The next story I looked at was called The Signal Man written by Charles Dickens. This story is about two men who work in a train station. One of the men goes for a walk every night and he meets a creature called the Signalman. The Signalman tells the man about previous accidents which have happened in the tunnel and how many people have died there. It is only the end of the story when we realise that it is actually the narrator who is the ghost himself and was killed in one of the accidents that he speaks of.
The last story I looked at was called The Red Room written by H.G Wells. This story is about a man who wanted to prove that there was no such thing as ghosts and visited a house where several murders took place and was well known for its red room where people said they had seen ghosts. He then goes to the room stays over night and is terrified by his own imagination.
The Body Snatchers is set in a grave yard. The grave yard is the main setting it seems a normal graveyard apart from a more scary and meaningful than other graveyards. ‘Vulchers swoop upon a dying lamb’ this doesn’t happen in modern day graveyards this makes it scary because there are Vulchers eating human meat.
The Red Room is set in an old castle; it has words in the story which describe it as old by quotes like ‘there is a candle on the slab outside the door’. Which shows it doesn’t have electricity and candles are used.
The Signal Man is set in a railway cutting thus creates an atmosphere in the story because the narrator describes it as a gloomy dark place. ‘In as solitary and dismal a place as I ever saw’ is the way the narrator describes it. The word ‘dismal’ makes you think of something sad which is what the narrator wanted he also followed that with ‘solitary’ this makes the reader picture the railway cutting as isolated and away from other places and people. This created a supernatural effect to the story because the reader is automatically thinking that something is very unusual about the setting and something ghostly must happen. The Signal Man, in my opinion sets the best scene. It is set underground, which I believe is a great setting for a story of this type. Because it based underground the whole story is dark, and in the dark bad things happen. The Signalman is in the first person as the signal man is the main character as he says I and me.
In the Body Snatchers the two main characters both study medicine and use that as a way of snatching bodies from graves and even murder people. It is set in the third person as they are talked about rather than saying I the writer says they and he also gave them names.
There is only one main character in the Red Room which is the one that goes inside the room and has the contact with the ghost. He is an elderly man and has been living there for twenty eight years. The author does not give a name as the character is described as ‘the man with the withered arm’ and ‘the man with the shade’. The main character is in first person and is referred to as I or me.
This genre has influenced poetry, literature and even filmmaking up to the present day. People fear the unanticipated and are captivated with it. Fear is an emotion that horror movies play on to frighten viewers making them anxious of things that do not even exist. Fear is danger and danger is harm. Fear can be viewed through the colour red, a symbol for danger. By using the word 'red' in the title the author, H G Wells, shows some sort of danger or fear in the story. Red is usually associated with fear and danger. He shows fear by showing the narrator to be a very cocky and confident person. If the colour was blue it would be a calmer colour and safe. The Body-Snatcher It is a very good and eye catching title for a horror story it reminded me of a horrible person who would snatch bodies and kill people. The Signalman draws attention to the reader as it is unusual word to name a person therefore it must be a creature or nickname of some sort for a strange person. This creates suspense because the reader is fixed on wanting to read the story to find out what the Signal man means or does.
Most of the titles are horrifying, beastly and alarming. Here are some examples Dracula, (If the person knows of the story they would understand why it is scary.) (If a person doesn't know what this means then they are missing out on a great story true or false.) The titles are meant to make you read the stories or watch the movies because they make it interesting, captivating and attractive they also make the person curious so they want the person to see or read the film or book.
There are two supernatural stories which I have studied the reason being is that they both include ghosts and typical horror. The Red Room and The Signalman are supernatural stories. The Body Snatchers is not a supernatural story as it is more scientific gothic and does not include ghosts. In a gothic horror story, supernatural is scarier to read and watch than a non supernatural horror story in my opinion. Overall in my opinion for a successful gothic story has to be supernatural to keep the viewer or reader interested.
The story I would class as the most successful is The Body Snatchers as I found it the most interesting and I was drawn to this one rather than the others I did enjoy The Signal man but the author uses well suited language consequently making the story scary and exciting to read. There is a lot of tension created the whole way through the story right up to the very end. The Red Room by H.G Wells, and The Signalman by Charles Dickens, they were not very scary because they were not Gruesome, horrendous, monstrous or horrid. I like the Body Snatchers because it has got horrible bits and a better story I think.
