Comparing the Settings in The Signalman, The Adventure of the Speckled Band and The Red Room

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Comparing the Settings in The Signalman, The Adventure of the Speckled Band and The Red Room

Three different stories, all of mystery trying to keep the reader

gripped until the ending, each story keeps the reader in suspense by

using what is called a 'Hooking Device', to keep the reader reading,

the author needs to use a successful 'Hooking Device', and a brilliant

question to keep you reading to find the mystery answer. The Red Room,

I believe was not a solution, the main character treks off to find the

rumoured ghosts, but unfortunately wasn't successful. In The

Signalman, I didn't think this was a solution simply because, in the

end of the story, the signalman gets killed. Finally, The Speckled

Band, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson finds out that The Speckled Band,

was actually a kind of snake.

These three stories have another thing in common, they are all

Victorian, they where all written when she was Queen. The length of

her reign began 1837 and ended 1901. The Signalman is the oldest of

the three and the other stories are almost thirty years younger. The

Red Room was written in 1894 by H.G Wells and the Speckled Band being

a Sherlock Holmes story, was obviously written by Sir Arthur Conan

Doyle in 1891, and The Signalman by Charles Dickens. All the three

stories have a mystery genre, the setting chosen by the authors to

help achieve their purpose. Time is also a big factor when it comes to

writing a story, in the 1860's the railway was a recent invention and

'The Signalman' was published in 1866, this is because Dickens wanted

an original story about a railway and a signalman, if this story was

writ today it would seem unoriginal and bland because a lot of stories

are now based on railways. The differences are clear in stories of

today, they move away from the old based settings like the house in

The Speckled Band, which is classy and old, and in my opinion stories

with an old and classy setting are often the best.

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