A Comparison of The Red Room and The Signalman

A Comparison of The Red Room and The Signalman

In this piece of coursework I am going to compare and contrast two

short stories. The first story I am going to look at is 'The Red Room'

and the second is 'The Signalman'. I will look at these stories and

then compare them making sure that I mention the setting, creation of

suspense, genre, style of writing and the language used.

'The Signalman is a short story by Charles Dickens and 'The Red Room'

is another short story by H.G.Wells. These two stories are related in

the way that they both use a ghostly theme throughout the story.

'The Red Room' is a short story about a room which is believed to be

haunted by ghosts. In the story a man volunteers to stay in the red

room overnight to prove that there are no ghosts in the room. At the

beginning of the story the man seems very confident but when he starts

his stay in the red room he begins to get so frightened that he

injures himself in the process of running out of the room. At the end

of the story he comes to a conclusion that it is not a ghost that

haunts the room but fear itself.' The Signalman is also a short story

with a ghostly theme. There is a man who meets the signalman. The

signalman tells the man about ghostly occurrences which have been

happening in the cutting and also about warnings that the ghosts have

been giving. At the end of the story the signalman dies on the tracks

due to his belief in ghosts.

'The Signalman' contains a man who is presumably out walking when he

comes across a steep cutting with a railway at the bottom. At the base

of the cutting is a figure that the ma shouts down to, "but instead of

looking ...

... middle of paper ...

...ty which is their ghostly theme.

They both follow a dark story line. This is a quote from "The

Signalman"; so little sunlight ever found its way to this spot that it

had an earthy, deadly smell. The scene is described in a way that is

meant to scare the reader and keep them on the edge of their seat.

This type of writing keeps the reader aware and focused throughout the

story. There is also a death in each one of the stories. 'The great

red room of Lorrainecastle in which the young duke had died'. I think

that death is displayed in the story to demonstrate the power of the

ghost or supernatural presence. The type of righting used In "The Red

Room" is very dark and keeps you thinking about what could be there.

"The Signalman' uses an old fashioned style of righting with words

like 'Haloa! Below' witch means hello below.