Atmosphere in Charles Dickens' The Signalman
'The Signal-man' is a ghostly thriller by Charles Dickens. Based on an
apparently hallucinating signal-man and the tales of his
hallucinations, the story is seen through the eyes of the narrator, a
man told of the signal-mans troubles during conversations with the
signal-man himself. From the beginning of the story, the atmosphere is
both eerie and gloomy.
To produce this type of atmosphere, Dickens had to draw on several
different aspects of English literature-mostly through description and
use of language. The setting is described meticulously, producing
vivid images in the mind of the reader. For example, when the narrator
and the signal-man first encounter each other, the strange, mysterious
atmosphere is set already.
"…his figure was…down in the deep trench, and mine was high above him,
so steeped in the glow of an angry sunset…"
This indicates that their first meeting is at the onset of night.
Also, the signal-mans station is very low down, making it quite
difficult to contact him.
The narrator later asks the signal-man if he can "come down and
speak". The signal-man points out a path described thus:
"The cutting was extremely deep, and unusually precipitate. It… became
oozier and wetter as I went down."
But this description is a mere hint of the stories tone in comparison
to the delineation of the signal-mans station. From this depiction,
the reader can easily visualise the setting.
"…this great dungeon…terminating in a gloomy red light and a gloomier
entrance to a black tunnel…there was a barbarous, depressing and
forbidding air. So little sun...
... middle of paper ...
...¦Surely there is a cruel
haunting of me. What can I do?"
The use of short, sharp sentences helps increase the signal-mans
hysteria.
Many of the events in the story are written in long, thoroughly
descriptive sentences that include several commas to separate specific
events, and further descriptions. Though sometimes it can be slightly
difficult to follow the story, I understand that this kind of writing
was common for the time. The only time the sentence structure differs
is when the story is at a tenser moment. At such a point, the
sentences tend to be shorter and more to the point. I think this way;
the sentences make a bigger impact.
Taking all of this into account, I believe that the atmosphere for the
story has been well produced through both the description of the
setting, and the usage of language.
Have you ever thought about how it would be to live in poverty or how would life be if you didn’t know where your next meal was coming from? , well these were the questions that would haunt kids, adults and elderly people in the nineteenth century.
Not only was the age of Dickens' script evident in his style of writing, but also in the actions and reactions of his characters. Both the signal man and the narrator were uncomfortably polite and their language was noticably archaic:
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mind and it did not exist. We are told by the narrator that he thought
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