The Red Room
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Comparing The Red Room And The Signal Man
I am going to write my essay on two very good short stories. The Red Room by H.G Wells and the Signal man by Charles Dickens. I am going to explain how the author progressively builds tension and suspense. The authors use different techniques such as the use of light, darkness and colour. The techniques that they use create moods and feelings towards the characters and rooms.
The Signalman, is written in the first person, set in an old cutting by a train track, with only a tunnel and a signal box in amongst the trees and bushes. The signalman that uses the box seems to be the only person that ever enters the cutting, causing him to appear lonely and creates an air of mystery around the …show more content…
This starts to make the reader feel that there may be an underlying cause of the signalman's strange manner of behavior. “But I am troubled, sir, I am troubled.” is a line that confirms the reader's earlier thoughts, as it is followed by “It is very difficult to impart sir, it is very difficult to speak of.” These lines show the reader that the signalman has had some disturbing experiences or sightings on the track during his lifetime, as is later confirmed by the signalman. The signalman shows similarities to the elderly residents of the castle in the The Red Room, as they all seem to have past experiences in their current setting that have damaged their current mental state. The first words said by one of the residents is “It is your own choosing.” showing that the man with the withered arm does not recommend what the narrator has in mind, immediately adding suspense and fear to the situation as the reader realizes that the narrator's words of “it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me” may come back to 'haunt' him. “It is your own choosing” is repeated many times by the man with the withered arm, …show more content…
In The Signalman, the setting is in a dark, lonely cut away next to an even darker tunnel. This is because ghosts are generally associated with coming out at night, darkness and the quiet surroundings, occasionally being interrupted by loud noises, in this case, the train track. Dickens describes a “dripping-wet wall of jagged stone” giving a hostile impression of the dreary cutting surrounding train track. The view from the train track itself is described: the perspective one way, “only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon”. This could be portraying the view from the track that the signalman himself has, as he has to spend most of his life in the cutting, with just nature for company and the occasional passing train that he has to signal danger to. He could see it as a dungeon he has been trapped in his entire life and the reader may believe this is what is starting to make him go crazy. “So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot, that it had an earthy deadly smell;” raises the levels of fear and suspense, as it suggests that not many people had ever been to that place either, or that nobody had ever come back from this place, making the situation
Comparing The Red Room And The Signal Man
I am going to write my essay on two very good short stories. The Red Room by H.G Wells and the Signal man by Charles Dickens. I am going to explain how the author progressively builds tension and suspense. The authors use different techniques such as the use of light, darkness and colour. The techniques that they use create moods and feelings towards the characters and rooms.
The Signalman, is written in the first person, set in an old cutting by a train track, with only a tunnel and a signal box in amongst the trees and bushes. The signalman that uses the box seems to be the only person that ever enters the cutting, causing him to appear lonely and creates an air of mystery around the …show more content…
This starts to make the reader feel that there may be an underlying cause of the signalman's strange manner of behavior. “But I am troubled, sir, I am troubled.” is a line that confirms the reader's earlier thoughts, as it is followed by “It is very difficult to impart sir, it is very difficult to speak of.” These lines show the reader that the signalman has had some disturbing experiences or sightings on the track during his lifetime, as is later confirmed by the signalman. The signalman shows similarities to the elderly residents of the castle in the The Red Room, as they all seem to have past experiences in their current setting that have damaged their current mental state. The first words said by one of the residents is “It is your own choosing.” showing that the man with the withered arm does not recommend what the narrator has in mind, immediately adding suspense and fear to the situation as the reader realizes that the narrator's words of “it will take a very tangible ghost to frighten me” may come back to 'haunt' him. “It is your own choosing” is repeated many times by the man with the withered arm, …show more content…
In The Signalman, the setting is in a dark, lonely cut away next to an even darker tunnel. This is because ghosts are generally associated with coming out at night, darkness and the quiet surroundings, occasionally being interrupted by loud noises, in this case, the train track. Dickens describes a “dripping-wet wall of jagged stone” giving a hostile impression of the dreary cutting surrounding train track. The view from the train track itself is described: the perspective one way, “only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon”. This could be portraying the view from the track that the signalman himself has, as he has to spend most of his life in the cutting, with just nature for company and the occasional passing train that he has to signal danger to. He could see it as a dungeon he has been trapped in his entire life and the reader may believe this is what is starting to make him go crazy. “So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot, that it had an earthy deadly smell;” raises the levels of fear and suspense, as it suggests that not many people had ever been to that place either, or that nobody had ever come back from this place, making the situation