‘The Signalman’ as a title does not give you an initial instinct of a mystery story. However the title ‘The Black Cat’ creates an inkling of a mysterious and spooky setting. ‘The Signalman’ sounds like a more sophisticated, antique story and does not give a hint of the genre of the story. However, ‘The Black Cat’ is more obvious because the words ‘Black Cat’ gives a feeling of death and evil.
Dickens creates a perfect setting by using creepy descriptions “gloomier entrance to a black tunnel.”. As the writer stands at the top of the hill he describes every little detail he can see. He makes the place seem unusual like a place you could only imagine, and does not really exist. “oozier and wetter” makes the place feel cold and damp. He uses sounds and feeling “vague vibration in the earth and air..” to make you understand the setting. He describes the places as plain, dull and lonely “solitary and dismal a place..”. “..earthy deadly smell..” gives you the scent of rural, country air. “..the wet stains stealing down the walls and trickling through the arch.” “Wet stains” gives you the feeling that this place is damp, air that is heavy in moisture. It would probably have a pungent smell and lack sunshine as the water has not dried. “Stealing” is a negative word which gives the reader a negative reaction. “Trickling” in this context is a spooky noise. It is onomatopoeic. The narrator starts by describing the signalman as a figure in the distance. The figure immediately comes over as a sinister character; “his figure was foreshortened and shadowed..” As the writer gets closer to the figure you can see he is anxious of him. He watches the writer warily and does not move until he feels secure. The description of the man makes the picture of him ungroomed and untidy. “heavy eyebrows”, “dark beard”. He is described as a man who had been doing this job for a long time and knew exactly what he was doing “..one of the safest of men to be employed in that capacity..”. Yet he had spent so much time down there alone that he had gone slightly mad “turned his face towards the little bell that did not ring, opened the door of the hut, and looked out towards the red light..” The writer also refers to the man as a sprit because of the mysterious action of the man looking and pointing at the tunnel, “ ..this was a spirit not a man..” The narrator describes some of the signalman’s actions “giving a ghastly nod each time”. “Ghastly” is another word for horrifying or an exaggeration of horrible. A “nod” is a slight movement of the head. It is usually used in sombre, serious situations such as this fear of the signalman at this point. This adds a more disturbing atmosphere to the story. ‘The Signalman’ also has the ghost as a character. Ghosts are usually associated with fear whereas this ghost is gentle, trying to warn the signalman about the dangers. “It was an action of mourning. I have seen such an attitude in stone figures on tombs” “mourning” has connotations of death, sadness and loss. “stone figures” is an exaggeration of cold, lifeless, still and plain statues. The noun “tombs” is a stone cemetery where dead people are laid which once again brings out death in this story.
‘The Signalman’ is told to us in the past tense. The writer tells us exactly what happens but we do not find out the ending until the end. We follow the mystery how the narrator did in the original scenes. This makes it a mystery as we are kept in suspense and are witnesses to the out come. It makes the reader feel moved as they also become involved in the mystery like the narrator. The narrator builds up suspense in the story by manipulating the reader into thinking that the out come will be happy and positive but suddenly underminds it with tragedy and horror. He uses bathos in two very different scenes. He use good weather verses bad weather to fool the reader. The language at the end is not so mysterious however it leaves us with a feeling of uncertainty as not all questions are answered.
