Instead of being scared of this supernatural presence the Signalman is curious on what it is trying to tell him. At the end of the story it seems as thought he spectre was trying to warn the signalman of his own death by imitating the train driver shouting and waving at him.
In ‘An Inexperienced Ghost’ the characters approach to the ghost is completely as ‘I’ Sanderson the main character, almost mocks the ghost. He describes him to the others as ‘a poor excuse of a man’. The ghost is a new ghost who doesn’t know how to haunt cannot remember how to get back to heaven. Sanderson takes the ghost into his room and finds out that he died because of his own stupidity. He helps the ghost remember the dance he has to perform to get back to his state of invisibility, but again the ghosts carelessness shows again when he doesn’t realise that Sanderson is watching hi do the dance in the mirror.
The main characters in ‘A Dream Woman’ are quite similar to the characters in ‘The Inexperienced Ghost’, with a not very intelligent man called Isaac and his mother. When Isaac encounters the ghost he is very scared, as he doesn’t know that he is only dreaming. When Isaac asks his mother about the ghost she tells him that it was a dream, which turns out to be the future. The ghost in his dream turns out to be Isaacs wife, who after marriage turns into an alcoholic and Isaac realises that she is the woman from his dreams and begins to be cautious around her. The actual encounter with the ghost happened in the inn, which was the chosen setting by W.Wilkie Collins to create the most tension.
In the three ghost stories I have studied, ‘The signal man’, ‘Inexperienced Ghost’ and ‘The Dream Woman’ the settings have all been different. The setting is a key element in creating a scary atmosphere in the readers mind, e.g. traditional settings include and old abandoned house, an overgrown field or a castle.
It is vital for the author to describe the setting as detailed and as clear as possible to the reader. The better the author does this, the more effect the story has on the reader.
A good example of describing the setting well is from ‘The Signal man’ by Charles Dickens, it reads, ‘I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head. His figure was foreshortened and shadowed, down in the deep trench.’
‘The cutting was unusually precipitate, it was made from clammy stone, it became oozier and wetter the further I walked.’ This describes the setting very well and puts a clean image of the dark, wet, cold, gloomy railway cutting into the mind of the reader. This is also a typical example of a scary setting for a ghost story.
In ‘The dream Woman’ the setting is also very traditional, In the story it quotes “a lonely road-side inn, standing on the outskirts of a thick wood.”
Again W.Wilkie Collins goes into great depth describing the setting. The setting in this particular story is engineered to create a scary atmosphere. ‘Isaac went round with the landlord, and held the candle while the doors and lower windows were being secured. He noticed with surprise the strength of the bolts, bars and iron-sheathed shutters. “You see, we are rather lonely here,” said the landlord when W.Wilkie Collins describes the shutters and bars, it makes the readers think that here is some kind of abnormal presence around the inn. This will create tension in the readers mind.
In ‘The Inexperienced Ghost’ by H.G.Wells the time spent describing the setting is minimal, and this lack of detail shows in the overall effect of the story. ‘The Inexperienced Ghost’ is not a traditional ghost story as it has a comical theme, as if it was meant for young children to read. H.G.Wells only actually writes a couple of sentences describing the setting, which is an old fashioned gentleman’s country club. He describes the corridor as narrow but well lit with candles. The meeting with the ghost happened in the middle of the night with no one around. Again this is a traditional setting for a ghost story crating a mystical eerie feeling.
All three ghost stories have traditional settings, which help create tension and a super natural feel.
Two of the three ghosts I have studied are extremely similar. The ghost in the Signalman is described as a person but it never shows its face. In the story it says “he repeated, if possible with increased passion and vehemence, that former gesticulation.”
It seems as though the main task of the ghost is to try and warn the signalman of his death, it does this by simulating the actions of the train driver just before he runs over the signalman. The ghost in the dream woman appears in Isaacs dream and appears as a real life person and Isaac cannot tell the difference, with this it saves Isaac from being murdered. It describes him by saying “White arms, with a down upon them. Little lady’s hand, with a reddish look about the finger-nails.”
The ghost in the inexperienced ghost does the complete opposite of the other two as eventually it ends up killing Sanderson because of its carelessness. Sanderson scares the ghost in this story and then when Sanderson helps him remember his dance he doesn’t realise that Sanderson is watching him in his mirror. He makes his entrance by saying “I colud see him wince. “Boooo! “I’m not a member I’m a ghost.”
Dickens´ story 'The Signalman´, has many examples of different ways of building tension.
The opening line 'Halloa! Below there! ´, Plunges us immediately into the story, telling us that we must be attentive in order to follow the story. It also makes our imagination start to ask questions, for example; who is saying this? Who are they speaking to?
The ghosts repetitive behaviour makes us feel anxious. The ghost always shouts, 'Halloa! Below there! ´ He waves his arm and covers his eyes.
Dickens´ portrayal of the tunnel and the cutting is very detailed, and is expressed through use of uncommon words. For instance; 'zigzag´ and 'gloomy´ these words get an apparent image of the cutting and this tunnel, resulting in us feeling we are involved in the story.
The signalman’s appearance is quite peculiar as is his behaviour. His eyebrows are thick and his skin tone is odd. Painting a picture of a mysterious looking man.
We too feel, the desperation and distraction of his ordeal. He 'wiped the drops from his forehead´ showing his nerves, and so making us feel nervous.
When we hear the signalman’s ´ story, it is one with such a horrific plot that we become drawn in. When the author continuously interrupts it, we become more anxious and become desperate to hear the rest of the story. Dickens´ use of painful personification, like 'angry sunset´ and 'violent pulsation´ contribute greatly to the stories impact. Short sentences and repetition also make us feel tense.
There is such a conflict in personalities between the author, calm and collected, and the agitated and stressed signalman. We end up having to choose sides between the author believing the signalman is crazy and the signalman behaving crazy.
The irony leaves us shaken. The one time the signalman chooses to ignore the voice was the one time he should have. The calm scientific reasoning of the author was wrong whilst the hysterical ramblings of the signalman were surprisingly correct.
The unexplained ending leaves us in a very tense and unsettled state. Our many questions are left unanswered.
W.Wilkie Collins uses different techniques in the Dream Woman than the ones used by Charles Dickens to create tension. W.Wilkie Collins uses quick actions to surprise the reader, an example of this is where Isaac is sleeping and then suddenly wakes p to find a woman standing over him with a knife, this then keeps the reader on edge through the rest of the story because they are expecting it to happen every time he goes to sleep.
The only time H.G.Wells creates tension is just after Sanderson has performed the dance to go through the passes and there is a brief pause before he drops dead. The technique used by H.G.Wells to create tension is suspense.
Each individual ending has its own unexpected happening. ‘The signalman’ comes to an ending where everything is solved and the words talked are “not only the words which the unfortunate signalman had repeated to me as haunting him, but also the words which I myself not he had attached and that only in my own mind, to the gesticulation he had initiated.”
On the other hand the ‘the inexperienced ghost’ ending is different as the main person in the story finishes the story off by saying “all I certainly know is that, in the very moment, in the very instant, of concluding those passes, he changed and staggered and fell down before us – dead!”
Also ‘the dream woman’ has a different ending to the story when Isaac says “when anybody speaks to him about the one anxiety of his life; “she’s looking for me.” He may be right.
To conclude my essay I am going to answer the original question. To make an effective ghost story you need an attention grabbing setting to get the audience interested whilst adding a great deal of tension to get the reader scared. Also you need to feature some lively characters and in places you need to add some cliffhangers dragging the reader to grab the next page eager to read on until the end.
