The narrator points out that the signalman does not seem to be a man that would see ghosts, which is also common, but that the sight of these apparitions and the ensuing deaths is deeply upsetting him. The appearance of the ghost has altered this signalman’s usually steady state of mind. The narrator pointed out that the signalman was “intelligent, vigilant, painstaking and exact and though he held a subordinate position, he held a most important trust.” But could this continue with his state of mind being so precarious? The narrator had pointed out that there was something aberrant about the red light and that some unnatural feeling stirred inside him, could he be picking up on the signalman’s’ fear?
The main part of the story is concerned with the apparitions of the ghost and the end of the story comes with the signalman being cut down by a train, whilst standing on the line with his back to the tunnel. The narrator had been so concerned for the signalman’s state of mind that he had tried to calm him down by making him focus on the importance of his job and that they would, on the next night gain medical opinion of his state of mind. The signalman had agreed and was obviously so intent on focusing on his duty that for the first time in his life his leg was over the line and he was cut down.
The train driver had done the exact same movements and shouted the exact same words as the ghost, but the signalman was so intent on doing his job that he had not heard the train driver cry out for him to “clear the way”. The ghost had been predicting the signalman’s own death, but the interpretation by the signalman, the confusion and the traveller trying to hold onto the reality had distorted the true foresight of this vision.
This is and extra sensory perception story of considerable merit. The story is a typical E.S.P mystery with questions that cannot be answered e.g. is it mental health or foresight? Did it cause his death or was it written in fate? Could it have been stopped or changed? Or was it all inevitable?
Ideas that are still relevant today.
The Extra sensory perception idea is still relevant today as some people claim to be able to foresee the future, by reading a persons palm or using tarot cards. Mediums also claim to be able to contact dead relatives, but these superstition have not been proved false or true, it is a question of belief.
The man with the twisted lip
By Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
The main setting is the lower dock side of London, an opium den. It is run by foreigners, a man from Malaysia called Lascar and a Dane. Foreigners were always considered by Victorians as suspicious and up to no good. The den is described as down steep steps, again entering the world on the edge of life and death. It is dark with brown opium smoke, a long low room and like the forecastle of an emigrant ship. (Here using a ship to convey transport from life to death.) In the gloom there were glimpses of bodies lying in strange fantastic poses with dark lacklustre eyes, a suggestion of people in positions likened to death throes and glimmers of red circles of light (the red warning signal). People were said to have died in the den.
The secondary setting is set three counties away in Kent. The Cedars is the family home of Neville St. Clair, a large, comfortable country villa. A completely different world to the main setting.
The main characters in this story are the detectives, Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson. Their physical appearance differ in height and stature, they are both intelligent, but in different ways, which complement each other perfectly. Watson is a medical scientist and a man of reason, Holmes is intuitive and sensitive, well educated and from a good background, but uses drugs, alcohol and tobacco to accentuate his senses and intuition. He drives himself hard, pushing past the needs of sleep etc until he solves the mystery.
The other characters are:
Neville St Clair, the owner of the Cedars. He is a rich man but little is known about his past or how he came to be rich.
His wife - the Madonna type of Victorian women.
- The foreigners who run the opium den
- The inspector and the Bow Street policeman (emergence of the police force in society)
The main story seems to be a murder mystery, but in fact no murder took place. This story crosses class boundaries and perceived ideas of what is right and respectable. Neville St Clair appears to be rich, well educated, a model Victorian husband and father. In fact he turns out to be a deceiver, an actor, an undercover reporter who pretends to be a beggar. He discovers that begging is more lucrative than his low paid reporting job and decides to use his acting skills to become a well liked and recognised beggar. Within a short while he has enough money to buy the Cedars and a completely different life in a different county and in a higher social different class. However he needs to keep returning to his begging job to keep his income flowing, but his wife and family have no idea of his dark, secret life. He lodges at the opium den when transforming into the beggar and only the owner of this establishment know his full and true identity and is paid well to keep the secret. The main context of the story is when St Clair’s wife thinks her husband has been murdered and the o=police and Holmes become involved in the mystery of his whereabouts.
The end of the story reveals St Clair’s deception, but he would have endured imprisonment and death rather than have left his miserable secret as a family blot to his children. Holmes and the Inspector of the Police decided to take pity on St Clair and to hush the whole sordid, shameful business up, especially as no real crime, i.e. murder had been committed. St Clair and his family were therefore left to continue their life as respected citizens.
This type of story was written in the latter part of the 19th century and was more intricate than stories earlier in the century. It contains several main characters and ends up being more complicated in structure.
This type of mystery story was totally unprecedented before the late 19th century because there were no Policemen or detectives or recognised organised social group fighting against evil.
