A comparison of two ghost stories - One is called 'The Signalman' which was written by Charles Dickens in the 19th century. The other story, is called 'The Follower' by Cynthia Asquith

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A Comparison of Two Ghost Stories

I have been working on two different ghost stories, which were written by two different people. One is called ‘The Signalman’ which was written by Charles Dickens in the 19th century. The other story, is called ‘The Follower’ by Cynthia Asquith written in the 20th century. Both stories are set in different times and places, ‘The Signalman’ is set in the countryside and remains more or less the same throughout the story. But in ‘The Follower’, which is based in the city, is set in many different places. Both writers, writing at different times, use many techniques to make their stories frightening and gripping. Charles Dickens might have written his story to say something about the society he was part of, because people at that time were known to have lots of doubts about the future, it was a time of great social change. Cynthia Asquith wrote her story in the twentieth century; her story was about a woman. I think Cynthia Asquith may have been trying to express the concerns and experiences that are common to some women in this society.

Both stories belong to the same genre of ghost stories. Short ghost stories were popular in the 18th century, perhaps because we needed to find evidence of the supernatural somewhere. I think people enjoy reading ghost stories because it is a change from everyday life, or the enjoyment of being scared in the safe surroundings or waiting in suspense in finding out what happens. Some people also like reading ghost stories because it expands their imagination and because the unknown is more frightening than the known.

The story ‘The Signalman’ is about a man whose whole life is revolved around the railway line. One day, on the railway line, he sees someone waving its arms as he runs towards it, he finds that there nothing there, few hours later there is accident. A few months later, the same thing happens and a young lady dies. The signalman thinks it’s ghost trying to tell him that something terrible is going to happen on the line that day. One day a man, the narrator, comes to visit him and the signalman tells him his worries, he also tells him that he has been seeing the spectre quite a lot lately. The narrator goes away doubtful, thinking there must be some explanation for this. The next day the narrator returns to the railway line to find the signalman dead. I think this story classifies as a ghost story because before the accidents, the signalman has seen someone trying to tell him to get out the way and when the signalman goes towards the figure, there is nothing there.

The story ‘The Follower’ is about a woman who is being stalked by a man. This has such a horrible impression on her. She has nightmares about him. Then she is put in a nursing home and doctor advises her to see a psychoanalyst so she can tell him her experiences. Her doctor thinks that they are hallucinations. She tells the psychoanalyst her story after she finishes; she realises that the person she is telling her story to is her stalker. She screams and two nurses and the psychoanalyst, who was on time for his appointment ran in the room at the same time to find her dead. No one else was in the room. This story has some supernatural in it, because no one else had seen the stalker and when she died there was no one in the room.

Cynthia Asquith and Charles Dickens are not that alike in when it comes to a setting a scene. Cynthia Asquith likes to have different places to set the scene while Dickens doesn’t like to change the setting much. ‘The Signalman’ is set in a dark isolated tunnel, between two man-made hills. We know this because in the story the narrator describes the place, with words like ‘down in the deep trench’, ‘his post was salutary and dismal’, ‘excluding all view’ and ‘this great dungeon’ all of these gives us an eerie feeling about the place. I think the words ‘this great dungeon’ are really effective, it makes the reader visualise a horrible place where the signalman spends all his time. The place where he works is difficult to reach, so the signalman doesn’t really meet anyone because no one comes down there. This setting creates a lot of tension and sounds very forbidding. The ghost appears in a very frightening place, near the danger light, I think the ghost went near the danger light because he was trying to get the signalman’s attention and to relate it to what he was trying to tell him that there is danger. I think the setting of ‘The Signalman’ is very depressing place but reflects the nature of the story, which gives you the feeling of the supernatural there.

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‘The Follower’ is set in many different places. One of the settings is the Baker Street Tube, which is associated with Sherlock Holmes but the tube station is usually very busy. The underground is dark and spooky place and in the tunnels there is a cold breeze, and there are weird noises which are creepy. The setting in which there is the hospital, is also scary. Because there are ill people in hospital and sometimes it is a deadly place. There is also a mention of mental illness, which is really frightening because it makes the reader sense a ...

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