The Signalman by Charles Dickens

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The Signalman by Charles Dickens

'Halloa! Below there!' …… A small expression that once understood

strikes you with an essence of alarm, fear and intrigue. Throughout

the short story of The Signalman, this quote was used several times

and was repeated by several characters. Coincidence? Charles Dickens

invites you to decide. This dissertation from www.coursework.info

For the duration of this half term we have studied numerous short

stories from the book Telling Tales. Throughout this period, we have

developed our skills of assessing characters (characterisation),

identifying language style and structure plus various others, and I

will try to use my newly developed skills to answer our assigned

question. Ultimately, we came round to The Signalman. The Signalman is

a grim but well sustained story about an alleged encounter with

something not of the natural world. This dissertation from

www.coursework.info

Throughout his story, Charles Dickens uses a variety of methods to

create an atmosphere of tension, mystery and suspense. Suspense is

created through supernatural horror and ambiguity. I will explore

these qualities, which make this a good suspense story. The methods of

creating tension include leaving characters anonymous, using similar

gesticulation and supposed 'coincidences,' plus many others.

Throughout this essay, I will explain all of these methods.cogd gdr

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The author of this short story was a man named Charles Dickens who

wrote during the 19th century. The motivation for Charles Dickens

writing this story was a terrible train wreck at Staplehurst, Kent, on

9 June 1865, in which several passengers died. Dickens was a

passenger, and although he was fond of ra...

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...ies entertaining; I think this is due to the twist at

the end of the stories. To me this shows that an unexpected twist

makes a good short story. It is evident that Dickens creates a lot of

suspense throughout the story with the opening words and as he

descends the cutting, looking at the signalman whose actions are very

strange, plunging you immediately into the setting. Suspense is

created as the signalman tells the gentleman of the strange happenings

recently. Mystery surrounds the settings, which are even prone to

something like this happening; the mystery also surrounds the two main

characters, the Signalman and the narrator. They remain anonymous

throughout so the mystery stays with them constantly. I feel that due

to Dickens' ability to bring mystery and suspense to life are the main

reasons behind what makes this story so fluent and mind initiating

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