Compare the ways in which the authors of 'The Speckled Band' and 'The Signalman' create an atmosphere of mystery and fear

James Dyson 10/05/2007

Compare the ways in which the authors of ‘The Speckled Band’ and ‘The Signalman’ create an atmosphere of mystery and fear

‘The Speckled Band’ and ‘The Signalman’ use language in different ways to make an atmosphere of mystery and fear. These two stories are of a different genre, ‘The Speckled Band’ is a detective mystery, one of the first of its kind and ‘The Signalman’ is a supernatural story, yet they are similar as they are both pieces of pre 1914 pros.

One of the similarities of both these stories is that the stories are both in first person narrative and by doing this they make the character normal, this help you get into the story and see it thought the eyes of this character. Being written in this way helps the reader identify different clues and aspects of the story and helps the reader share the experience and the build up of the feeling of fear and mystery in his character and people around him help build up fear and mystery in the reader.

‘The Speckled Band’ is set in the Victorian age, and is one of the first detective mystery short stories ever. ‘The Speckled Band’ uses different ways to build up an atmosphere of mystery by using language which is evocative of a feeling of mystery; this is done by using a number of metaphors and clever uses of the English language such as descriptive language and use of imagery to create this atmosphere. Using language such as “Oh sir, do you not think you could help me too, and at least throw a little light through the dense darkness that surrounds me?” In this sentence the reader is introduced to an atmosphere of fear, evil and mystery. It does this because it links the story to struggle and darkness, which are linked to evil fear and mystery. Dense darkness is mentioned, this emphasises the darkness and the mysterious nature of it. “Her face all drawn and grey, with restless, frightened eyes, like those of some hunted animal” this quote uses descriptive language, like the simile “like those of a hunted animal” This is a way In which the author Conan Doyle, makes the atmosphere mysterious, he uses descriptive language, especially metaphors and similes, this is also done in the Signalman to build up a similar atmosphere, so it must be a good way build up an atmosphere, especially one of fear and mystery. To build up a similar atmosphere

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There is a difference in the approach of solving the many unanswered questions of the two stories in that, in ‘The Speckled Band’ lots of clue are put forward to the reader and Sherlock Holmes, some of these clues help in the eventual solving of the mystery and some of the clues mislead the reader, most of these clues are solved by Holmes or are just discarded eventually because Holmes knows that they will not help him in his investigation. Most of the clues are solved by the ingenious mind of Holmes; the way he figures these clues out is mysterious in its own right. In The Signalman instead of using clues which will draw the reader closer to solving the mystery then putting them back to square one again and to make a atmosphere of mystery the story uses a kind of opposite to ‘The Speckled Band’ because in ‘The Speckled Band’ the writer Conan Doyle gives a lot of information and clues to make a mysterious atmosphere, in The Signalman there is a lack of information on a number of things such as the lack of names or backgrounds of characters, lack of information about the times or the place in which the story was set, a lack of intensive focus and how the deaths and accidents that occurred were never explained.

The two stories are of different genres so they are different in the ways they achieve an atmosphere of fear and mystery, but they also do have some similarities especially in the way in which they achieve an atmosphere of fear. They both do this by using language that is linked to evil and evocative of evil and sinister emotions in the reader. “Out from a clump of laurel bushes there darted what seemed to be a hideous and distorted child” This is an extract from ‘The Speckled Band’ which shows how Conan Doyle used language very well to make an evil fearful atmosphere. You can see how this language is used by the word he uses “darted” which shows a discreet movement, which makes an atmosphere of evil in the reader’s eyes. Also the word “Hideous” and “Distorted” are used, which are describe what Holmes and Wilson see as an evil and sinister being which again builds up an atmosphere of evil and fear in the story. In The Signalman the build up of an atmosphere of evil and fear is done by using long descriptive words. “There was a barbarous, depressing and forbidding air.” This quote shows an example of how Dickens uses long descriptive words to build up an atmosphere of fear and evil. This example is particularly good because it has many descriptive words in the same sentence, this is not uncommon and there are a few more quotes similar to this in the story. The words used are particularly evil and fearful because they describe the air which is all around, so the evil and fear is all around in the story.

One thing that is used more in ‘The Signalman’ than ‘The Speckled Band’ is the use of imagery such as personification and pathetic fallacy. An example of personification is “The glow of an angry sunset” this is written as if the sun is a person and can feel emotion, and the sun shines down on all the earth so if the Sun is angry it makes the earth fearful, so this is another example of how Dickens builds up a atmosphere of fear and evil. This is also an example of pathetic fallacy.

The starts and endings of the stories are very important in many ways. At the start of the stories you get to know the narrator and start to link ideas with him and put yourself in his shoes, you also get to know the different characters. Then the authors begin to build up the feeling of mystery and fear. The end of the stories are important because you experience the feelings of the narrator and either the story is solved and most of the mysteries are solved and most fear is expelled from the atmosphere like the ending of ‘The Speckled Band’ or there are many questions left unanswered like in ‘The Signalman’ and mystery and fear are still in the atmosphere at the end of the story.

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