The places where the Signalman speaks for itself, but are forgetting to mention the actual box because not even that was total luxury. I could only imagines it being small, with little room to move in. In the story it states that it had a little fire and his equipment, which he uses 2 work from.
The narrator also describes his view when he gets to the bottom this gives us an image of what is actually there:
‘On either side, a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky; the perspective one way only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air.
Words such as crooked, dungeon, gloomy, and colours such as red and black are not exactly pleasant words. In fact they’d send a chill done anyone’s spine. Charles Dickens has added these adjectives in for the very reason to make the reader scared when reading this part of the story and to also make him/her picture an image of bad this place was.
The description of the tunnel is given in detail when the ‘ghost’ appears on the railway line. Once again the colour ‘red’ has been used to describe that this is a horrific event. The story states the Signalman walked right up to it after seeing the figure and then ran back when realising it was a ‘ghost’. In a way this does show that the Signalman isn’t completely insane and is well enough to continue with his job.
At the beginning of the story the narrator was walking down a zig-zagged path, along the side of the valley. When a train passed by? You might be thinking so what it’s only a train, but this is how the narrator described it:
‘Is there any path by which I can come down and speak to you?’
‘He looked up at me without replying, and I looked down at him without pressing him too soon with a repetition of my idle question. Just then there came a vague vibration in the earth and air; quickly changing into a violent pulsation, and on coming rush that caused me to start back, as though it had force to draw me down. When such vapour as rose to my height from this rapid train had passed me, and was skimming away over the landscape, I looked down again, and saw him refurling the flag he had sown while the train went by.
This passage above shows how a train passing by came also create tension and suspense.
Like I’ve mentioned before The Follower has many settings, whereas The Signalman has just the one. But the settings in The Follower aren’t described in as much detail as The Signalman was.
The settings mentioned in The Follower are the few that we can associate back to today. These are like Baker Street Tube Station, which has associations with Sherlock Holmes; the Tube itself, the subterranean tunnels creates a somewhat creepy feeling; and various different Hospitals. Hospitals are usually a scary place to go, and usually you don’t go there because something good has happened (unless your someone who’s job application was successful), you usually go there because someone is poorly or in a serious/life threatening experience, both which are very uncomfortable and an unpleasant experience.
In both stories, both authors have created a little scariness by the way they have described their characters. So to tell you the truth the horror created is how the authors described their characters’ appearances.
For example, in The Signalman, Charles Dickens builds him up to be a spooky character. He does this by describing the Signalman’s appearance in a way we could say he isn’t human. In the story the Signalman is described to be a ‘dark sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows’.
The ghost isn’t really described or mentioned much in the story. But Charles Dickens also brings the ghost into attention by use of appearance and spectre. Describing how it appears, the actions it does, how others feel and react to it etc. He does this so the reader doesn’t get lost at a part of the story where it crucial for him/her to visualise the ghost. The ghost has also been used in this story as a signal for a catastrophe, which is bound to happen sooner or later.
The author hasn’t attempted to make the narrator scary at all because he wants to show what an affect like this can have on a normal man like us. So we can relate the story to our own lifestyles. It shows towards the end of the story that he was also being haunted right from the start without us noticing.
In The Follower, one character alone creates the horror and suspense and that’s the Follower himself. If not all then most the story is based on him terrifying the life out of Mrs Meade. Like in the way Charles Dickens made the Signalman seem frightening, in the same Cynthia Asquith also used the description of the appearance of the Follower as a key factor. In the story he is described to have ‘a face, which was moistly pale like…like a toadstool, bold malignant eyes, which were lash less’. But Cynthia Asquith has also used a slimily, where as Charles Dickens hasn’t. She describes the Follower, ‘like the description of Mr Hyde’.
The different identities and places the Follower seems to appear in creates tension and fear, because it feels as though Mrs Meade isn’t safe anywhere even though she is in a crowded area. It also suggests that Mrs Meade can never escape the follower.
The name Mrs Meade sounds pretty ordinary to anyone, including me, and it suggests that what is happening to her could happen to anyone, which creates a frightening and chilling feeling.
Whereas the name of Dr Stone doesn’t sound comforting at all as stone is usually associated with death.
In the Signalman the sighting of a ghost is a scary event and makes us want to read on.
The coincidences also add a bit horror and suspense to the story with the idea of a ghost appearing and someone dying. This is a common link in fear of ghosts that many readers have.
