The Darkness Out There - The Signal Man - A comparetive study

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ENGLISH WIDE READING

The mood at the beginning of both stories could not contrast any more than it does. 'The Darkness Out There' has a beginning that is summery and fresh. Whereas 'The Signal Man' has a start that is very eerie and creates a sense of fear. A factor that runs all the way through the story.

The effect that the beginning of 'The Darkness Out There' has is that Mrs Rutter's story hits the reader when they are not expecting it making it a lot more shocking. The mood change is massive. 'The Signalman' however, attempts to sustain the atmosphere from beginning to end. This makes the overall story more eerie by gripping the reader so that they want to read on to discover what happens later on.

Historically the two texts are set in very different periods. With 'The Signalman' being set in the Victorian era and 'The Darkness Out There' being set around the 1970's. We can tell this because of many factors such as the types of jobs mentioned. Signalmen worked on early railways and were abandoned when electronic signalling was introduced into railways. Also the language used in