The writer uses personification to describe the sunset at the day the narrator met the signalman as “an angry sunset” which might give the readers an idea to show the arrival of doom in the latter part of the story. This could also be done to create the set up for the horrific part of the story.
The writer describes the vibration on the surface when the train passed by through the tunnel as “vague vibration” shows that this was different kind of vibration and that of an usual and an unclear one. This could also gives the reader an idea that the incident based on the story was unusual and unclear to the narrator and it would be the same for the readers.
The writer describes the pulsation running on the surface of the earth due to so called “vague” vibration created by the train as “a violent pulsation” to make the reader think of the aggressive e unsurprisingly strong violence created by the train.
The narrator sees the tunnel as a place of unnatural world where only the dead could survive here; “as I had left the natural world” makes the narrator think as if he has left the natural world making the reader think that the place smelt so bad that the narrator himself doubted his own existence. Giving the readers a chill running through their back of their spines due to his.
The writer tells the reader that when the narrator came down to meet the signalman at the mouth of the tunnel; the signalman is viewed by the narrator as a “spirit, not a man” due to his fixed eyes and his saturnine face on the mouth of the tunnel. This gives the readers an idea on the conclusion of the story that the signalman could have been a spirit or that the story involves spirits or more commonly known as a ghost.
The signalman narrates his story; the incident that happened a year ago between him and the ghost which stood at the mouth of the tunnel asking him to clear off the way with his hand across his face to cover his sight; and the next day an accident occurred on the railway line and the dead bodies were piled up on the spot where the ghost recently stood. This incident makes the readers scared. The writer does so to create this scare in the readers by using short sentences in many cases very short sentences to create the sense of urgency in the readers’ mind.
The writer uses the red signal light as a metaphor for danger as whenever the ghost appeared the red signal light switches on for the signal to stop as there is danger; after these incident deaths are sure to follow them.
The signalman hears the bell ringing even when it is not ringing such as when the narrator and signalman were having a talk he keeps on hearing the bell even if the narrator didn’t hear the bell at all. This gives the readers a sense that there is a phantom in the tunnel that on his will rings the bell which the signalman only hears.
The narrator on hearing the signalman’s incidents starts to become instable but doesn’t show his instability to the signalman as he has shown himself to be “intelligent, vigilant, painstaking, and exact” which shows that the readers that the incidents are so terrifying that the narrator who has shown himself to have the above qualities falling victim to the tales of superstitions.
