The tunnel is given a description of its own. “The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitous. It was made through a clammy stone that became oozier and wetter as I went down.” He makes it seem like a cold, damp and menacing place: “… The gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air.” He describes the tunnel as being dark, which brings in fear and apprehension. Although the story begins with an eerie, alarming description of the cutting, later Dickens takes the reader to the signal box. This brings colour and warmth to the story, which is a welcome contrast from the opening. However, Dickens constantly returns us to the railway cutting to keep up the danger, menace and suspense.
In “The Red Room”, the first strong sense of the setting is given by the phrase, “… the chilly, echoing passage.” When the narrator walks towards the red room, he says it is very cold; this description introduces spookiness into the story. “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 narrator describes the room as being so dark, that his candle could not manage to light it up. This creates suspense and a sense of mystery. The fact the narrator is using candles means the light is uneven and flickering, which makes the red room seem peculiar. A spiral staircase brings fear as the young duke died here. One important feature of the red room is it has alcoves and dark recesses, which cause concern. There is also a mystery in how the fire was lit.
The narrator of “The Signalman” is sympathetic to the main character, the signalman. He is genuinely interested in the signalman’s experiences. He revisits the signalman after their first conversation because he wants to find out more. He listens carefully to him; he clearly wants to find out the truth. The narrator shows positive aspects when he is talking to the signalman despite the fact to begin with, he tries to find rational reasons to minimise the strangeness of the “spectre” that the signalman refers to. He talks of an “infection in the mind” and “a deception of his sense of sight” and he therefore suggests that the signalman’s illusions occur because of an illness. Surprisingly, Dickens does not provide much information about his narrator; he scarcely seems to be a real person in the story.
The narrator of “The Red Room” is different from that of “The Signalman”. He is the main character of the story, a very strong and definite individual. Right from the start of the story, he seems to be both pompous and arrogant because of the content and style of speech. “`Eight – and – twenty years, ` said I, `I have lived, and never a ghost have I seen as yet. `. He thinks that his own experience is all he needs to take into account. He inverts the normal word order in two phrases: “Eight – and – twenty years …”, “… never a ghost have I seen…” He hopes this will make him sound more important and impressive. He scorns what the old people tell him about the ghost. He thinks that as a rationalist he can explain whatever happens to him. The narrator lights up the entire bedroom because he wants to see what is there for himself.
When the candles start to go out, the narrator starts to panic, which gradually increases. “My hands trembled so much that twice I missed the rough paper of the matchbox.” He is starting to be afraid of the supernatural, which he claimed did not exist. When a number of candles go out, the narrator utters a cry of terror. As more candles go out, he panics even more. He tries to light a candle from the fire, and then he starts to run around the room, which is in darkness. It is shown how frightened he is by the phrase: “Steady on!” “These candles are wanted.” It is clear that the narrator is not a true rationalist. At the end, the narrator tries to show that fear is the great enemy of rationalism. However, he proves to be unreliable, since he fails to mention the fire and the candles. This means that he refuses to face up to those parts of his experience, which he cannot explain.
The signalman is the central character in Dickens’ story. The most important focus is on the signalman’s experience. This is unlike “The Red Room”, where the narrator’s experiences are the main aspects of the story. At the beginning of the story, the signalman himself seems to be strange, mysterious and almost supernatural and therefore contributes to the strange atmosphere. The narrator thinks the signalman is a ghost: “The monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the fixed ice and the saturnine face, that this was a spirit, not a man.”
Only when the signalman describes seeing a “spectre” at the mouth of the railway tunnel, which has appeared several times, does the reader begins to wonder about his connection with the supernatural. However, as more is revealed about the signalman, he appears to be more ordinary. It is clearly shown that he is intelligent and skilful in his occupation, which enables the reader to treat his visions seriously and pay more attention. His high level of intelligence encourages the suggestion that there will be a clear, rational explanation at the end of the story. This is rather similar to the beginning of “The Red Room.”
The signalman cannot make a connection between seeing the spectre and the deaths that occur near his signal box. He is a decent human being, as he has a feeling the apparition is a warning, and if he possibly could he would help anyone who was in danger. He is caring, concerned and would like to prevent another disaster. This may make us like him. Because the signalman has clearly shown that he is concerned about other people’s safety, when we learn of his death at the end of the story we feel pity towards him.
