The Signal Man has an unexpected ending. Explore the way in which the writer builds up tension in the course of the story so that the reader is surprised by how the story ends.
The signalman is a pre-twentieth century Victorian horror/gothic novel by Charles Dickens. The story is designed to horrify the reader using the supernatural linked to the relatively new at this time, and somewhat scary form of transport, the steam train. Gothic / Horror novels generally include many ingredients including: supernatural forces, mystery and confusion, darkness and shadows, candlelight, central character (often young and vulnerable), senses to add to mood of fear, No outside help - central character alone, Secrets, deserted, isolated settings / bad weather, often reliable 1st person narrator.
The story opens with the line "Halloa below there!" the opening of a story with speech immediately engages the reader's attention as the reader is curios to know whom the narrator is speaking to. This line of speech is also used numerously throughout the story and is linked to the final paragraph, this repetition of the phrase has the reader curios of its meaning and possible underlying.
The signalman is referred to simply as "he" and remains unnamed, this gives a sense of mystery about the Signalman and portrays him to be quite odd. By leaving the Signalman to be un-named this also gives the reader a stronger grip on the story by making it feel less personal to the characters and more open to the thoughts of outsiders within the stories boundaries, who indeed could be anyone even the reader them self.
The Signalman's behaviour is strange and the narrator notes this at the opening of the story, upon having called down to the Signalman "Halloa below there!" rather than looking up to where the narrator stood and undoubtedly where his voice may have came from, the Signalman looks down the line as he believes it is the words of the ghost which he had seen at an earlier time and had said the same words, this also giving the Signalman an aura of oddity. The narrator asks for a way to get down to the Signalman and he is pointed without wording to a point on his level, the narrator makes way to the cutting which is described to be "Extremely deep, and unusually precipitate." Made of "Clammy stone, that became oozier and wetter" giving an impression of a very unwelcoming trail to what in conjunction with it, could very well lie a miserable and possibly even dangerous area.
The signalman is a pre-twentieth century Victorian horror/gothic novel by Charles Dickens. The story is designed to horrify the reader using the supernatural linked to the relatively new at this time, and somewhat scary form of transport, the steam train. Gothic / Horror novels generally include many ingredients including: supernatural forces, mystery and confusion, darkness and shadows, candlelight, central character (often young and vulnerable), senses to add to mood of fear, No outside help - central character alone, Secrets, deserted, isolated settings / bad weather, often reliable 1st person narrator.
The story opens with the line "Halloa below there!" the opening of a story with speech immediately engages the reader's attention as the reader is curios to know whom the narrator is speaking to. This line of speech is also used numerously throughout the story and is linked to the final paragraph, this repetition of the phrase has the reader curios of its meaning and possible underlying.
The signalman is referred to simply as "he" and remains unnamed, this gives a sense of mystery about the Signalman and portrays him to be quite odd. By leaving the Signalman to be un-named this also gives the reader a stronger grip on the story by making it feel less personal to the characters and more open to the thoughts of outsiders within the stories boundaries, who indeed could be anyone even the reader them self.
The Signalman's behaviour is strange and the narrator notes this at the opening of the story, upon having called down to the Signalman "Halloa below there!" rather than looking up to where the narrator stood and undoubtedly where his voice may have came from, the Signalman looks down the line as he believes it is the words of the ghost which he had seen at an earlier time and had said the same words, this also giving the Signalman an aura of oddity. The narrator asks for a way to get down to the Signalman and he is pointed without wording to a point on his level, the narrator makes way to the cutting which is described to be "Extremely deep, and unusually precipitate." Made of "Clammy stone, that became oozier and wetter" giving an impression of a very unwelcoming trail to what in conjunction with it, could very well lie a miserable and possibly even dangerous area.
