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The Signalman Short Story

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How does Dickens create a tense and mysterious atmosphere in 'The Signalman'?
In the short story, 'The Signalman', Dickens creates a tense and mysterious atmosphere using unpleasant imagery and building up suspense by withholding information. He does this through his portrayal of the troubled characters, the violent and aggressive adjectives that describe the setting, and the strong/powerful vocabulary he uses to describe the signalman's post in the passage . The characters of the narrator and the signalman are not explored deeply, and evokes questions from the reader that are left unanswered, creating a sense of mystery throughout the story. The portrayal of death and depression shows from the beginning of the story, and the setting …show more content…

Apart from the setting, the characters generate most of the mystery in the story as they remain unknown to the reader throughout most of the short story. Throughout the story Dickens portrays the narrator through his use of punctuation. For example, on the second page, in the last paragraph, the Dickens writes both the narrator’s questions and the signalman’s responses without using any speech marks, “Had he much to do there? Yes; that was to say, he had enough responsibility to bear; but exactness and watchfulness were what was required of him, and of actual work-- manual labour-- he had next to none.” Dickens uses semi-colons and double-hyphens to create the sense that the narrator is talking to the reader, as these are placed where someone would stop if they were talking to another person. This makes the whole story more personal to the reader as it feels like the narrator is talking directly to them - telling them the story. The narrator is also portrayed later on as a caring person as he is worried about the signalman. He tries to reassure the signalman when he is not quite convinced himself, “Resisting the slow touch of a frozen finger tracing out my spine…” The finger tracing his spine is a personification of the fear and doubt that he is feeling, but he resists showing his uncertainty as he wants the signalman to be reassured and comforted.This is shown again slightly later in the story

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