In “The Red Room”, the other main characters are the three custodians. These characters are described in a gothic way so that they appear strange and unusual, and so contribute to the strange, creepy and mysterious atmosphere: “He supported himself by a single crutch, his eyes were covered by a shade, and his lower lip, half averted, hung pale and pink from his decaying yellow teeth.” This quote shows the barbarous description of the man: “A monstrous shadow of him crouched upon the wall and mocked his action as he poured and drank.”
Their main purpose is to warn the narrator against visiting the red room. They also contribute to the atmosphere of the story by giving insistent warnings of the danger of the red room. “(`This night of all nights! ` Said the old woman)” “`But if you go to the red room tonight - ` … `you go alone. ` Although the narrator claims he is unaffected by their warnings, when he gets to the red room, he is made anxious partly by their feelings.
In “The Signalman”, the ending of the story answers all of the questions concerning the signalman and the spectre. It is now understood that this is not a ghost story, though it seemed like it at the beginning, with the paranormal and spooky atmosphere. The reader comprehends that the signalman is not seeing a ghost from the past but he has seen glimpses into the future. Dickens has misled the reader because he has given a generic expectation that this will be a ghost story, but, it turns out not to be. This is similar to “The Red Room” where the narrator claims that it was fear and not the supernatural which led him to lose control. It takes the reader by surprise when the signalman himself is killed because the spectre was associated with the other people’s deaths on two other occasions. Dickens has misled the reader again.
Despite this, at the end there is a feeling of complete closure. The emotions that readers possibly experience are sadness, compassion and a feeling of tragedy. These emotions are increased because the reader has grown to like and respect the signalman for his genuine concern of other people and what the spectre might actually mean.
In “The Red Room”, there is a strong contrast to the ending of “The Signalman”. There is no feeling of complete closure in the story. This is because the narrator fails to explain two significant details of his experience in the red room. One detail is that the candles went out suddenly without any smoke appearing: “The flame vanished, as if the wicks had been suddenly napped between a finger and thumb, leaving the wick neither blowing nor smoking, but black.” The second detail is how the flames of the fire actually vanished: “…and incontinently the flames dwindled and vanished, the glow vanished, the reflections rushed together and vanished, and as I thrust the candle between the bars darkness closed upon me like the shutting of an eye.” As these details do not support the narrator’s open “rational” explanation, he simply omits them. Perhaps his memory has conveniently omitted the details that do not agree with his view of the world. Wells seems to be interested in the issues concerning the supernatural, so there is very little emotion in the end of the story. This is dissimilar to “The Signalman” where there are feelings of sympathy and sorrow towards the signalman who dies.
Unexpectedly, Wells includes a touch of humour at the very end. The narrator tries to explain to the custodians that it was only his own fear that was the reason he panicked. Humorously, the old man “with the shade” gets a vision of fear as a supernatural force. The ending seems to show people believe what they want to believe. The narrator is determined not to believe in the supernatural so he forgets the evidence for it.
Numerous differences can be found in “The Signalman” and “The Red Room”. While the setting of “The Signalman” is outside, on a railway cutting, “The Red Room” is set inside a mansion. The narrators of the two stories also appear to be very different. The narrator of “The Signalman” is sympathetic to the signalman and is very interested in his experience. He revisits the signalman after their first talk because he wants to find out more about him. The narrator of “The Red Room” on the other hand, seems to be extremely arrogant and also acts pompously when he talks to the three custodians. He talks as though he is superior and should be treated with respect.
The signalman is the most important character in Dickens’ story; it is mainly his experiences that are the most important features of his story. This is quite unlike “The Red Room”, since the narrator’s experiences are the main aspects of the story. The other characters are the three custodians who are described in a gothic way so that they appear as bizarre and odd as possible.
The ending of “The Signalman” answers all of the questions that we have been asking ourselves of the signalman and the spectre. In Wells’ story, however, there is not a strong feeling of complete closure. Although the narrator tries to explain what has happened to him, he fails to explain his experience in detail.
In “The Red Room”, there is a touch of humour at the end, when the narrator explains that it was his own fear, which caused him to panic. The old man with the shade misinterprets this, and he thinks fear is now a supernatural force. The ending of the “The Signalman” fills the reader with sadness and a feeling of pity towards the main character. Lots of emotions are provoked here, unlike “The Red Room”.
