Pre 20th Century Prose- A Christmas Carol and The Signalman.

Gemma Quirolo

Pre 20th Century Prose- A Christmas Carol

and The Signalman

Christmas has always been the main time of the year to tell or be told spine chilling ghost stories. Maybe it’s because the celebration is in the long winter months, where most of the days are dark and gloomy. Or is it because at that time of the year every one helps and gives to one another, so there must be something/someone bad and evil in the world to balance it all out. It is a fact that one of the most famous ghost stories was told around the Christmas seasons; this story is A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens, who wrote many famous novels, wrote A Christmas Carol. . Another yuletide story is the Signalman, also written by Charles Dickens. One of Charles Dickens’ closest friends, John Forster, said that Dickens loved nothing more than to tell or be told a ghost story.

A Christmas Carol was written in 1843, and was published in The Pickwick Papers around the Christmas period of the very same year. When Dickens wrote this story, it was at the beginning of the Victorian era, when the celebration of Christmas was in decline. The Industrial Revolution was also in full swing during this period, leaving workers with no time or money to spend on the Christmas season. The romantic revival of Christmas traditions that occurred in Victorian times had other contributors: Prince Albert brought the German custom of decorating the Christmas tree to England, the singing of Christmas carols, which had all but disappeared at the turn of the century began to thrive again. The first Christmas card appeared in the 1840s, but it was the Christmas stories of Dickens, particularly his 1843 masterpiece A Christmas Carol, that rekindled the joy of Christmas in Britain and America. Dickens described the Christmas season as a time for giving, sharing, and loving one another. I think that it was Dickens’ love for ghost stories, and of Christmas, along with his good nature and social conscience that made him write so strongly about the less fortunate and of the supernatural. Dickens not only showed people that Christmas was a time for loving and sharing with your families, but it was also a time for loving, sharing and caring for people whom you did not know. Dickens also showed people that even though you may be weary of your surroundings, you could never be too sure of what will come of you and your life.

I will begin my analysis by summarising the stories. The first story I will summarise is A Christmas Carol. Charles Dickens wrote it to be put into a newspaper called ‘The Pickwick Papers’. It was published in the paper around Christmas time in 1843. It is a story about a very harsh businessman, whose partner has recently died. This businessman is called Scrooge, and he only cares himself and no one else. It is for this reason that the ghost of his late partner visits him a few days before Christmas. His partner, Marley, tells Scrooge that if he doesn’t change his ways then he will be punished after death, like Marley has been. Marley said that three ghost will visit him, the ghost of Christmas past, present and of Christmas yet to come.

The ghost of Christmas past shows Scrooge as a child, and reminds him of how he used to enjoy the company of others. This makes him weary of treats people around him.

The ghost of Christmas present shows him how he treats his family, friends and those he doesn’t know. It especially shows him about Bob Crachets family lived, who is a worker at Scrooge’s company. And also how poor people were very happy even though they didn’t have much money, and how it was one another that they needed.

The final ghost, the ghost of Christmas yet to come, shows Scrooge how the people around him would him would feel once he was dead. Scrooge was very upset when he saw that no one seemed to hurt about his death, not even his nephew. He saw that they were all happy to be rid of Scrooge and his nasty ways.

On Christmas day, Scrooge decided to change his evil ways, and to act with compassion for others, and treat poor people as human beings by giving them a helping hand in life.

The second story is The Signalman, which was also written by Charles Dickens to be put into ‘The Pickwick Papers’ at Christmas time. The Signalman is about a man who works underground directing trains. He is a very trustworthy man, and would never put any of the passengers or his self in danger. He is also very lonely, until the narrator enters the scene with a call that upsets the signalman. The narrator plays a stranger, who takes an instant liking to the signalman. The narrator soon found out that something was making the signalman very uneasy. As when the trains came the bell would ring to warn him that they were coming, so the signalman would get up and do usual routine for the trains. But on a few occasions when the bell did not ring, the signalman did the same routine, and looked towards the mouth of the tunnel where the red light was. But when the signalman was confronted about it he said that he would explain his troubles on the next night. The stranger agreed that he would come back, but the signalman told him not to call out as he did the first night if he was going to return. When the narrator returns the next night, it is revealed that the signalman sees apparitions, and when he does something terrible happens. He explained that the first time he saw it, a major train crash happened soon after. Another time when he saw it a young girl died suddenly on one of the trains. The third time, the ghost called ‘Halloa below there’, which was the same call as the stranger gave to the signalman on the first night. When the signalman looked up the tunnel there was the apparition by the warning light, but when he approached it, it disappeared. The signalman then telegraphed both ways to see if there was any danger, but there wasn’t. The stranger then realised why the signalman was feeling uneasy. The signalman also said that since the apparition had last visited there haven’t been any accidents, and he was wondering why the ghost was still visiting him. The stranger told him not to worry, and said he would be back the next day. When the stranger returned the next day, he found that the signalman had been killed by a train. The train driver said that he had called to the signalman but he didn’t hear him quick enough, the exact words that he said was ‘Halloa below there’.

