‘The Signalman’ by Charles Dickens tells a ghostly story, set in the Victorian era, which pictures a relationship between two men of different social classes – middle and upper class. The signalman is far less educated than the narrator; therefore, the narrator is much more real and analytical than he is. The Signalman explains his experience of the supernatural, a popular theme in Victorian Literature, and ironically it is the Signalman himself who suffers from the narrator’s lack of belief.
Dickens employs a first person narrator to shape out reactions and thoughts, this is showed in the text, and I quote: “I cannot describe the thrill that seized upon me” and “Resisting the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my spine”. This last statement provokes fear in the Victorian reader, as it is written in the first person it makes the feeling more personal, horrific and intense. It makes the story more ghostly as it was us living that fear. The use of personification here also brings life to the fear, turning it into a tangible experience with the power to hurt and possibly destroy.