‘The Black Cat’ is set out as a magazine story. The heading ‘A Ghost Story For Christmas’ tells you what the story is about. The story is set by explaining the phobia Sydney had of cats. Sydney’s fear is transferred to the reader which also makes them wary of cats and this cat in particular. The following parts of the story are written from the diary found. In ‘The Signalman’ his features are described. However, Sydney’s natures are described to set the tone of the mystery. The writer uses his reactions to the situation rather than his features. Sydney is a target for this mystery because he was an ordinary, lonely man who had no family. The house he lived in was also ordinary which made the mystery spookier. The cat is described many times as Sydney saw it with his own phobia in the back of his mind. When he is confronted by the cat his mind takes over and controls as the phobia get into head. “He was mentally drowning in a sea of impending catastrophe, when, by an expiring effort, wrenched himself free from an obsession and sprang up.’ ‘Mentally drowning’ is happening in his mind, not literally. ‘Impending’ is a dramatic way of saying something is going to happen soon. ‘Catastrophe’ has connotations of cataclysm, fiasco and disasters. ‘Expiring’ gives you the impression that he was throwing every thing into it as it is a life or death situation, a dying effort. Sydney was an ordinary man, who, like most people had a phobia. This phobia happened to be of cats, which was nothing unusual or extraordinary. However this phobia turned in to his worst nightmare, unreal yet it haunted him and caused his death. This was no ordinary cat. It was an evil, murderous creature that took pleasure it its actions. ‘glowering at him with lambent yellow eyes’. ‘Glowering’ is a look of daggers. It gives you connotations of a cold glare or scowl. ‘Lambent’ is a bright light, like a flame or a soft radiance with burning. ‘Yellow’ is a bright fluorescent colour which emphasizes the colour effect of ‘lambent’ giving the overall impression of a strong fire like gaze. ‘Sydney was coming downstairs one evening, when he noticed in a badly lighted corner of the staircase something that he took to be a cat’ but then ‘looking more closely he saw that is was nothing more than a shadow cast by some caving on the stair-head. This shows the writer using darkness and shadows in the mystery. Where there is darkness you can not see anything so your mind imagines things to fill in the unknown gaps.
Like ‘The Signalman’ ‘The Black Cat’ is written in the past tense. However the conclusion is told to us at the start of the story, whereas in the ‘The Signalman’ the conclusion is told at the end. Overall mysteries are written to alarm the reader. Whereas ‘The Black Cat’ is not written to scare the readers but the facts fool the reader in to thinking it is frightening. At the end the language changes from suspense to explanatory. For example early in the story the writer finds a connection between his life and the number 24. ‘curious coincidence that the tragedy took place on Christmas eve- the 24th day of the month!’
I don’t think there was anything in particular that spoiled ‘The Signalman’ as a mystery story. I would like to have found out the future of the narrator in small detail, however this unanswered question makes it a good mystery story as it keeps the reader thinking about it even though they have finished reading. The language was spooky and added good atmosphere to the mystery. “..blackness of the tunnel..” “blackness” gives you an image of darkness. Black is associated with death, sorrow and also evil I witch craft. “tunnel” and be related with enclosed places, claustrophobia, everlasting and darkness. They both have connotations of black.
In ‘The Black Cat’ the ending is told at the beginning. Nevertheless I don’t think this prevents the reader from enjoying the story. The story is quite short. However, I think it would have been better as longer horror story. This would give more time to go in to depth about the sightings and the ending could then be extended in to a gorier termination. I really enjoyed the language in the middle; ‘It’s soft fur thickened around his fingers like a mass of silky, living snakes..’ ‘Thickened around’ gives you the image of something wrapping itself around you, entangling its body around an object. The writer uses a simile ‘like’ to create a vivid image of the sensation the man is over coming. ‘Silky’ on its own means smooth but when followed by ‘living snakes’ it has connotations of lustrous, vicious and fear of snakes. ‘his skin tingled with multitudinous tiny bites from fangs which were venomous’. A ‘tingle’ is a feeling of tiny pin pricks which instantly adds emotion to the story. ‘multitudinous’ is a more intense way of saying ‘many’ which makes it more exaggerated. ‘Fangs’ have connotations of sharp, pointed glistening teeth that over indulge in blood sucking. ‘Venomous’ gives the impression that there is poison on the blood, so increases the danger of death.
In my opinion ‘The Black Cat’ is the better mystery story. The language, for the time it was written is quite modern and easy to understand. In contrast, ‘The Signalman’ is a dated mystery with more old-fashioned words which are not used in modern day language. ‘The Signalman’ is a traditional mystery in contrast to ‘The Black Cat’ which is unusual and not so predictable. The setting in ‘The Signalman’ is long and very in-depth. Ultimately, I preferred the immediate setting in ‘The Black Cat’. It sounded as though it started half way through a conversation which drops the reader straight into the story.