I will now compare the two stories, The Signalman and A Christmas Carol, under several topics. I will be starting my comparisons with the first topic of narrator/tone of the story.

This is a preview of the whole essay

I will now compare the two stories, The Signalman and A Christmas Carol, under several topics. I will be starting my comparisons with the first topic of narrator/tone of the story.

The narrator sets the scene for the story, and describes everything that is happening, and everyone that is in the scene. The tone is how the story is said/written, whether it is happy, sad or inquisitive. In the Signalman the narrator plays a big part in the story, as he is a character in the story. The narrator also plays a big part in A Christmas Carol, but not as big as in The Signalman. The narrator is a mysterious man in A Signalman, whom we don’t know much about. The narrations are very serious in this story, but they are also very inquisitive. The narrator is also very friendly and kind, as on p.116 the narrator said “I had left him at two in the morning. I had offered to stay the night, but he would not hear of it”. You also tell that the narrator is kind and friendly, as the signalman wished him “goodnight” on p.110. If the narrator weren’t friendly and kind then the signalman would have just let the narrator leave, and not wish him goodnight.

In a Christmas Carol the narrations are very different, but the tones are very similar. It has a quite relaxed/upbeat tone at the beginning. This is strange as someone has just died, and I would have thought that the tone would be upset and distraught. The narrator, later on in the story, seems to get very worked up about Scrooge being “tight-fisted at the grind stone” and “a covetous old sinner”. The narrator seems to get very upset about his, even though he wasn’t as affected when someone had died. The narrator keeps a fairly laid back tone throughout the story. On page 17 there is a simile, which describes the “ancient tower of a church”, who was “always peeping down slyly at Scrooge”… “as if its teeth were chattering in its frozen head”. The tone remains almost the same, until the appearance the ghost. When this happens the tone changes from relaxed to tense, and mysterious tone. On page 22 it says “But before he shut his heavy door, he walked through his rooms to see that all was right”. This shows a tense tone, as readers, and Scrooge, don’t know what is going to be in the rooms.

The next topic I will study and compare is the characters. In The Signalman there are only two main characters, the signalman and the narrator/stranger. Even though there are only two main characters, we don’t know much about either of them. Whereas in A Christmas Carol there are many characters, and we know quite a lot about all of them. In The Signalman the signalman is described as “a dark sallow man, with a dark beard and heavy eyebrows” on page 106. It is very hard to imagine the characters in this story: because they are underground and it will be dark. So the fact that the narrator has described the signalman as having a dark beard, and being a dark sallow man doesn’t help the description of the signalman. I think the signalman is a very strange man, almost ghost-like. As on page 112 the narrator describes him as having “hollow eyes”, which you would normally find in apparitions and ghosts. The signalman is also described as being cold; because when the narrator looked into his eyes he felt a chill up his spine. The signalman is a very cautious and serious man when it comes to his job. He is very hard working, and seems to command respect, as at one point in the story the narrator was trying to talk to him but the signalman ignored him while doing his job. The narrator is also very strange, because he takes an interest in someone he doesn’t even know. Why did he go and visit the signalman in the first place? And why did he continue to take an interest in him after the first day? The narrator went to see him for no reason in his spare time, and continued to do so, but for what reason? The narrator doesn’t describe his self at all, only the signalman.

In A Christmas Carol the main character is Scrooge, and he is described very well, unlike the main character in The Signalman. Scrooge is the complete opposite of the signalman, he is very scary, frightening, and intimidating. He doesn’t really care about the people who use his business, just as long as they paid the money when it was due. Scrooge was a partner in a business firm, until his partner died. Marley, his partner, and Scrooge were not only partners, but were friends for many years. But when Marley died Scrooge “was not so dreadfully cut-up”, showing he was a very hard, cold man. In A Christmas Carol you can imagine the characters from the descriptions, and you can be interested in them. There is also a clever use of temperature in this story as well, it is used to describe how harsh and cold at heart Scrooge was. It is on page 15, “the clerk, who, cold as he was, was warmer than Scrooge”, this shows that even though the clerk had not much of a fire as Scrooge did, he still remained warm and gentle at heart even though the outside was cold, unlike Scrooge who was cold both inside and out. The many similes for the interactions between Scrooge and others show the bitterness of Scrooge. If Scrooge was so bitter and cold, why did Marley leave all his possessions and money to him? Was it because he had no one else to leave it to? Or because Scrooge had changed after Marley’s death? Even though Marley died, Scrooge left his name above the door, and even answered to both names during business. This shows that Scrooge was so tight-fisted and clutching that he did not care about Marley, he just cared about the money. Scrooge was so unpleasant and cruel, it is hard to imagine that his nephew is so joyful, and cheery at Christmas time. Even Bob Cratchit, as poor as he was, with many mouths to feed still kept the joyous feeling of Christmas alive in his home.

