Charles Dickens' The Signalman
Introduction
I have studied pre-1900 short stories by different authors, which all
follow a similar format and historical content of their time. In my
essay I will discuss and describe what necessary ingredients are
needed to make these murder mystery short stories effective and
successful.
Short stories became an extremely favoured form of fiction and
entertainment during the nineteenth century... In the days before
electrical advantages for entertainment, (e.g:-radio, television,
films and videos) adventure was generally only discovered/only existed
within the imagination of mystery and supernatural stories, and were
especially popular in the Victorian age, where people would escape
into the mystifying worlds the words described in the stories.
(Perhaps these authors’ fulfilled the need for excitement in this
relatively oppressed society...). It was during this era that many
writers began to capture readers’ curiosity about death, vengeance,
trickery, imprisonment, hanging, ghosts and fear...
A first impression may affect/ determine the way the words will
communicate with its reader throughout a story. So I feel it important
that the begining of a mystery story must be (engaging, compelling,
intriguing, appealing, capture the imagination/ attentions of the
audience) immediately for it to be successful.
Mystery= arcane, baffling, curious, enigmatic, incomprehesible,
inexplicable, insoluable, magical, miraculous, mystifying, obscure,
perplexing, puzzling, secret, strange, uncanny, unexplained,
unfathomable, unknown, wierd, bizarre, puzzle, problem, riddle,
abnormal, supernatural.
Murderous= barbaric, bloodthirsty, brutal, cruel, dangerous, deadly,
ferocious, fierce, homocidal, pitiless, ruthless, savage, vicious,
violent, assassin.
The overall effect of the above ingredients, if successfully combined,
will ensure the reader is first drawn in, by capturing their
imagination, and they are then compelled to keep reading until the
end.
Beginings
In the begining of our first story The Adventure of the Engineers
Thumb by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1892) (who is the creator of the
famous characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson’s detective
adventures) He tells this strange, dramatic story, which he believes,
had been told more than once in the newspapers - to stress how
significant this mysterious account was. The following quotation is
the paragraph introducing the story:-
‘One morning, at a little before seven o’clock, I was awakened by the
maid tapping at the door, to announce that two men had come from
Paddington, and were waiting in the consulting room. I dressed
hurriedly, for I knew by experience that railway cases were seldom
trivial, and hastened downstairs. As I descended, my old ally, the
guard, came out of the room, and closed the door tightly behind him.
‘I’ve got him here,’ he whispered, jerking his thumbs over his
shoulder, ‘He’s all right.’ ‘What is it then?’ I asked, for his manner
suggested that it was some strange creature which he had caged up in
The Signalman and The Red Room are well known examples of nineteenth century ghost stories How effectively do the authors of “The Red Room” and “The Signalman” create a sense of suspense in the story "The Signalman" and "The Red Room" are well known examples of nineteenth century ghost stories. The Signalman by Charles Dickens was written in 1865, which was the time of developing literacy. This short story was presented in three parts as it was previously in a periodical form; this technique was also used to create suspense and therefore leaves the reader at a cliff hanger after each episode, which in turn motivates the reader to read on. There were many rumors about this story as many people suggested that Dickens wrote this story as a remembrance of the day he was involved in a railway accident which killed ten people. Furthermore, He was writing in the Victorian times, when there was a massive change in technology as new inventions were created, e.g. the Train.
'The Signalman' opens with a lot of shouting and commotion. This is the first indication that something strange is due to happen. The narrator is shouting, from the top of an embankment, to the signalman who is standing on the lines. The first particularly strange happening occurs when the Signalman, does not reply to the calls of the narrator. He hears them, but does not respond. This c...
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The aim of this essay is to explore the way in which the two authors
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