In my essay I will be writing about three stories, ‘The Signalman’ by Charles Dickens, ‘The Red Room’ by H.G. Wells and ‘The Man With The Twisted Lip’ by Conan Doyle. All three are mysteries, trying to keep the reader gripped until the end. I will be writing about the different atmosphere and different types of settings in each three of the stories. I will analyse the different types of context used in all three stories i.e. Dickens uses a modern background for his story, prompted by his own experience of a train crash. He mixes old with new. Wells uses a gothic type of literature in his to try and show that he was a rationalist. The story, which is told in retrospect by the narrator, starts with his first encounter with a signalman working in a “solitary and dismal” place. They talk about the signalman’s past and his present job. On leaving, the signalman admits that he is troubled and they agree to meet again.
The next evening, the signalman tells the narrator that he sometimes sees a spectre near the entrance of the tunnel warning him by waving and shouting "For God's sake, clear the way!" He says that he has seen the same apparition twice before, each time shortly before a calamity involving death. After leaving the poor man, the narrator decides to take him to a doctor next time he is off duty. When he goes back to the station, however, he sees other men around. They tell him that the signalman was killed by an engine because he was not standing clear of the lines and did not react to the whistle nor the waving and shouting of the driver. The spectre, the narrator and the engine driver had all waved and shouted the same words Wells’ plot is of a room that is thought to be haunted. There is a 28 year old man trying to work out what actually ‘haunts’ this room. He is rationalist, like Wells, and Wells expresses himself through the story, and represents the new age of science. He realises that the human imagination can be very overwhelming to science, making people believe in things that do not actually exist.