The third topic I am going to compare them under is the description of the place. In A Christmas Carol Scrooge’s surroundings echoes his personality, its dark, gloomy and most of all cold. On page 11 the weather is described as “cold, bleak, biting weather: foggy withal”, this is very much like Scrooge as he is a very cold man, who bites/snaps at people around him. This weather continues throughout the story, but is worsens on pages 17 and 18, when the ghost of Marley is soon to appear. It says “the fog and darkness thickened so, that people ran about with flaring links”. I think the fog, in A Christmas Carol, indicated the arrival of the supernatural or the apparitions. Even Marley’s old home, which is now Scrooge’s, echoes Scrooge’s personality, the house “was old enough now, and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but Scrooge”. Like the signalman, Scrooge was also very lonely as he lived on his own, and the signalman worked alone. Altogether the settings for A Christmas Carol is almost ghost-like itself, it is the perfect environment for a tale of the supernatural.

The settings for The Signalman were also very old and depressing. The scenery of this story is very much alike A Christmas Carol’s, as they are both very dingy and gloomy, but the scenery around the signalman doesn’t echo his personality. On page 106 it describes the path as a “zigzag path descending down to the signalman’s box”. Straight away the settings seem to be very weird as they are descending downwards, this is as if they were almost entering hell, going down on an old jagged stairway. I think this because most attractive and pleasant stairways are normally going up, and they are normally quite neat and tidy not uneven. The narrator described the place as a “great dungeon”; this also says to me that it is a place of death because this is what I would think as soon as I heard the word dungeon. On the same page it says there was a “gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black, in whose massive architecture there was a barbourus, depressing, and forbidding air”. This area seems to be abandoned, where only the trains keep the signalman company. Another description I found which seems like he was going down into hell, was “it struck to chill me as if I had left the natural world”. This story also has the use of temperature, once again to describe the feeling of supernatural beings. This story, likened to A Christmas Carol, is also a perfect scene for a ghost story.

The final two topics that I will be comparing the two stories under is the build up of tension, and an argument against a logical explanation. In A Christmas Carol the build of tension/suspense starts with the appearance of Marley’s face on the doorknocker on page 20. It said “Scrooge, having his key in the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without it undergoing any intermediate process of change: not a knocker, but Marley’s face”. Then at the beginning of the build up, on page 21, Scrooge acts calm and in control, as he checked to see if the face was real or just a hallucination. He then begins to get more edgy, as on page 22 “he walked through his rooms to see that all was right”, this shows that Scrooge is beginning to doubt his self. Scrooge then double locks the doors on page 22, this shows that mind is playing tricks with him as he becomes more aware of the possible supernatural presence in the house. Another event that adds to the build up of suspense is the faces on the blank tiles on page 22-23. It says how the tiles, which had designs on them to illustrate the scriptures, had all turned from pictures of Abraham’s, and Belshazzar’s etc. to pictures of Marley’s face. These two appearances of Marley’s face both point towards the coming of the apparition/ghost of Scrooge’s long dead partner. After Scrooge sees the many faces of Marley in the tiles, he reassures his self once again, but this time he does it by letting a grouchy “Humbug!” The next event is the ringing of “a disused bell, that hung in the room, and communicated for some purpose now forgotten with a chamber in the highest storey of the building”; the bell rang for about half a minute. The ringing of the bell is associated with death, and of the supernatural. Another event associated with death, and of the supernatural follows the ringing, and that is the dragging of the chains along the cobbles on page 23. It was described as a "clanking noise, deep down below: as if someone were dragging a heavy chain over the casks in the wine-merchants cellar". It then says shortly after, "Scrooge then remembered to have heard that ghost in haunted houses were described as dragging chains". This reference to ghosts builds up suspense, as it implies that because the dragging of chains can be heard, then there will be a ghost in the very near future. The final two events that build up the suspense before the appearance of Marley’s ghost are: the dragging chains approaching Scrooge’s room, and the change of colour in Scrooge’s face as Marley’s ghost entered the room. On page 23, when the sound of the dragging chains approached Scrooge’s room, Scrooge still chose to believe that it was all a hallucination, and tried to get rid of it by saying “It’s humbug still!” and “I won’t believe it”. Scrooge, by saying this, is trying to make his self believe that there isn’t anything there, it’s as if he’s trying to prove people that he really is as hard, and cold by not believing in the fact that there was something or someone in his house. But then, when the ghost was right up next to his door, ready to burst in, Scrooge’s feelings were shown by his change in colour. Even though Scrooge has a hard exterior, most things like everyone else can still scare him.

