Pre 1900 Prose.

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Farhaz Miah

Pre 1900 Prose Assignment

After having studied a selection of pre-1900 prose texts, I am going to analyse three of them carefully.  

All throughout the three texts I have found that there is a common theme.  The supernatural.  The three texts contain an array of detail about this theme.  Throughout these there is a significant amount of death, ghosts, witchcraft and superstition, all linked to the unexplained.  The themes would have been commonplace during the times when these stories were written as people had strongly believed in these.  Also  the stories seemingly touch the theme of fate.  

The first text that I shall talk about is ‘The Signalman’ by Charles Dickens.  This is a very tense and intriguing story.  The story is basically about a signalman who has met with a stranger.  The stranger is curious about the signalman.  He wants to know more about him.  Gradually the stranger finds out that the signalman has been contacted by the spectre.  The spectre is a ghost who appears to the signalman on occasions when there is a tragedy to happen.  It has already appeared twice, once waving its hands like the way the stranger had done.  At this occasion a very serious train crash happened very soon after.  On the other occasion the spectre was in a mourning state, and again, soon after a lady dies after being thrown of the train. The signalman is very uncomfortable about this.  A third time the spectre appears to the signalman, but this time the spectre is motionless.  The signalman becomes very frantic and is desperate to know what is about to happen. After the meeting with the stranger, the following morning the signalman sees the spectre again.  He goes towards the spectre not aware of the train coming towards him.  The train driver waves frenziedly, exactly the same way as the spectre had done and also in the same way as the spectre he mourned.  The stranger who had come to meet the signalman realised that the acts of the spectre was a premonition of the signalman's death.

The story was indeed to my liking and was very enjoyable.  I found it quite interesting and intriguing and it had certainly grasped my attention.  The opening sequence set the seen quite perfectly.  It describes the character of the signalman as a very strange, gloomy and mysterious character.  The stranger calls out to the signalman but he looks down towards the tunnel.  This gives a clue to what the story is about.  It made me think about the next sequence.  What was to happen next?  Why did the signalman look down towards the tunnel and not towards the stranger?  The suspense of the story was brilliant. Throughout the whole play this was evident. Dickens creates this terrifically and makes you wonder about the next sequence.  I found this enjoyable because of the imagery that Dickens uses and the way that it builds for the rather clever ending.  

Dickens manages to hide some clever clues within the story which leads up towards the final ending.  An example of this is the very first line.  

 

“HALLOA! Below there!”

Here we manage to see the words of the spectre, which have no knowledge of, at the very beginning of the play spoken by the stranger.  Dickens cleverly inserts this.  

Dickens also  shows this hen the stranger and the signalman converse.  The signalman thinks that he has seen the stranger before near the red light, the same spot where the spectre appeared. At this we are led to believe that the signalman is a strange person and that there is something unusual going on.

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                                                       “Where?”

                             ‘He pointed at the red light he had looked at.’

                                                       “There?”

                                      ...

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