More v
The Signal-Man By Charles DickensDickens gives a description of the railway cutting withintricate detail and encompasses it with a cloud of gloomy and adepressive mood. He associates places and objects with certainimpressions which produce this large image of negative and horrifyingvibes and feelings.
Best services for writing your paper according to Trustpilot
When the narrating character has the first acquaintance of the railwaycutting and signalman’s box, Dickens bombards you with adjectives anddepictions of a morbid and ‘depressing’ atmosphere. He called it a’dungeon’ which implies a sense of torture and a ghastly horridnature. The very description of the signalman’s box creates a feelingof suffocation and being trapped.
‘On either side, a dripping wet wall of jagged stone, excluding allbut a strip of sky; the perspective one way was only a crookedprolongation of this great dungeon;’
The emphasis on the gloominess and ‘forbidding’ ‘deadly’ environmentconveys the relevance to the storyline of pre-cursor of death andconstant haunting and reminder of danger. Dickens also seems to alwaysentertain the possibility of a supernatural presence. For example, thenarrator had felt the dread of a following train, and when the wind’struck a chill’ to him. This allows for an interpretation of theapparent interference of a ghost in the plot like an outer worldinspiration.
The story throughout contains the ingredients and factors that make upa horror story, for example the chill, cold, ‘gloomy’, dark and’deadly’ moods, and the returning haunting ghostly figure with itsrepeating gesture. This is great support for the plot and it setsstyle and mood and adds fear and tension. The vivid interpretation ofthe ‘dungeon’ conveys the great torment the signalman was feelinginside, and shows the possible physical factors which could havepsychologically affected him. The frequent indication of the solitudeof the signalman, in the depressive and ‘unnatural’ atmosphere is
