“The Signalman” characteristics are based on what he feels like. He seems lonely of his occupation and passes his time learning a language and experimenting with algebra. The narrator has the impression that the signalman is reliable and trustworthy, “I should have set this man down as one of the safest men to be employed in that capacity” this means that he finds him safe. However he seems very strange like when he keeps staring at the “gloomy red light” another thing is that he constantly hears the bell ringing when it isn’t. The strange thing is that a crazy decision cost him his life and its strange as he waited for his death this could mean a case of suicide from him. If it was why did he do it? The tragic death of the signalman is the key scene in the story as it raises questions for the reader, which Dickens probably did deliberately the way he describes the setting by using adjectives is tremendous. He uses words like barbarous, shadowed or violent pulsation. The atmosphere that the signalmen create is a key point in the story because when he hears the bell and no one else can this makes the story very mysterious, he also staring at the “gloomy red light” which symbolises danger and mystery.
The three old people in “The Red Room” are very weird and grotesque. The man with the withered arm keeps repeating himself: “its your own choosing” as if he doesn’t want to get blamed if anything goes wrong and the young man dies, perhaps like the duke did. The old women keeps repeating herself “this night of all nights” also as if she was warning him of something the atmosphere feels eerie and scary as you don’t know why this night is worse than other nights. Wells uses literary techniques such as short clauses and good word choice to build up tension e.g. “more bent, more wrinkled”. As the reader finds out what happened on the night it creates suspense. The man with the shade is very ere I think. Each of the three people are named as a phrase e.g. “The old women”, but I feel calling them these names make them feel ominous as if they are not real and a sense of terror is increased. The man with the shade is described as such “ his lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth this description fills us with discus. The three people make him nervous when it says, “the three of them made me feel uncomfortable,” also he feels like they are inhuman and hideous.
“The spectre in “Napoleon” is physically described: “the countenance was livid; the tongue protruded from between the teeth, and the eyes all glazed and bloodshot started with frightful prominence from their sockets.” This gives the reader a chance to imagine the spectre and to understand the fear Napoleon has. The spectre is most powerful one out of the two. The spectre reveals little intensions, which leaves a trail of questions. This relates to the withstanding gothic atmosphere in the story.
The purpose of the two sensible narrators is that you get a good argument e.g. when the spectre in “The signalman” says, “halloa! Bellow there!” before each accident so it makes people think. Charlotte Bronte’s choice of subject was good as she built up the atmosphere because she lets Napoleon hear noises twice before the culprit is revealed. This builds up Napoleons worry. “Who’s there?” cried the emperor, seizing his pistols “speak,” or I’ll blow your brains out.” This shows his growing desperation and fear. Bronte shows Napoleon going through different stages of feelings. He begins afraid and once he cannot see anything he becomes ashamed that he thought something was there. “Half ashamed of himself he returned to bed.” Bronte uses negative descriptive language such as “black” and “terror” to get an eerie atmosphere.
The effect of the house in The Red Room is that it is a very scary and eerie place adding to the affect of the action. The old woman says to the narrator “it is unlikely that you have seen such a house.” So she says that you may not have seen a ghost but you haven’t seen a house such as this indicating it is a weird place. The house is one of the key points making the story interesting because when it says “…enhance the spiritual terrors of their house by their droning insistence” that means that the house has spirits in (ghosts). The tunnel in Signalman is a lonely place as the narrator refers to “clammy stone”, and how “it became oozier and wetter as I went down.” The mouth of the tunnel is described as having “a barbarous, depressing and forbidding air.” These details, combined with the cold wind and loneliness of the place, add up to a feeling of dread and foreboding. His hut where he stayed was pretty basic and boring when it says “in his box, where there was a fire, desk…” the house in Napoleon And The Spectre however was posh indicating the wealth and owners status as you can expect for example when it says “three wax tapers, which burned in a silver branch”, which indicates being rich and silver would cost a lot of money in the 19th century.
I have learnt that the Victorian societies enjoyed gothic and believing in ghosts in those days I think that the stories that I have read would have been very scary horror stories not so scary now but for the 19th century they most have been involved into ghosts and eerie things.
My favourite story is “The Red Room” This is because it is the scariest and uses words such as “inhuman”, “hideous” and “grotesque”. Also the story is scarier because its based on an eerie story about the scary people and the house is very supernatural. Napoleon and the spectre is the least favourite as its not scary and is more of a fantasy not so much a ghost story. And finally The Signalman is quite good the language is typical 19th century the sentence is very different compared to the sentence structure used today. Sentence structures in the 19th century being used in the story include “said I”, that is very 19th century. “I said” is now most commonly used, “ I shall” instead of “ I will”.
The ghost stories of the 19th century are very good and I think in those days they would of being very scary.
