Charlotte Bronte used the idea of creating an atmosphere of eeriness and it’s and the way it effected the reader. The story presents a sequence of events that seem almost unaccountable, until the reader is told it is the Emperor being disturbed by his own bodily senses ‘when the Emperor felt a strange thirst, he got up and drank a cool glass of lemonade.’ The Emperor dismisses the occurrences and calls them an ‘ocular delusion.’ This then implies that it may not be the end of the Emperors’ disturbances because he calls it a delusion, which can mean that it is true or not. The reader then naturally wants to know more and reads on to find out. The tension in the story is broken down with short interludes.
In contrast Dickens does not describe the setting as much as Bronte because in The Signalman we are given a description of the tunnel but it does not go into great depth even though the railways were very new and popular. We are also not told many things about the spectre, apart from the fact that his face is covered and he is calling ‘Halloa, below there.’ Later on in the story the bell in the Signalmans’ hut starts ringing for no apparent reason and this is the point that we realise that the supernatural is involved. This is a technique in Gothic Literature that shows that someone is out to get revenge, in this case, on the Signalman.
In the case of ‘Napoleon and the Spectre’ the ghost was used as a figure to undermine and control the Emperor of France. In ‘Napoleon and the spectre’ Napoleon is summoned by ‘mysterious influence’ to then pass through the ‘damp walls of a long, vaulted passage’ in almost complete darkness. Vaulted ceilings and damp walls are classic features of gothic story writing because that type of architecture was heavily used in that period. This quality adds a spooky and threatening atmosphere to the story and preludes any other thoughts of happiness and beauty entering the reader’s head. Napoleon is made to feel very uncomfortable and quite embarrassed at the fact that he has been forced out onto the streets of France in his ‘nightdress.’ Napoleon attempts to plea with the ‘worthy spirit’ to return and get additional clothing, however he feels ‘compelled in spite of rising indignation which almost choked him, to obey.’ It is evident that Napoleon is not used to obeying commands but used to giving them out. It seems as if The Emperor of France is participating in a dreadful nightmare with ‘masked ladies and supernatural music’ but at the same time it seems almost real. The Emperor does not want to believe that he is being restrained by a supernatural being, ‘making an effort to shake off the mental shackles by which he was unwillingly restrained.’ Yet the word ‘mental’ brings the reader back to the sense that it is a surreal situation, also it is implying it is only what is inside the Emperors head which can affect the outcome of the story.
Whereas, by contrast the ghostly figure in The Signalman is actually having a seen impact on the man and his surrounding environment. The ghost has made the signalman pay less attention to his job because he thinks he is possibly going mad, which could have triggered the sequence of events, which had come before. The whole area surrounding the Signalman’s living area is completely unnatural. He does not see the same amount of daylight as a normal person and he has to put up with horrible damp conditions and eerie noises. For example ‘the wind and the wires took up the story with a long lamenting wail’ this makes people who are not used to the environment feel distracted and probably a little nervous. Having said that the gentleman who is questioning the Signalman about his troubles, questions himself as to whether he is a ’living man’ and says the bell was not rung when the Signalman went to the edge of his cabin. The only other time the gentleman heard it was when the bell was ‘rung in the natural course of physical things’ implying there was most definitely a supernatural force behind the bell ringing when no one else heard it.
Both stories have a unique and bizarre ending and are not particularly happy. The Signalman ends up being killed, despite the warning of the gesticulating figure at the mouth of the tunnel and The Emperor goes into a state of catalepsy. The ghosts in both of these stories were used for different reasons by both authors. One was used as a warning for the Signalman. The other was an act of revenge on Napoleon.
Despite this, not all stories contain ghostly figures and ‘ocular illusions’; ‘The Yellow Wallpaper is a classic example of a psychological thriller. The story is about the wife of a physician, she has recently given birth and is suffering from post natal depression. However, John her husband, does not believe that she is sick, this is characteristic of the attitudes that men had towards females. They had no understanding or concept of what the woman was going through and merely put it to a ‘slight hysterical tendency.’ Despite the fact that the couple are on holiday John is very protective of his wife which acts as a deterrent to them developing their matrimonial relationship. The background information about the ‘ancestral halls’ at which they are staying gives the reader the sense that there is something strange about the house. The woman feels inexplicable draughts and John dismisses it and shuts the window. This implies a ghostliness and again calls upon the theme of the supernatural. This contrasts with ‘The Signalman’ and ‘Napoleon and the Spectre’ because the ghosts in those two stories are physically described, whereas here it is only suggested. As days go on the woman becomes obsessed with the yellow wallpaper in the corner of her room. The wallpaper was; ‘repellent, almost revolting: a smouldering……sulphur tint in others.’
The wallpaper seems to have a power of its own drawing the woman into an unhealthy hobby of following it. Everyday also the fact that her husband is suppressing her makes it worse, because she is banished to her room for rest. She feels trapped and confined and the only thing that keeps her entertained is looking at the wallpaper. The word’s Gilman uses to describe the wallpaper is not what you would expect to hear about wallpaper. For example the reader would not expect wallpaper to smell. There are lots of images of death and destruction with the paper being able to ‘suddenly commit suicide’ as if the paper was alive and actually hurting people. The feature of death and destruction is what one would expect to find used in a gothic story such as this. As John’s wife becomes increasingly more insane due to her condition, she uncovers life like images, which she perceives as disturbing. She starts seeing ‘bulbous eyes’ staring at her, as if someone were alive and looking at her through the wallpaper, which she finds rude, ‘the impertinence of it,’ this implies she thinks that there is a real person behind the wallpaper.
As in ‘The Signalman’ the woman is burdened and fascinated by something, in this case it is the wallpaper in ‘The Signalman’ the obsession is with a spectre. Except that the woman’s fixation with the wallpaper is possibly more unhealthy than the Signalman’s fascination with the ghost. The ghost in the Signalman has purpose to warn the signalman about the future but the ghost in the Yellow Wallpaper only wants to drive the woman insane. She discovers the wallpaper has ‘a peculiar odour’ and this has connotations of bad and unpleasant things such as ‘buttercups, but old, foul, yellow things.’ Also to make things worse John, being the male dominant figure has isolated her from her child so she has no distraction from the protruding wallpaper. So the only way to keep her mind active is to speak to the imaginary woman she has unearthed lurking behind the wallpaper. I think that the woman is actually her alter-ego and it symbolises what she has been through and her emotions. The woman feels so sorry for the trapped woman that she peels off ‘yards of that paper.’
The nurse Jennie tries to stop her from doing so but the woman has worked herself into such a frenzy that impossible to retrieve her from the wallpaper. The woman gets the idea that John is after her, ‘now he’s crying to Jennie for an axe’ except the woman will not open the door because she has deliberately thrown the key ‘down by the front door under a plantain leaf.’ The reader sees John’s protectiveness over her clearly, ‘for God’s sake what are you doing!’ but the woman has gone past the breeches of insanity to recall what she is doing. She is elated at the fact that she ‘has got out at last’ despite the fact she thinks John and Jennie have held her in and stopped her doing anything. ‘Now why should that man have fainted?’ is what she says and I believe that she killed her husband because she says she has ‘to creep over him every time.’ The element is very gothic and incredibly common among such writers as Gilman.
In conclusion each story contains elements of surprise, unease and the supernatural. In my view to have a successful Gothic story there has to be ghostliness, prominent gothic architecture and intense characters.
Nineteenth century short stories are still popular even today because they focus on giving the reader a surprise and an interesting story. The stories that I have compared and contrasted are appealing to the reader because they are dark, unusual and unpredictable.
