The use of the tunnel is an important way in which Dicken’s presents suspense, mainly because it is so dark. This darkness gives the feeling of loneliness and makes it seem as if there is great danger. When the signalman implies that he has a “moral abhorence of the place” it gives the reader the sense that something bad will happen here; and it does. The red light in the readers mind makes us feel uneasy. The red light is obviously a sign that something bad will happen, When the red light is on it seems as if the ghost is in control and when it is off everything seems to be fine. Red usually thought to be connected with death and danger.
The first line of the Signalman: “Halloa! Below there!” is a good line as it intrigues the reader and makes us want to read on to find out who he is talking to. When we are first introduced to the characters we do not find out anything about the appearance of man and this continues throughout the play. This allows the reader to make up their own images of the character and what he look like. It also suggests that the man has something to hide.
When the two men agree to meet eachother for the second time they come in the middle of the night where it is once again dark: 'I will come at eleven’.This maintains the suspense as if they met in the day it would not be as spooky and the landscape would be clear. The disorientation would also not be present as it is in the dark. The darkness prevents the signalman from being ablt to recognise what he is looking at.
Throughout the story only one man actually sees the ghost. Even when The signalman attempts to point out the ghost to the man it is not there. The signalman cannot telegraph danger as he does not know what he is seeing. This presents the question: Is there really a ghost or is it merely a figment of the signalmans imagination. This creates a lot of suspense as we are not sure if there is really anything there. It could be that there is a ghost yet only the signalman can see it, which is rather worrying or it could be that the signal has a mental problem resulting in abnormal behaviour and visions.This too is as equally worrying as the majority of the story is spent within the prescence of his man.
Each time The ghost appears and rings the bell a dreadful occurance takes place soon after. However the last time nothing happens and there is no disaster on the rails. This is infact until we discover that the signalman is killed by a train at the end of the story. Because no event occurs it builds suspense and makes the reader believe that something will happen and that this time it will be more drastic thn the previous. When the ghost rings the bell it is warning the signalman that something bad will happen and it even warns the signalman of his own death. This presents the questions: What exactly is it? How does it know that these things will happen? And Why does it tell the Signalman even though he has no way of dealing with the problem?
There Signalman seems very mysterious and unpredictable. Even the man begins to suspect that the signalman may not be human: “this was a spirit”. When they decide that they will meet again the signalman tells the man not to call out the words: “Halloa! Below There!” This makes the reader believe that there is some importance to these words and that perhaps the signalman is frightened for some reason. The signalman is described as "A dark sallow man".
In 'The Red Room', the setting is very important. The story is set in large Castle, following the stereotypical gothic and Victorian ghost stories. The people who live the castle are in their own rights spooky. The man with the withered arm, which Victorians seemed to recognise as a sign of evil is a good way of building up the suspense. His repetetions of the warning “its your own chosing” makes the reader wary that something bad will happen. It makes the reader wonder what is wrong with the room. When the man requests guidance from the old woman she replies: “This night of all nights; you’ll go alone”. This makes the reader want to know more about the night and why the others do not wish to accompany the man to the red room on this particular night. It creates suspense as we wonder why the others are so frightened of the room. Have they had a past experience with the room? The shadows around certain characters make the reader believe tht there is perhaps a more sinister side to them.
The long dark passages,”chilly and dusty”, and the spiral staircases make the house seem creepy and eerie to an extent.Because the man can not see the corridors there could be anything lurking there and this increases the tension. The man encounters a bronze group on the way to the room which startles him as it appears to be a person at first. Here the suspense dies down for some time until the man is able to regain his confidence. The man then comes across another figure in front of him only to find it was an ornament on a table. He approaches the door to the red room, the tension an suspense builds as he enters the door.The suspense once more falls for some time as he exmaines and organizes the room.
When the Candles begin to go out again the reader is hurled back into suspense as they try to figure out what is happening.It appears as if they is supernatural prescence in the room, as the candles are mysteriously being blown out. When the candles are lit this shows that the man is safe and in control, but when they start to go out this shows that superanatural forces are acting and he is not safe. The man appears to be frightened :
“My hands trembled so much that twice I missed the rough paper of the matchbox,”
This makes the reader feel frightened too. This is because the man who is leading the story through with us is in fear, when in fact he should be in control. In both stories light and dark are significant of either danger or security. When the red light comes on in “The Signalman” it is a sign of danger and as too is the sign of dark. However when it is light everything is perfectly normal and everyone is safe. In The daytime The signalman would be able to see the ghost and the train and there would be no feeling of disorienation. If there was light in the passages of the old Castle then there would be no feeling that the man was been watched or that something was lurking in the corridor. This may be the reason why the old people in the castle stay by the fire as it provides warmth, light and security.
In conclusion “The Red Room”and “the signalman” are two very different stories in terms of the plot yet the overall mystery is the same.; Both try to deal with the unexplained. In both stories only one person has claimed to be affected by the “ghost”. In the “Red room” the pensioners may only be afraid of what they have heard rather than having actually seen the ghost. What becomes more apparently when studying these stories in depth is that it is possible that there were infact no ghosts. It could be possible that the warnings from the suspected ghost were infact premonitions and visions of that final night where the men were calling for him to look out. In the same way it could have been that the candles were merely blown out accidently by the wind.The man became so sure that there was something in the room having being warned by the pensioners, the spooky journey to the room and the statues that when something did happen he was so worked up that he infact injured himself. In other words it was his own fear that frightened him.
