Comparing The Red Room, H.G.Wells, The Signalman, Charles Dickens, He Ostler, Wilkie Collins.

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Compare a selection of 19th century mystery stories commenting on:

  • The Setting
  • The Characters
  • The Plot
  • The Ending

A gothic story is a type of romantic fiction that existed in English Literature in the last third of the 18th century and the first two decades of the 19th century, the setting for which was usually a ruined gothic castle of Abbey. The gothic novel or gothic romance emphasised mystery and horror and was filled with ghost haunting rooms, underground passages, and secret stairways.

I’ll be looking at 3 short stories and the authors:

The Red Room, H.G.Wells, 1896

The Signalman, Charles Dickens, 1866

He Ostler, Wilkie Collins, 1855

The Signalman is set at a station beside a tunnel. It is written in first person, so the narrator is talking to the reader. The Signalman stays in a “manmade cutting which was extremely deep, and unusually precipitous.” “It was made through a clammy stone that became oozier and wetter as I went down.” Already the reader gets a very repellent, dank, wet, thermal and tactile image creating unpleasant impressions. “A rough zigzag descending path.” So it’s dangerous. Steep descent, leaving natural world far above. “It was the most solitary and dismal a place I ever saw.”  

Charles has also described this cutting as a “great dungeon.” It is massive; make you feel trapped or restricted, cold, dark, unwelcoming, claustrophobic.

The Red Room is set in Lorraine Castle, which relates back to a typical gothic story. It is written in first person, so the narrator is talking to the reader. The main setting is in the Red Room where the narrator stays over night. H.G.Wells describes the room as “a large sombre room with its shadowy window bys, its recesses and alcoves.” The room is old, shadowy- not being able to see clearly. H.G.Wells describes the atmosphere in the room “The moonlight picked out everything in vivid black shadow or silvery illumination.” There is an extreme contrast between black and silver there is no in between. Also he has written “Shadows cower and quiver, listening to a rustling that I fancied I heard, but there is absolute silence.” The shadows look alive and listening and waiting in complete silence, perhaps it’s a ghost.

The Ostler is set in a stable. It is written in third person because it is Landlord who is telling the story. Wilkie Collins has described the inn that Isaac stays in overnight,

“He noticed with surprise the strength of the bolts, bars, and iron sheathed shutters.” The landlord is high on security says it’s always better to be on the safe side than get broken into, he is lonely probably feels insecure.

All the stories are set in 3 different settings, for instance The Signalman is set at a station beside a tunnel, The Red Room is set in castle and The Ostler is set in a stable. The Signalman and The Red Room are set in first person so the story is either being told as it happens or as a past experience. The Ostler is told in third person, so it someone telling a story about someone else it didn’t happen to them. I think that telling a story in third person is not as effective as telling it in first person because in first person the experience that there talking about actually happened to them so therefore because he experienced it he can put it in more detail but if a story is being told in third person then the writer is talking about a experience that happened to someone else so it can’t be in as much detail because he wasn’t there so he can only imagine what it was like. The Red Room is the only story that is set in a stereotypical place for a gothic story; a castle. Normally people would expect it to be set in a castle or an abbey.  

The main character in the Signalman, we do not find out what his name is but we know he has a dark sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows. He seems a bit like a tramp or an old grumpy man who doesn’t have any friends probably because he does not welcome those who do visit. He also seems poor he didn’t go to school so he has educated himself which he enjoys doing. He is not someone you would normally socialise with. Other characters are the Narrator we do not really find out anything about him but he seems like a nice person after all he did become friends with the Signalman and trust him other people would probably just ignore him and think he his crazy. There are other characters like the passengers on the train, the train driver and a couple of police men.  

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The main character in The Red Room is the narrator, we do not find out what he looks like or his name but we do find out that he is 28 years old and a lot about his personality like on the first page he comes off as very arrogant and self centred he is full of himself saying “I can assure you said I that it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me.” “Eight-and-twenty years, said I, I have lived, and never a ghost have I seen as yet.” Other characters are the custodians the narrator ...

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