In ‘The Signalman’ by Charles Dickens the narrator meets a lonely signalman. At first he seems to be scared of him. Then they start to get along fine, soon the signalman tells him that something is disturbing him, a spectre. Twice the spectre has appeared and twice there have been terrible incidents and now the ghost has reappeared and the signalman does not know what to do. The story ends with the signalman’s death in a train incident. The signalman’s mysterious behaviour at the start of the story attracts the narrator and gets the reader hooked, to know why the signalman is behaving the way he is. Charles Dickens uses different kind of techniques to build that atmosphere of fear, excitement, anticipation and horror. Here are some examples, he uses his opening sentence “Halloa! Below there!” and uses it plenty of times in the story to keep the reader guessing why this sentence has so much importance in the play. Dickens uses language like “Angry Sunset, violent pulsation”, “barbarous, depressing and forbidding air” examples of personification, Dickens make them seem like human to create an atmosphere of unease. Dickens also uses detailed description of the setting such as “On either side, a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky”, to give the reader a feeling as if he is there.
‘The Deadfall’ by Ted Hughes is a very different kind of ghost story because in this story he is not trying to scare you he is trying to get a message across, that man and nature have grown apart.
In the story he talks about his past; the strange incidents that happened including how his mother saw ghosts, he himself tried to wake the ghost of the ancient Briton, the focus of all these incidents is to tell the reader that he was easy with the fact of ghost and he has been brought up in it unlike “The Signalman”. One day he went camping with his brother and he was called to help by an old woman (the ghost) to help save a fox. When Ted Hughes recalls past events in his life, when his mother saw ghosts he also uses lots of detail like how she felt: “…felling dreadfully agitated,” to get the reader engaged with the plot. It is also different in another way because in The Deadfall the reader knows what the story will be about in the opening paragraph, where as in The Signalman reader is slowly carried through the narrative with the use “direct speech”.
Another difference between “The Deadfall” and “The Signalman” is that characters in the ‘The Deadfall’ seemed to be comfortable with the idea of ghosts and were actually quite curious about it (remember walking of the ancient Briton), where as the narrator in ‘The Signalman’ thinks there seems to be a logical explanation to it and the reaction of the signalman man were that he was terrified because of it and we learn about this through the narrator and the way he describes the signalman “there was something in the man that daunted me”, this is because Charles Dickens was trying to create a different atmosphere in the story. In “The Deadfall” Ted Hughes doesn’t describe the ghost in a way that Charles Dickens does. He describes them as if they are not even there. One example of this is when he talks about how his mother saw ghost of his uncle when she was hovering, telling us as if they are nothing to be afraid of. Charles dickens opening try’s to get the reader intense and where as Ted Hughes who try’s to get the reader more and more interested in the story and the signalman’s reactions play a major part in this: “It was not to be denied that this was a remarkable coincidence”. This reaction from the signalman is trying to say that the accident was a coincidence, making the reader think that it wasn’t a coincidence and there was indeed a ghost there trying to aware him of something.
Settings are important in ghost stories as they often tie into the themes helping to establish the atmosphere, mood, tension and also suspense in the story.
The Signalman has a dark, typical ghost story setting. It is a very unpleasant place to be in. Dickens uses powerful description of the setting which appeals to the senses. Such as: “Gloomier entrance to a black tunnel…. Barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air”. These quotes really appeal to the senses because they contain metaphors, similes and onomatopoeia. The image that is painted through these descriptions is that it is a very unpleasant place to be in.
The setting of the deadfall seems more realistic this is different from The Signalman. It is not a typical ghost story setting or unpleasant in any way. In fact it is described to be really beautiful and calm. Ted Hughes however on the other hand also uses really powerful description of the setting just like Charles Dickens. “And in the very bottom of the valley, the dark, deep cleft, thick with beech, oak, sycamore, plunging to an invisible stream,” this also appealing to the senses, although it is creating a different mood and atmosphere.
Characterization is the way in which characters are developed in a story. Characters may be developed in various ways depending on how important they are to the story.
The Signalman it is a typical ghost story with scary features. On the contrast, in The Deadfall the ghosts are not frightening. In The Signalman when the Signalman gets haunted he starts to get irritated making him passionate. We know that he is passionate because he is vehement.
“That what troubles me so dreadfully is the question: What does the spectre mean?”
This quote from the signalman tells us how frustrated he is becoming because of this ghost and these are the kind of things that get the reader interested in the story. In The Signalman we are offered different kinds of explanations of the hauntings. These are that there was indeed a ghost that was trying to aware him of his own death, this tells us about the time it was written in because in Victorian times people believed in these things and most of them thought there is no logical explanation to it. Where as if this was a case in today’s world most people would believe there is a logical explanation for this, a thing of your mind perhaps.
In The Deadfall the main character is haunted by the ghost. He is curious about the ghost and makes up suggestions of what the ghost was. Although he believes in ghosts he doesn’t declare the old lady one. He doesn’t even know that it is a ghost, it is only later that he realises that he him self did in fact see a ghost. Ted Hughes doesn’t try to describe the ghost in the way a typical ghost story would and that is the key for what makes his story work. He describes the old lady as being lonely and caring. “She was probably some eccentric old lady who never slept … and spent the night roaming the hillsides”.
The Signalman is a conventional ghost story, in which the description of the haunting adds to the tension + atmosphere and often plays on the reader’s fear of the unknown and supernatural beliefs. It is often the cause of fear and tension and suspense, which helps to move the plot along.
Stories are told in different ways; writers may use the 1st or 3rd person narrative style. The use of the pronouns “I”, “we” implies a 1st person narrative. This simply means that the story is told from the perspective of one character. This style can be very effective in creating vivid pictures and sensations for the reader as they are carefully guided through the plot almost as though they were part of the story as it unfolds. In 1st person narratives, the narrator may also be one of the main characters. The Signalman and The Deadfall are both written in 1st person. The effect of this to the reader is that he or she fells as if they are they character in the story. “The cutting was extremely steep”. The reader immediately fells as if he/she must be careful.
I believe that the most important focus in The Signalman is the strange behaviour of the signalman at the beginning, which really hooks the reader into the story and makes him want to read more. In The Deadfall I think the most important point was the fact that Ted Hughes in the beginning tells the reader what the story is going to be about. “It came to me in one of the strangest incidents of my life”. This sentence gets the reader really anxious to find out what was that strange incident and how did it happen.
My personal opinion would be that The Signalman was better than The Deadfall because there were more horror elements in The Signalman than in The Deadfall.
Ted Hughes “The Deadfall” fulfils the reader’s expectations of the genre by getting a message across that man and nature have grown apart and that we should also preserve the wild environment and not try to destroy it.
Charles Dickens “The Signalman” fulfils the reader’s expectations of the genre by doing an excellent job of scaring the reader and building up the anticipation and making the reader more and more anxious about the story.
By
Bilal Jabbar
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