The Signalman is more interested in the well-being of the victims and is very emotional towards the death of the woman and the passengers of the train crash.
Another similarity is the seclusion of the two environments. Mrs Rutter lives in a lonely cottage surrounded by trees and bushes, in isolation from the outside world and the sunshine behind the trees in Packers End. Whilst The Signalman has a little cabin in the cutting with the dimmest views of light, the only time he is able to see daylight is when there are no trains and he can wander onto the embankment of the cutting but even then, he is limited to the time he spends there in the sunshine. The two link because they both live with dark surroundings.
My last similarity is that the terror, fear and wellbeing of the characters; there is such a dramatic change in Sandra who is petrified of Packers End where it is dark and gloomy. There is a sense of terror, which represents evil, death and darkness, but when she reaches Mrs Rutters cottage she feels safe and secure, in the light, which represents good. Therefore, there is a dramatic change, and it is the same in The Signalman where the visitor is very scared the first time of climbing down the steep embankment. After his first visit, he is far more aware of the obstacles that lie before him on the climb down the embankment, so he is far more cautious on the second and third visit.
The first main difference is that of the times and language the two writers use, Dickens uses non-colloquial English whereas Lively uses colloquial English quite a lot to get her point across to the reader. Lively also uses peripherals whereas Dickens doesn’t; Lively uses it to describe Pat who has no importance in the short story, but yet she goes on talking about her. Dickens uses reported speech, he takes away the immediacy of the actual talk and filters it through another person “Had he much to do there? Yes; that was to say, he had enough responsibility to bear.” Whereas Lively uses direct speech which is to give the impression we are listening in on a contemporary conversation, “Christ” she said “Kerry Stevens, you stupid so and so what d’you want to go and do that for.”
Another difference is the time the two were written in. There are little references that you spot like trains, which weren’t long invented before Dickens wrote this short story. However, “In The Darkness Out There” miscellaneous objects like “brochures,” “new singers” and “aero bars” were new inventions in the time that the short story was written.
The two visitors are different from the visited. Sandra stereotypes people. She dislikes Kerry because he has “blacked licked down hair and slitty eyes.” “Some people you just have to look at to know that they are not up to much.” Whereas Mrs Rutter tends to judge the book by its cover. She seems to think that because Sandra is an attractive girl she must be a pleasant girl “why they will be after you like bees around a honey pot.”
In “The Signalman”, the visitor is very different to The Signalman who has very little knowledge of the outside world because he is secluded in his little cabin in loneliness and darkness in the cutting. The reader gets the impression that he is a failure in life, that he had the intelligence to have had a better career, but had never fulfilled his dream.
The next difference is that of Mrs Rutter telling Sandra and Kelly her life story, her biography, about the German plane and how she watched the plane crash into Packers End and didn’t even consider helping the wounded airmen in the plane “tit for tat I said to Dot!” It was almost as if she wanted brutal revenge for her husbands death in Belgium that she left the German airmen to suffer too “He must have been a tough Bastard.” Whereas The Signalman is very wary of his visitor so I don’t thinck he is willing to give much away at all. There is also a difference that Sandra and Kerry have a reason for visiting Mrs Rutter whereas there is no explanation for the visitor visiting The Signalman, that’s why he is very aware of his visitor.
Another difference is that of the two’s appearances. Mrs Rutter was like a fairy godmother from a nursery rhyme, “with her wonky leg” and “cottage loaf of a woman with a face below which chins collapsed one into another, a creamy smile of a face in which her eyes snapped and darted.” The Signalman was far more subdued and downhearted with “heavy black eyebrows and a saturnine face” which was like a bad character in a kid’s story. Therefore, we have Mrs Rutter who seems to symbolise good and The Signalman who seems to symbolise evil and that matches with their surroundings. Mrs Rutter’s cosy cottage symbolises a palace in a fairytale. The Signalman lives in “dripping wet wall, jagged stone, and almost dungeon like.” In each case, however, appearances deceives Mrs Rutter is a cruel old woman whereas The Signalman cares for his fellow human beings.
One other difference is that the way the visitors change after their visits to Mrs Rutter and The Signalman. Sandra changes the way she judges people now, whereas before she was judging people on their physical appearance. Whilst Kerry has expectations of Mrs Rutter but his perception of her is very different because he has heard that she is a nice lady but when he meets her he realises that she has a soft outside with a ruthless attitude. Kerry realises this but Sandra does not as Mrs Rutter is flattering towards Sandra. Sandra enjoys the attention that she is receiving from Mrs Rutter when she compliments her about her beauty. In The Signalman the visitor is very curious, but his questions are unanswered on his first visit but by his last visit I think the visitor knows all he wants to know about The Signalman.
The final difference is that of how the characters are described. Mrs Rutter is described as friendly but is actually quite malevolent. Mrs Rutter shows her true character when she enjoys telling the story of the German pilots suffering. In contrast, The Signalman shows his emotion and worries that further tragedies may occur. He worries so much as to what might happen and how it can all be prevented seeking guidance from the visitor Why not tell me where the accidents was to happen if it must happen? Why not tell me how it can be averted if it could have been averted?”
The visitor to The Signalman does not exist as a character as Sandra and Kerry do. Dickens seems to be interested in creating mystery whereas Lively wants to explore the minds of two teenagers who defy the stereotypes of girls being more mature than boys. The visitor to The Signalman does not seem to change at the end of the story whereas Sandra realises that “you could get people wrong” and she will not be afraid of the darkness of Packers End again, as the darkness is inside people and not in particular places.