Charles Dickens tries to make the story scarier by adding death into the scene. He is successful in this by describing a young, beautiful woman who suddenly dies, and then has her body lain out at the exact same place where the narrator and the Signalman are sitting. The fact that the woman’s body was laid out at the exact same place where they are sitting, makes the story chilling.
The author creates tension by adding the part where the Signalman is being haunted by this ghost. And the fact that at first nothing happens and then it keeps happening again and again also creates tension and makes the reader question him/herself, what is going to happen?
But in the Follower, the idea of being followed and hounded by someone, and no one else seems to believe so they cant really help, is a very scary thought. One that can drive you insane. And the fact that no one else sees this ‘thing’ makes the reader want to read on to find out what the outcome will be.
Tension is created right through the story, in many places. Like when she was abducted by a taxi driver who is the ‘thing’ she is totally frightened off; and when she is being operated on by a false surgeon who also ends up being the ‘thing’; the death of a child in the park, which the ‘thing’ needlessly reminds her about the death of her own child; and the fact that no one actually believes her about this drives her insane the most because it shows that no matter where she hides that ‘thing’ is going to be there. This creates tension within the reader, who starts questioning him/herself, is the ‘thing’ actually real or is it an illusion of her mind? Most of these points are problems, which still take place today and involve women. The author could be trying to represent this, as her moral of the story.
In the same way as in The Signalman where tension also creates suspense and horror, The Follower does the same, but in a slightly different way. Maybe because these are two stories written at different periods of time.
In both stories a character tells us the situation of the story, by telling another key character some very personal things, which you wouldn’t discuss without fully trusting them. This creates a sense of urgency and also creates tension if they don’t think they will be believed. Which also makes it that little more interesting for the reader.
In The Signalman, the telling of the story by the Signalman is drawn out of him by the narrator. And mentioning that he is ‘troubled’ creates expectation. The narrator and the reader have to wait to hear his story. However the way the story is told, it could take some time in understanding. This is my own opinion, and maybe I am00000 being a little stereotypical, but I picture the Signalman as an old man who mumbles when he speaks and because he probably has talked to someone for some time he isn’t very confident in speaking, especially as the narrator was a total stranger to him until now.
The fact that Charles Dickens mentions the story is being told at night adds a frightening and chilling feeling. What’s interesting about this is that the narrator doesn’t seem to believe this story and instead tries to explain events of the story rationally an scientifically, but he cant. This makes the story all the scarier because it’s showing the difference of the two and in our eyes shows that the narrator is a normal man. But the Signalman is a man you needs mental help.
The story clearly states that while the narrator is listening he is frightened. This makes the reader more scared and makes them want to read on to find out about the situation the narrator has got himself into and why.
Another key factor of how Charles Dickens has tried to make it that little bit scarier, is by adding a little emphasis and style to the way the Signalman tells his story. Note he tells it in a creepy and rather peculiar manor by tapping three times regularly during his story.
In The Follower, Mrs Meade hasn’t been believed by anyone before and is hoping that her story will be believed this time. This creates tension and also states the desperation of her situation. Tension is also created by the idea of her talking to a masked man.
There were a number of twists in The Signalman; some clearer than others the first one was when the narrator looked down to see the Signalman doing the ‘ghosts’ actions of which he was told by the Signalman.
The Signalman is actually the one who ends up dying which was least expected as a reader because no hints were given earlier in the story.
The train driver says the exact same words, which the narrator had thought of. These words described the action the ‘ghost’ seemed to make. This puts a thought into the reader’s mind that the words could have been supernaturally conveyed, which is a horrific thought.
All these twists weren’t very clear to the reader like I have mentioned earlier. However, they were very effective, as they created a frightening and chilling feeling.
The Follower was fairly different to The Signalman as it used similar but although different techniques to create tension, suspense and a frightening feeling.
Towards the end of the story we begin to realise that Mrs Meade had been talking to the exact same person she’d been scared of. This wasn’t a horrific feeling when she began to tell her story; in fact she was actually comfortable in telling the story and was actually beginning to think that here is a person who believes what I’m saying. But it shows how much the mind plays on her because as soon as the mask came of she had an instant shock, which led to her death.
The other part to this is that we’d never know what frightened her to death and her death will only be put down to her heart condition and her imagination.
