Comparing two pre 1914 ghost stories to show how the writing creates

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Comparing two pre 1914 ghost stories to show how the writing creates and sustains tension. The two ghost stories that I have chosen are, The Signalman by Charles Dickens and The Old Nurses Story by Elizabeth Gasbell. “Compare and Contrast two pre 1914 ghost stories and show how the writers create and sustain tension.” In this essay I will be discussing and comparing two pre 1914 ghost stories to show how the writing creates and sustains tension. The two ghost stories that I have chosen are, “The Signalman” by Charles Dickens and “The Old Nurses Story” by Elizabeth Gasbell. The two writers have very different writing approaches “The old Nurses Story” has a slow pace which means that the tension builds over time. This story is also more hyper-bowl by this I mean everything is much more unrealistic. However “The Signalman” has a more realistic storyline, because they realize the ghost in the story ends up being a normal person. The pace in this story is almost the opposite of “The Old Nurses Story” because it goes in a slow then fast motion. So this story does not have one big climax like the other story, but it has small outbursts made by tension. The narrator in “The Old Nurses Story” is the Nurse. The Nurse is telling the story to Miss Rosamond’s Daughter “Miss Rosamond (that was the baby, who us now your mother)”. It makes you feel as though you are the little girl, which makes you feel as though you are involved which means that the tension not only builds in the story but it builds on you. The narrator in “The Signalman” is a visitor who visits the signalman. It feels as though he is telling the story a lot after the events have happened. This makes you feel as though you need to be ready for a dramatic story. The setting of “The Old Nurses Story” is in a hunted mansion which is one of the most popular settings for a ghost story. The Mansion is set in an old area, “old oaks. all white and peeled with aged”, this makes you feel that the place is hunted as soon as they arrive. The term “all white” in a ghost story gives you images of death and ghosts. In the Victorian times many houses were old and big because only the rich could afford houses so they made them as big as they wanted, due to no laws and masses of land. The setting of “The Signalman” is set on a train station. A train station is a very mood changing place.

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