from his perspective. This spoils the ending as we know he could not possibly be killed as he is the one explaining the story, and as due to the fact there are basically only two characters in the entire story, it is easy to narrow it down that the Signalman would have been that death victim. If Dickens had written this from a real narrator’s perspective, and left the two characters separately, then it would have been more difficult to guess who the victim was. The ending is really an anti-climax, because this is basically were the story ends as there is no longer any tension left, however. The suspense is still there as the reader is kept hanging by one question; why did the Signalman die in such a way?