Ideas that are still relevant today
Murder/mystery involving police detectives are still extremely popular stories today. The fight of good against evil is timeless and only alters to reflect the social and moral background against which the story is told. Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories are still popular today and are often told through the media of television. Countless other famous detectives have followed in his footsteps such as Poirot, Ironside, Ruth Rendall mysteries, Starsky and Hutch etc.
Characteristics and comparisons of a Victorian short story
Books being compared.
- The Signalman
- The Man with the Twisted Lip
With reference to the Ostler, the Withered Arm and The Tell Tale Heart
- Passageways linking life to death or movement from one life to another, and the conveyances which take you there.
The Signalman has the train and the tunnel
The Man With The Twisted Lip has the carriage, which Neville St Clair travels in from his villa in Kent to the opium den in London
- The setting of the story is on the edge of life and death.
The Signalman’s box is next to the railway line in a deep cutting by a tunnel, where two deaths have already occurred.
The Man With The Twisted Lip has the opium den as its setting between life and death, and deaths have occurred there but are not directly related to this story.
- The time evil is considered to abound between midnight and dawn.
The Signalman There are references of the apparition appearing at 2:00am and his death is just at daybreak.
The Man With The Twisted Lip the opium den was often at its busiest at nighttime
- The main characters of the stories were often men
The Signalman had two men as the main characters
The Man With The Twisted Lip has three main male characters and one female secondary character
- The main characters are usually portrayed as normal, intelligent and down to earth people, who, after a particular event, change. The change usually mean they see ghosts, have foreknowledge of death etc. This is shown in:-
The Signalman was intelligent and above his station, vigilant etc. But then changes after seeing the spectre
The Man With The Twisted Lip was well educated and changed to become something lower in social standing i.e. a beggar, because it paid better and then he was able to make the change to something higher i.e. a gentleman.
- There is an element of loss of control due to fear and this can be passed on to other characters in the story.
The Signalman passed his fear of impending death onto the visiting train spotter
The Man With The Twisted Lip Fear of discovery of how he earned his money, which would have caused his family “social death”.
- The colour red is used a lot as a warning.
The Signalman had the red danger light
The Man With The Twisted Lip the men in the opium den had red circles in the room from the burning of the drugs
- Descriptions of abnormalities, whether physical or mental are often used in Victorian stories. The Victorians believed that people with either a mental illness or a physical deformity, such as a withered arm were evil. People who look handsome or beautiful were always considered good.
The Man With The Twisted Lip “Hugh Boone had a hideous face, pale and disfigured by a horrible scar, which turned up the outer edge of his lip, a bull dog chin, he was a cripple and had very penetrating eyes”
- Women in Victorian times were often portrayed in two different ways. One version of a woman character would be like the Madonna, and would be blonde, fragile, small, compliant with husband, saintly, a perfect mother or wife, they would be beautiful and obedient. They would often wear long flowing or feathery dresses.
The other version of a woman would be a drunk, very suspicious and possibly suicidal. They were described more as handsome and manly rather than feminine. They were outcasts, living on the edge of society and were often thought of as witches.
- The weather would be used in a story to set the mood. If it was a sad and depressing atmosphere it would be stormy, raining or foggy. If a mystery had been solved or good triumphed over evil it would be clear, sunny and bright.
The Signalman The wind in the unnatural environment ”makes a harp of the telegraph wires”
The Man With The Twisted Lip When Sherlock Holmes solved the mystery after his all night working it was a bright and sunny.
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Stories were often written in the 1st person narrative with the main character telling the story or having a narrator such as a traveller.
The Signalman The story is written in 1st person narrative by the traveller
The Man With The Twisted Lip The story is written in 1st person narrative by a main character, Dr Watson
- There was often an entrance to the underworld, a tunnel, a dark wood, a cave or a particular type of room.
The Man With The Twisted Lip The entrance to the opium den descends via a stairway
- They often used different levels of society to portray types of people i.e. a lot of the evil people were working class, ill-educated.
The Signalman the signalman was working class but educated above his station, the traveller was middle class because he had the knowledge of doctors of psychology
- Evil was not always personified as ghosts, sometimes it was strong emotions such as fear and pride, which was the evil factor.
The Signalman Fear changed the signalman and, trying to ignore the fear, brought about his death
The Man With The Twisted Lip Greed, deceit and shame changed Neville St Clairs life as he became something he wasn’t i.e. the beggar to gain more money; the deceit was the manner in which he gained the money, he developed a character by dressing up under a disguise, and shame if the high class society found out how he gained his money it would be social suicide for himself and his family
- The characters willingly move towards their own doom.
The Signalman focused on his job to keep the train safe, willingly tended to the red light near the entrance to the tunnel but was not focused enough on his own safety and so was cut down by the train
The Man With The Twisted Lip Neville St Clair conscientiously chose to be a beggar and also would have willingly gone to prison or the executioner rather than have revealed the secret and disgraced his family.
