The Signalman - Horror story's really started in the 19th century.

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Horror story’s really started in the 19th century. Science was being properly introduced and a lot of people couldn’t get their heads around some of it and it really was weird. A lot of people described it as “Evil”. Also stories and events like “Jack the Ripper” were happening and a lot of people were getting scared. There was a lot of mystery around the time with all the smoke from factories and there was a very funny atmosphere around at the time. There were a lot of factories around at the time because of the “industrial Revolution”. All this mounted up at the time and people got easily scared. In films, by getting people scared, the films got high ratings (you would of thought that why would people want to go to the movies to get scared), but they all had a “twist” at the end.

People will think this is good because they will think that the story is “well done”. This is why people would enjoy the book.

The signalman is atypical ghost story, in the way that it also has twists. But it is different. This may be why it is affective.

The setting for the story is a lonely signal box down in a railway cutting. Down in this cutting there is 3 places, which are vital in this tale: The warning light, the tunnel and the signal box. The tunnel is a mysterious dark place. Dickens describes the tunnel and it’s surroundings as “barbarous, depressing and forbidding” he also says, “little sunlight ever found it’s way to this spot”. All these adjectives describe the place as a lonely, dark and depressing place. This is a usual “horror” story setting and gives you the extra sense that something is about to happen and you are wary of this setting. His hut is described as not very big, but just big enough for him. This gives the idea that it is lonely and the man could be vulnerable, not just physically but mentally, this place could just drive him crazy. I definitely think that the setting is a true horror story setting because it gives you the feeling that it’s miserable and depressing and maybe deep, dark creatures live here. The setting also fits in with the industrial revolution, as trains are largely involved with industry and the book was set, when the industrial revolution was happening. I think another reason why Dickens involved trains was the reason that Dickens was in a big train crash and he may have written a ghost story about it. All these points are good reasons for Dickens choosing this setting and how it was a usual ghost story.

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Another stereotypical thing is the character of the signalman, I think his character is a usual ghost story character. He is lonely, strange and mysterious man who no one is sure about. Dickens writes it so not to go into detail of this character so he is more unknown.

In horror stories it is all about surprise and suspense, by having the signalman mysterious you don’t know how he is going to turn out. The signalman says that he tries to pass the time with algebra and math because he has nothing to do in the intervals of a train ...

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