Compare and contrast thre enineteenth century short stories commenting on the author's use of gothic genre conventions of horror and the supernatural.

The very setting of The Signalman form the start gives the story an eerie gothic feel to it with the signalman working and living in a dark lonely place with the tunnel that is very close by adding to the sense of mystery of the man and the place. The railway line is set in a shallow gorge with ‘dripping wet walls of jagged stone,’ which gives the sense that the jagged stone is evil and the dripping sense is forbidding and would probably echo in the tunnel adding further to the forbidding sense. This setting partially occurs in ‘Napoleon and the Spectre’ with the setting being a dark room, which likens to the dark tunnel. The darkness also gives a sense of mystery to the author’s writing. ‘In the glow of an angry sunset,’ the stranger re-visits the line to see the signalman. The word ‘angry’ is far from comfortable or romantic. This line also gives an eerie feel to the fading light and gives a feel that suggests that something is must and is about to happen that is dark and evil.

An Arrest by Ambrose Bearcy is a story of a murderer who was awaiting ‘his trial,’ escaped by ‘knocking down his jailer with an iron bar,’ and went into the forest. It was night and the forest in to which, he entered was renowned for being wild and unsafe. He goes for many a mile and some how manages to exit the forest and finds an old road and on the road there stood ‘the figure of a man, motionless in the gloom.’ The gothic style protrudes from this line of the novel very clearly and adds to the sense of suspense and fear that is plaguing this scene. The fugitive is almost face to face with ‘the figure of a man,’ and feels he cannot turn his back for fear of being ‘filled with buckshot,’ so he stood there like a tree. The fugitive is hoping that if he stands still enough he will become a tree and escape this horror. Until the moon ‘sailed into a patch of unclouded sky,’ ‘the haunted man saw the visible embodiment of law lift an arm and point significantly beyond him.’ At which ‘he understood,’ and turned his back ‘to his captor,’ and went back to the county prison from which he had escaped. He feels like he is being followed and only turns upon reaching the jail where he enters to find that no one enters behind him, but there upon a table ‘lay the dead body of Burton Duff.’ This suggests that the most hardened of criminals who has killed twice with ease has been haunted by a murder he has committed.

The setting in which this novel is set makes for a scary story. This is because of the use of language in the gothic style like: ‘the haunted man saw the visible embodiment of law,’ this suggests a ghost who is telling a man the right thing to do but the word ‘haunted,’ makes the thing that should be done sinister in tone. The trees make for an eerie setting because no one knows what could be hiding behind the next one and so keeps the sense of mystery high and keeps it forbidding. The setting of this novel can be likened to Napoleon and the Spectre because of the dark setting and the ghost that enters and haunts the main character.