The Signalman

The scene is set at near darkness so this makes you concerned for the narrator because you are not sure of the signalmans intensions, it gives you the "don't go there" feelings so tension gets built up more and more as they get closer to each other. Just as he gets closer to the cutting an unknown vibration shakes the ground "vague vibration in the earth and air" his use of adjectives are good aswell such as "violent pulsation" this activates emotion and senses which takes the reader mentally to the location which adds tension. The vibration is caused by a train going by this sets the mood for super natural happenings. Dickens emphasises this by stating it as a " Great Dungeon". The story ends in a twist, I thought that the spectre would end up being fake but the ending seems to work well.

In the final paragraph the narrator thinks that he is possessed and is in for the same fate. He thinks this because he has realised that the spectre repeated his exact words "Halloa below there" which he said to the signalman on his first visit. This works because the spectre has gone but in a way he hasn't as he seems alive in the narrator. In the ending there is also mystery as it lets the reader make up there own mind on the fate of the narrator, Dickens deliberately leaves this up to the reader this is the final method of mystery. The story only takes place with in the cutting, I think this is so non of the well earned tension is lost and the tension is well sustained with out, also the signalman and narrator only ever meet at night "I will come at eleven" this keeps the tension due to darkness, Dickens knows what he is doing because if they met on a sunny day then it wouldn't be effective and tension would be lost. Also the darkness means that he cant be sure what is out there and could be the reason for his sightings.

The Red Room

Metaphors are used regularly "My candle was a little tongue of light in its vastness that failed to pierce the opposite end of the room and left an ocean of mystery and suggestion beyond its island of light" "the flames were still dancing between the glowing coals, and splashing red reflection, upon the furniture".

The young man finds the old people who look after the castle frightening and depressing we know this because he refers to them as "grotesque custodians" the word grotesque suggests something disgusting possibly he could be referring to them in this way because he feels awkward with them. Once he had left the room he describes his feelings with in the company of the old people, he calls them old and that there surroundings are "ghostly" he then wipes all thoughts of ghosts from his mind. The "chilly echoing passage" is a common factor for a ghost story as it is damp, cold and dusty. It is also dimly lit, any sound can be heard and any movement made things magnified "monstrous" shadows on to the surrounding walls, when walking through the passage you probably wouldn't be able to see the other end which means that anything could be lurking there, the passage had a great effect on the reader and probably the young man. It creates fear and suspense and is a tension builder, this passage is contributing to the growing fear that the young man experiences. Then he moves onto the corridor where The Red Room is. The first thing noted about the corridor is the shock it gave him to see the moonlight streaming through the window, illuminating everything making it look black and silvery, which is un real because it is only imaginable in a horror movie. He also notices that it looks un touched and that there are thick layers of dust to prove that nobody has been in there for a long time. As he begins moving around the room he notices a shadow of what to him looked like a figure crouching to wait for him, he is very paranoid and is becoming very nervous. When he finds out it is only a stature his nerves are restored and even when he passes another statue that moved it "scarcely startled" him. This was most likely caused by the influence of the old people who put thoughts into his head which made him anxious at this time. When he approaches the door of The Red Room he remembers it was just outside the door where the young duke had begun to die he says "here it was, thought I, that my predecessor being the duke who never left The Red Room alive, he may be having second thoughts about entering, and he could be thinking about the jokes played. Once inside The Red Room he carries out many acts to make him feel secure and just to reassure himself. Once he has locked himself in he describes the room in great detail this makes the reader feel involved in the young mans "systematic examination", once the examination was complete he says himself to be "in a state of considerable nervous tension" He then barricades the door as a back up for the lock and lights all of the available candles to flood the room with light. He settles down and reprears poem out loud to take his mind off the task this doesn't work so he looks for other ways to occupy himself. The ending of the story is a slight twist. The reader expects a more conventional ghost but what is found in the room is fear itself, however it is suspected at the very start that there is going to be something in the room, just from the first sentence there is immediate case for concern I think the story is written well, there is a good building of suspense as the man goes into the room and plus the reader is kept interested as we want to know what is in The Red Room. It has a lot of cliches but at the time this was written it was a new scary idea, with the story being so old it is bound to have cliches.