Back then, Victorians had religious beliefs and beliefs in the afterlife, spirits, and vengeances. As Dickens writes the story, he puts the main focus on spirits and the afterlife, as the Signalman had heard voices from below; and when he went to see, saw no one there. Dickens had convinced readers that the story was true and had frightened certain Victorians. However, for us modern people, it isn’t as scary, because people hardly believe in ghosts and spirits anymore. It is harder to convince someone about the afterlife in the modern era than the Victorian era.
In this novel, Charles Dickens used the ‘ghost’ story genre to create tense, suspense, and excitement. He plays with the readers mind with emotions by adding in specific dialogues and details. Dickens started the story off by raising tension and excitement for the readers. Unlike many authors in the 1900s, Dickens had a clever technique in writing. He started the story off with a dialogue, “Halloa! Below there!” (Narrator) The reader should have an unclear picture of an individual saying it and make them more interested in reading the next bit. Just by starting with a dialogue, Dickens already creates a ‘ghost’ story impression. By rising suspicion, Dickens makes it easier for himself to grab the reader’s attention. Even though he started the story with some mysteriousness, it took him quite a while to introduce the conflict.
The Signalman was also known as a typical Victorian ghost story because the story shows some historical thinking and characteristics of a Victorian ghost story genre. The events in the story was described from the night time because the author had included specific details such as how the signalman carries a ‘white light’ and how it keeps describing the setting as dark. Spirits were also introduced in the story, as the story unfolded. The weather was cold, windy, and forbidding. For example, “there was a barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air.”(Narrator) This made the setting scarier and the mood even darker and more depressing.
Another plus factor of Dickens’ writing was how he overtook the story’s setting. Charles had included different ghost story conventions and made the story more terrifying. Dickens added specific details to the story so it would be more frightening. “On either side, a dripping-wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky; the perspective one way only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air.”(Narrator) By describing the setting very clearly, Dickens gets the attention of readers and is able to scare the reader. Dickens also chose to place the setting in the railways where locomotives were located because he was aware that the locomotives were newly introduced and people were often scared of this new invention, as it had killed 10 people in a previous accident.
Charles Dickens wasn’t any original writer, as he had introduced the exposition in an odd and fashionable way. Instead of jumping to the main point, Dickens had started the story off with suspense and wariness. The remarkable author had started his short story with a dialogue, “Halloa! Below There!” (Narrator) This makes the reader become suspicious and draw their attention into reading more of the story. However, instead of continuing from the dialogue, Dickens chose to introduce the conflict later on, so that the reader would want to read on till the next part of the story. Although it was hard to raise suspicions, Dickens had his own way of drawing attention and telling the story. As the author carefully chooses his dialogue, he makes the reader feels as if they’re actually in the story, by playing around with their senses and mind. The author continues to drive the reader’s senses by playing around with it until he slowly starts to introduce the conflict.
In conclusion, phenomenon author, Charles Dickens has written a sensational story as he had clearly introduced the astonishing setting and exposition in a very fashionable way. The ‘ghost’ story genre was also really interesting, as the author had written about locomotives and the afterlife. Locomotives were a new invention in the Victoria era, and there was an accident that had killed 10 people, so people really made a big deal out of it. Regardless of how, the way that Dickens chose to create the buildup of the story was fantastic and marvelous. Not any author would choose to write such a wondrous setting and exposition. Charles Dickens wrote the setting so that it was very dark and scary, touching the reader’s senses and playing around with the reader’s thoughts. However, we may identify this story as both typical and untypical for many reasons. It was very typical of him, when Dickens introduced the characters and setting of the story. Most scary stories were typically dark and scary. Moreover, the untypical part of the story was when the plot was introduced. Dickens had touched the readers so that they would want to continue reading and finish the story. A Victorian reader would find this story scary, as they had beliefs in the afterlife, but a modern reader wouldn’t really find the story scary, because it would be very typical for modern world writing. To reciprocate, I would say that this book was really creative for a writer in the Victorian era, but very typical for a writer in the modern world. I found this book interesting, as the author had included great details and soft touches to make the short story slightly more interesting.
by
narulanarin (student)
