This ‘chilly, echoing passage’ is a common factor in a ghost story for it is dark, damp, cold and dusty. It is dimly lit, any sound can be heard and any movement made casts greatly magnified, ‘monstrous’ shadows onto the surrounding walls. When walking through the passage you would probably not be able to see to the other end, which means that anything could be lurking there. The passage has a great effect on both the reader and probably, the young man. It creates fear and suspense and is a tension builder; this passage is the start of the growing fear that the young man experiences.
Then he moves onto the corridor in which the ‘red room’ is situated. The first thing noted about this corridor is the shock it gave him to see moonlight streaming through a window; illuminating everything and making it look black and silvery. He then notices that it looks untouched and there are thick layers of dust to prove that no one has been there for a long time. As he begins to move around he notices a shadow of what, to him, looked like a figure ‘crouching to waylay’ him. He is very paranoid and is becoming extremely nervous. Once he finds out that it was only a statue his nerve has restored and even when he passed another statue that moved it ‘scarcely startled’ him. When he arrives at the door of ‘the red room’ he remembers that it was just outside the door that the young duke had begun to die.
Once inside the red room he carries out many acts to make himself feel secure and to reassure himself. Once he has locked himself in he describes the room in great detail so that the reader feels involved in the young man’s ‘systematic examination’. Once the examination was complete he says himself to be ‘in a state of considerable nervous tension’. He then barricades the door as a back up for the lock and lights all of the available candles to flood the room with light. He settles down and recites poems to take his mind of the task this doesn’t work so he looks for others ways to occupy himself and make the room look more comfortable, he even at one point describes the room as ‘very cheery and reassuring’! I believe that he does this to falsely convince himself that there is nothing to be afraid of. The young man fetches candles from outside to add more light to the room so absolutely nothing can be hiding anywhere. Throughout his time in the room there is an alternating pattern of cheeriness and tension of the narrator.
After midnight he said that ‘the candle in the alcove suddenly went out’. If you were looking for a non-superstitious explanation for this event then it could be that the candle had been out for a while but that had simply not noticed it. He then says that ‘a black shadow sprung back to its place', this is an example of personification that adds effect to the action of the candle also the utilisation of sibilance helps convey the evil for example the ‘hissing of snakes’; symbols of evil. It brings about an immediate sense of tense erupting. He tries to relight the candle by strolling ‘leisurely’ over to it; he is doing this so that he doesn’t panic. Then two candles go out behind him; again he tries to find a rational explanation for it and blames it on his ‘absentmindedness’. When the next few candles went out he puts the blame on a draught even though there are no open windows or doors around. When the next one goes out he begins to worry, and says that the flame definitely vanished. Again he uses personification when he says that ‘the shadows seemed to take another step towards me.’ He begins to shout out loud and is so nervous that he cannot light a match first time because of his trembling. He manages to think clearly and instead of using matches he uses a candle to relight the others. However he is unable to keep up with the extinguishing candles and uses imagery for effect: ‘It was like a ragged storm cloud sweeping out the stars.’
Now he is severely beginning to panic and is injuring himself with his clumsiness, he resorts to the warmth and light of the fire when all of the candles are extinguished but that is soon extinguished also, plunging him into darkness. Still panicking he tries to light the candle from the ashes of the fire; he will not believe that it has gone out. In a last effort to save himself from the darkness he attempts to leave ‘The red room’ and enter the moonlit corridor. He has forgotten where the door is and is knocked out. The paragraphs from when the first candle goes out to when he is knocked out are extremely tense. They involve a lot of short sentences to increase and sustain tension and suspense. The climax of the story is when the last few candles begin to go out.
When he has recovered from his fall he awakens in daylight, which is a sharp contrast to the darkness in the room. He appears to have become a better person from his experience and he tells the old people that it is fear in the room, an emotion, nothing supernatural at all. His final words are among the most powerful in the story, they are also among the most crucial, he says that fear is much worse than anything supernatural for it is inside you and always will be, ‘so long as this house of sin endures.’ As mentioned before, this nineteenth century novel contains all the elements of a traditional ghost story. The language throughout is typical of the time genre in which it was written; the Victorian language is used for emotive and figurative effect and adds to the spooky creepy atmosphere that runs throughout. The story is extremely effective in putting the story across and the theme is often reflected in today’s world.
'The Signal man’ is set in a deep cutting adjacent to a tunnel with a railway running through,
suspense is created through supernatural, horror and ambiguity. The story opens with the words, “Halloa! Below there”, this short, but effective line becomes very decisive as the story unfolds. We don’t know whose speaking and so creates tension already, the man he is shouting to below looks round to face the tunnel, “Looked down the line”, any normal person would look upwards in response to this. Again Dickens is creating the unexplainable which builds up the tension and suspense, at this time we don’t know who either of the men is. We know it is a ghost story so which one if any is the ghost. He is making you ask yourself questions, which create suspense. You are already hooked and trying to figure out who is the ghost. He then goes on to describe the man below “There was something remarkable in his manner of doing so”. This is evidence for the argument that he is possibly the ghost because of his weird actions. The actions create mystery, which is effective to create the overall suspense. Also you still haven’t had any kind of a physical description of the signalman so at this time you don’t even know if he’s human or not and you can’t just make an assumption, you have to read on.
