The Signalman and The Yellow Wall Paper

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School: Dulwich College Shanghai                                Candidate Name: Monica Liaw

Centre Number: CN 577                                              Candidate Number:

How do Charles Dickens and Charlotte Perkins Gilman create a sense of horror in The Signalman and The Yellow Wallpaper?

  The short stories ‘The Signalman,’ and ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ can be both categorised as gothic horror, as various elements of horror can be found within. The authors, Dickens and Gilman successfully convey this to us through their concepts, their use of language, as well as their characters, which are all significant components of the story. In ‘The Signalman’, Dickens shows us a disturbed man with intangible theories, whereas Gilman uses a woman gradually driven to sheer insanity in ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. Although these concepts are very different, the vivid use of language and dismal setting are where the similarity between the two stories lies, as well as an unconcluded ending that successfully conveys a sense of mystery that lies haunting in our minds.

   The two stories have similar settings, as both are situated in a desolated, dingy place. In ‘The Signalman’, the narrator begins his journey from the ‘top of the steep cutting’ above the signalman’s head, and starts his way down a ‘rough zigzag descending path’, which can correspond to the concept of heading down to hell or one’s fate.  The narrator then heads down towards a dark tunnel where the signalman is situated, and describes it as a ‘great dungeon’. Immediately, an eerie atmosphere is set here, as the place is dark and isolated – both common features of a typical horror story. As the narrator arrives to the ‘dungeon’, Dickens repeats the word ‘gloomy’: once on the ‘gloomy red light’, and then again to describe the ‘gloomier entrance to a black tunnel’. This is highly effective as it is a significant omen to the readers that something dreadful is about to happen. In addition, the narrator claims that there was a ‘barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air, as well as an ‘earthly, deadly smell’ in the ‘black’ tunnel, which gave him the feeling as if he had ‘left the natural world.’ This suggests that the location is extremely hell-like. The use of these daunting adjectives one after the other puts emphasis on the sinister tone. Furthermore, Dickens also uses personification on the setting, such as the ‘tunnel’s mouth’, which is powerful as the tunnel can seem to gobble up anything that enters its mouth.  Therefore, Dickens’ use of a powerful ghastly setting is one of the ways that he creates a sense of horror.

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    ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ on the other hand, holds less detail on the setting compared to ‘The Signalman’, but still consists of a similar sinister and ominous atmosphere. The story starts off in a ‘colonial mansion, a hereditary estate’, in which the narrator refers to it as a ‘haunted house’, claiming that ‘there was something queer about it’ due to the fact that it had ‘stood so long untenanted’. This provides a clear idea to the readers that this story is situated in somewhere isolated and grave, therefore building a forbidding atmosphere based on the narrator’s thoughts on this ‘haunted house’. Moreover, ...

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