The Signalman starts with the quote “Halloa! Below there!” This short, but effective line becomes very decisive as the story unfolds. Already we are held in suspense, as we don’t know who is speaking, and why they are calling out to someone. The man who he is shouting down to looks round in the opposite direction, and he “Looked down the line”. This is very unusual, as it is instinct for, when someone calls out, you to turn in the direction that the call is coming from. By doing this Dickens is creating the unexplainable, to add to the tension in the story. Later on in the story the man below, now known as the signalman, repeated a sequence that he performed when a train was approaching the signalman’s box. This sequence was only done when the warning bell was rung, but the signalman occasionally repeated the sequence when the bell did not ring. This adds to the suspense, as you do not yet know why he is turning to the bell, and acting out the sequence as if a train were coming. The signalman then says that he will explain why he is so uneasy on the next night, this adds further to the tension, as you are held in suspense until the two meet again, and the secret about the signalman is revealed. In this story there is an event, the apparition being seen, followed by a tragedy. But the signalman said that there has been another sighting of the ghost, but no tragedy has followed it. This is very strange, and makes you wonder what is going to happen next, what will be the next tragedy on the lines. The whole story is as if it is staged, the whole story unfolds because of the signalman and his strange actions. The signalman is then shown to be very worried about the apparition, but the stranger argues with him that there is no ghost, and that he will be alright. If the signalman had acted normal on that night then nothing more would have happened between the stranger and the signalman. It is also the unexplainable that Charles Dickens has put into the story, which makes the whole story work.

There are many similarities and differences between The Signalman and A Christmas Carol. A difference is that A Christmas Carol is a novel, whereas The Signalman is a short story. Even though they have a big difference in size, they were both written by Charles Dickens to be put into The Pickwick Papers. Another similarity is the fact that they were both written as Christmas stories, and that they were meant to be read around the Christmas months. Another similarity is that they were both written by Charles Dickens, and also that they are both ghost stories,. A difference between them is that they were written on different dates, A Christmas Carol was finished in 1845, but The Signalman was written a few years before his death. Another difference is that A Christmas Carol ends with happiness as Scrooge changes his way of life, but in The Signalman ends with tragedy as the signalman dies. A Christmas Carol is different to The Signalman, as A Christmas Carol has many ghosts who are good, where The Signalman has only one ghost and it is mysterious. The Signalman is also different as it has very little description of the characters and their surroundings, but in A Christmas Carol there is a lot of description.

I have found that there are many more differences than similarities between the two stories. Although they were both written by Charles Dickens to serve the same purpose, they are very much different from each other.

Now that I have read and analysed both stories I am now going to say which one I liked the most, this is my final conclusion.

I think that A Christmas Carol has the best settings and characters out of the two stories, but The Signalman is the most gripping. A Christmas Carol is a tale a horrible old man, who eventually learns the error of his ways, through the help of his dead partner and three other ghosts. This story is very heart warming, as you can feel for the characters, you can have empathy for them. In The Signalman it is very hard to understand the characters, and you can’t really get attached to them like you can in A Christmas Carol. In The Signalman you are constantly asking questions. This makes the story gripping, and you cannot put the book down until you have found it out. In A Christmas Carol it is not as gripping, it doesn’t draw you in like in The Signalman, there aren’t many questions to ask about the characters, they are already answered for you. Although The Signalman has the most suspense, A Christmas Carol gives a better understanding of things, e.g. why the ghosts appeared in the first place.

The story that I liked the most is A Christmas Carol. This is because it is a well-known story, and it is a classic story of bad man turned good. I also like this story because it has more of a Christmas theme to it, unlike The Signalman, which takes place down a dingy old train station. I like A Christmas Carol because you, like Charles Dickens, can get worked up during some points e.g. when he described Scrooge at the beginning, or when the ghost showed him that no one cared when he died.