Being set in the nineteenth century, a time when supernatural powers were still believable, so someone reading this at the time would feel more of the pressure. The scene is set within a deep cutting at twilight and because of the darkness the two men don’t get to see each other properly until they are face to face which is too late if one man kills the other. “I was near enough to have touched him”. It makes you have the, “Don’t go down there” feeling so tension builds up more and more the closer they get to one another. Just before he goes down the cutting an unknown vibration shakes the ground, “Vague vibration in the earth and air”, He also uses a lot of effective adjectives like, “Violent pulsation”, and this captures the senses and adds to the tension. This could be the final climax to the building pressure, but it ends up as being a train this creates a lot of tension which is then lost after you are enlightened.
The cutting is pretty dark this darkness creating the suspended mood, "I will come at eleven" ,this keeps the tension due to the darkness Charles Dickens knows well what he is doing because the tension would be lost if they were to meet on a sunny midday. In addition, the darkness impairs the signalman's vision, which could be a possible reason for his sightings. It is also described as being “extremely deep and unusually precipitous” and “solitary and dismal", it seems like the place is very isolated and cut off from the real world, the perfect place for supernatural happenings “Great dungeon”. The tunnel also creates suspension, why did he look down there in this first place and what could be down there it is described as “barbarous, depressing and forbidding”. The smells and surroundings make him a little bit reluctant to descend “air of reluctance”.
The story is only spread over a couple of days, but that is all it takes for him to get involved also the story only ever takes place within the cutting. Is this so none of the tension is lost? “But I expressly intend to make you another visit”. The two men meet both times at the bottom of the cutting at night “I will come at eleven”. This keeps the tension due to the darkness; it would probably be lost if they were to meet on a sunny midday. Also the darkness impairs the narrator’s vision so he can’t be sure what’s out there.
The signalman is evidently going to be an important character once they get talking and his actions are very weird to start off with. He stands intently in the railway with his hand on his chin, not moving a muscle until they are face to face “Before he stirred I was near enough to have touched him”. Also when they do meet he makes no attempt to start the conversation, instead he looks at the red light “Look towards the red light” He seems very mysterious and unpredictable. As they begin to talk again the man becomes slightly hostile and the narrator speculates that he might be a ghost “This was a spirit”. This is a very tense point in the story because the ghost’s identity may have already been revealed, but the signalman begins to show fear and asks if they have met before. It makes you think why should the signalman show any fear? After their conversation the man leaves and the signalman tells him that on his return journey not to call out those words. “Halloa! Below there”. It builds tension over what these words really mean to the signalman and why he is scared of them. The signalman himself looks mysterious “A dark sallow man”. This would add to the reader’s suspense and build up the tension as he gets closer. They retreat to the signal box and from his long description you realise that he is quite a knowledgeable man “Worked at fractions and decimals”. If he is so clever why is he a signalman? He is also a very skilled workman," safest of men to be employed. These questions add mystery to his identity, which in turn builds up the suspense. Within their talk, the signalman looks outside toward the tunnel more than once. This creates expectancy of what’s going to happen.
In the first conversation he tells the man that he is “troubled”. This makes you ask the question what is he troubled about and does it have anything to do with his weird actions previously? Could he be or knows the ghost? These questions make you think about what’s coming round the corner. This also builds suspense. On the man’s return visit he is told about the mysterious figure and how it disappeared. “It was gone”. This long passage describing the ghost’s actions adds tension and expectancy that it will come again. He also clears up his odd actions (when he looked down the tunnel). The ghost says those very same words. We now know that he is not the ghost so some tension is lost but it is now a matter of if the man will see the ghost and what it will say. He also tells the man of the lady who died in the carriage just after he had seen the figure “Within six hours after this appearance, the memorable accident happen”. You begin to associate the spectre with death and whose death will it contribute to next.
The story is written in first person so it feels like it is actually happening at the same time you read it. This is evident when he talks with and about the signalman “You look at me as if you had a dread of me”. Neither you nor he knows what the response is going to be. His manner is described as “seemed to make the place strike colder to me, but I said no more”. He describes it as it happens which adds suspense, this a weird description to give someone, could he be the ghost?
As you hear about the ghost, the gentleman’s actions are very dismissive. This is true as it would be the natural response, but as they are in a deep cutting, which hasn’t much human contact, you begin to believe him. The man has the same reactions when he hears about the second ghost. “Deception of his sense of sight”. You have the same time to make a decision as he does, but you already know there will be a ghost. The man seems brave and dismissive of things, which could potentially harm him. Maybe too dismissive and this could get him into trouble, but he doesn’t seem like he is a victim. The signalman has this role. In the end it is the gentleman’s fault that the signalman dies because if he hadn’t called down to him in the first place, the signalman would have looked up as the train came down the tunnel. “Below there, look out”. The first words of the story are the most decisive words of the story. Could it have been fate? And no matter what had happened between the start of the story and his death, it couldn’t have been prevented. “The words which I myself - not he – had attached”. He obviously feels responsible for his death and you feel that if he hadn’t associated himself with the man none of this would have happened. This is quite a mysterious and even scary thought.
It is evident that Dickens creates a lot of suspense throughout the story with the opening words and as he descends the cutting, looking at the signalman whose actions seems very weird. Suspense is also created as the signalman tells the gentleman of the weird happenings recently. The settings are very mysterious and even prone to something like this happening. Dickens’ ability to bring mystery, unexplainable and first person narrative adds up to make suspense in the story. However, I find ‘The Red Room’ the more effective of these two tales of the supernatural. It is faster- paced and the language- with the personification of candles and shadows- more powerful. Although both are classics of the ghost genre, the Wells’ story lives on in my mind and nightmares!