Charles Dickens has tried to show that industrialisation will be a threat to the future as man thinks he has got complete power in his hands. But Charles Dickens feels that there’ll be a time when man will loose control of its own machinery and it will back fire. And to show this he has used the presence of a train, as it can be seen as a threatening symbol causing accidents and deaths.
We have to consider this story was written in the nineteenth century, when machinery had just come into the world. And things we have today weren’t present then. And after living in the world today I have got to say that Charles Dickens’ view were true. Take weapons for example, man made weapons to use in defence against people who were a threat to humanity, but are facing the consequences of innocent people being killed. Another more modern example is the creation of nuclear weapons, which once detonated can destroy extreme parts of the world which man can only watch because they have no control over it.
Using large masses of machinery destroys parts of nature. A good example are cars the fumes cause the widening of the hole in the ‘o-zone’ layer causing global warming, which allows skin threatening ultra-violet rays from the sun to enter our atmosphere. Another good example is used in the story; maybe this is what Charles Dickens wanted to get across. In The Signalman, for the train to cross through that area, a valley had to be made. The valley in this story is man-made, so a large amount of the earth was cut into.
The story suggests that there are more powerful forces than man in the universe. This is shown in the story when there seems to be a controlling force that puts thoughts into the narrator’s head. What’ creepy is that he has already thought the words that the train driver cries out to the Signalman, before the accident happens.
Note that the narrator is presented as a rational, scientific character. This is explained in the story when the Signalman is telling the narrator of his problems and the narrator thinks there has to be a scientific reason for it. Throughout the story his actions have stated that he doesn’t believe the Signalman is under the influence of supernatural forces, but his views change towards the end, as the very same ‘ghost’ also haunts him. What is interesting is that the Signalman has also studied science, ‘natural philosophy’ in particular.
The story is written by a woman and has a woman as the main character. You could see it a story, which says something about the way women are tested in society.
Cynthia Asquith has clearly exploited the fact that most women are always the centre attention from a man. Being stared at by a strange man, being followed by a strange man, not feeling safe to walk around alone, being abducted by a bogus taxi driver, not having the freedom to travel with peace of mind, and losing a child; are all characteristics of a woman in the twentieth century. And the author is just simply getting her views across for her sake and for other women.
It could be said to show the way women’s lives are restricted and their freedom and peace of mind are taken away.
When Mrs Meade tells people what is happening they don’t believe her. Notice that she talks to a number of men (her husband, her doctor, the supposed Dr Stone). Cynthia Asquith might be trying to suggest in a clever way by not insulting to many men that they take women’s fears seriously.
Notice also the diagnosis that the doctor in the nursing home makes is that she is suffering from hallucinations. Perhaps the story is saying that male doctors are quick to think that women are irrational and mentally disturbed if they are frightened and worried about something. Doctors are quick to label women as mentally unstable. And that women don’t have there stories listened to properly.
Both these authors have intended to make theses stories frightening with the inclusion of ‘ghosts’ and death. Authors write ghost stories as a change to what the reader usually reads. Ghost stories are written to create a sense of fear as the reader reads it. Often the stories aren’t as scary as the author would intend it to be. I have stated this, as these two stories aren’t as frightening as the reader would love it to be. But does create a sense of tension and suspense. So I am just merely examining the techniques used to ‘try’ and make them scary.
I think both writers were successful in attempting to make their stories frightening and chilling. But personally I preferred Cynthia Asquith’s, ‘The Follower’. The Follower for me was the easier option to understand. I found myself during some parts of ‘The Signalman’, pretty much lost and bored.
The Follower sounded like in my opinion a much more modern story compared to The Signalman. The difference in time from when the stories were written could have helped in my decision.
I might have said I preferred The Follower to The Signalman, but, however, I don’t think it was the more frightening and chilling of the two. The Signalman gave more creepy feelings with the influence of ‘ghosts and where pretty much most of the story was set.
Charles Dickens has deliberately used the setting to create this creepy feeling in contrast to how Cynthia Asquith did in her story, The Follower, where she tried to get through to us that these situations do occur in life, where a person could go insane. Charles Dickens, however, is trying to explain how much industrialisation has affected us and it can be a danger to the civilisation of the human race, as it was written back in the nineteenth century, it could have been a warning for the future. Well personally I think his views and theories ended up being true, and nuclear weapons is good evidence, and backs up what he says about industrialisation.
