In brief, both of these stories are similar but at the same time, rather different. The signalman is about a ghost that has been haunting a signal man on a railway, each appearance preceding a tragic event on the railway on which he works. And the ostler is about a man, a lonely man with less luck than anyone who falls in love, but only to find that she is the witch from his dream, the one that tried to kill him.
Both stories start off with powerful and effective beginnings, “Halloa! Below there!” the signalman starts off with that exact sentence making the reader want to read on and find out who or what was saying it, and who or what it was saying it to. The ostler uses narrative, “I find an old man...” this showing that he/she has made a discovery, making the reader want to find out about the old man.
Also, both these stories have been written in a mysterious way as to make the reader want to carry on, the signalman using a cold, weary, and isolated, where as the ostler uses an everyday appearance, out in the open, but still cold and weary, causing two different effects, the signalman causing suspense, and the ostler causing mystery and a feeling of fate.
The signalman is a moody and mysterious character where as the character from the ostler, Isaac is a quiet and unlucky person. These characteristics are what make the stories what they are. The signalman says “I don’t know,” this explaining that he could be possibly hiding something. The inn keeper from the ostler remarks “You’re our only lodger tonight” this implies that Isaac is a lonely character.
"Something mysteriously untraceable, and yet something that perpetually made itself felt" from the ostler, this reflects the setting of the story and shows that the setting of the setting is dark and gloomy. And “with a very disagreeable sensation of a train coming behind me” from the signalman make the reader think that something drastic is going to happen, such as he will get hit by the train or something. Both the authors of these stories create such atmospheres by using spooky words such as mysterious, moonlight, and unnatural. And by using weather, rain appears in both these stories, making it seem scarier in the dark.
Both the characters in the stories are very similar, they both are honest and reliable, not criminals or anything related to crime. They are both singled out as victims, the signalman being a victim for being alone and is vulnerable, Isaac also vulnerable, but is a bit slow in the head so is therefore picked on by the witch. They both have horrifying experiences, the signalman dies, and Isaac’s wife turns out to be the witch that’s been haunting him. No one can help them as they are both lonely and vulnerable.
The supernatural in the stories appear to be scary from the time the stories they were written, but very simple things are used to make the witch and the spectre seem scary, such as the knife that the witch had in the ostler. Just the description of the air around the spectre in the signalman is enough, “barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air.”
Dickens and Collins end their stories in different ways; the ostler is ended with a cliff hanger however the signalman is ended with a twist. In the ostler Isaac is forever having his recurring dream or being stabbed by a witch with a knife, he falls in love with his first, and his last woman and she turns out to be the witch and does not stop haunting him, at the end of the story the reader does not know if she has stopped haunting him. And in the signalman it is quite ironic that he and the narrator didn’t understand the warning signs of his death.
The spectre is more effective in terms of mystery and suspense I think as it doesn’t spoil it and tell the reader what happens after, where as the signalman does; it leaves you in wonder and wanting to find out. Very effective I think.
But I prefer the signalman as it is less effective, I don’t really like ghost stories that much and is not as much as a ghost story as the ostler.
