The Signalman by Charles Dickens and The Darkness Out There by Penelope Lively

The children In Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter play a major role in the Puritan society. With their honest opinions of Hester and Pearl, the children are presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults. Due to their innocence, children are capable of expressing themselves without constraints; there are no laws or regulations that they are bounded by. As an adolescent go through the stages of life and grow older, they begin to be more conscious of the how they act as they are more aware of society and the things that are occurring in the world, creating a filter for their actions. When they remain as the children, on the other hand, are adventurous; they are still exploring the universe that seems to fill with mysteries that are bound to be solved. They tend to attach to the truth and they are not afraid to speak it freely. Children differ from adults in their potential for expressing these perceptions. With their obliviousness to the things that are actually going on around the town, children therefore react differently compared to the adults, who are more knowledgeable. Perceived to be immature, young children are presented as more perceptive and more honest than adults due to their innocence, how they are unaware of the reality and the crimes that are presented in society by the adults enables them to be blithe and not afraid of saying what they feel like. Due to their naivety, when they express what they perceive to be true, they do not get punished,

When Bleak House, by Charles Dickens, was published in 1853, it did not go unnoticed by critics. The reviews of the period where anything but tepid in tone or opinion in regard to Dickens’ newest novel. Most notably, the critics were concerned with the structure of the novel, characterization, and, in particular, Esther as a plausible character. By singling out reviewers from different publications of the time, it is possible to see what the public in 1853 was reading about Bleak House in regard to these issues.

That night, M. Poirot was awoken by a scream coming from the cabin next to his, Ratchett’s. The wagon lit conductor knocks on Ratchett’s door and a voice says, “It is nothing. I am mistaken”. Poirot has a very

Ruth Ware’s “In a dark dark wood”, interpretes the ideas in Agatha Christie's novel “And there were None” in a quite similar, yet new way. Both novels are set in isolation. While Christie’s novel is set on an isolated island, hard to reach and impossible to leave alone, Ware decided to create a more mysterious darker setting by mainly focusing on the darkness of an isolated house in a forest. Neither one of the locations has the prerogative to external communication, making the story revolve and focus only on the characters being in the specific places. An additional connections these two novels share is how the characters were persuaded and what their motivations were to go to the places they were invited to. Both novels explore the resurrection

H.H. Munro demonstrates that as human beings, we deceive others, and turn their perception into reality. This is shown through the characters of The Open Window, Mr. Nuttel and Vera. Vera notices Framton’s nerve problem and takes advantage of the situation. In this situation, she uses a real object, in this case the open window, to draw in her victim. When the niece tells the story of the disappearance of three men and a dog, she makes the scenario sound very possible. The window becomes symbolic. It represents the possibility that the men just might walk in after being lost for three years. This is what Mr. Nuttel perceived as the truth. Therefore, Framton expects to see three ghosts, so when he saw three men come in, what he perceived as the truth in her story, becomes his reality. For example: “Framton grabbed wildly at his stick and hat…a cyclist coming along the road had to run into the hedge

Elizabeth Gaskell’s The Old Nurses Story was published in (1852), it has been defined as “the epitome of the traditional ghost story of the Victorian period (1837-1901), perfect to read on Christmas Eve and containing numerous Gothic motifs; a haunted mansion, a female protagonist who encounters a series of mysterious, unsettling events, a ghost child, and a dark family secret.” (Giakaniki. 2010). It was first published as part of Charles Dickens’s (1812-1870) English magazine in the Christmas edition of Household Words (1850-1859). (Gaskell & Kranzler. 2000: viii). The story is a retrospective account told by the nurse ‘Hester’ and the title itself represents a form and expression of female identity that of the role of the nurse maid situated in Victorian society.

The Scarlet Letter is a novel about Hester 's punishment for committing adultery and how she and the people around her view and act as a result of that sin. The reader can view these punishments from the reaction at two distinctly different mind sets. One of these is the mindset of the Puritans. The Puritans are extremely religious and one can see that in their harsh decision making and social life with sinners. The other mindset is one of the Narrator. Unlike the puritans, the narrator views people and objects with more of a personal connection, how an object affects another object as opposed to how a object affects God. There are several symbols that show and develop this throughout the novel. One of these symbols is the symbol of the Scarlet Letter. The puritans view this as a sign of sin, as something that connects one with the devil. This opposes the narrator 's view point of the scarlet "A" being part of Hester 's identity, without it she is a different person. Pearl, Hester 's daughter, is another symbol that divides the narrator and the puritans. The puritans view Pearl as evil, a devils child. This view differs from the Narrator 's which comes from the vantage point of Pearl being an extension of Hester and how Hester would not have the will to live without Pearl. The third symbol is the forest. To the puritans the forest represents an area of evil, a location where the devil dwells. However, the Narrator looks at this ass a place of protection, a place where Hester

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter, takes place in June of 1642 of the Puritan town of Boston, Massachusetts. Hester Prynne, the protagonist, is married to Roger Chillingworth. They decided to leave Europe to have a new life in Boston; unexpectedly her husband failed to join her. After two years waiting for her husband’s return, she engages a personal relationship with Arthur Dimmesdale which causes an improper affair, and she gives birth to a baby girl named Pearl. When living in a Puritan society they forced Hester to wear the letter “A” as punishment; which stands for “adulterer”. Also for another act of punishment, the community made Hester stand on a scaffold platform for three hours for public shaming. To her surprise she recognizes a person in the crowd; her husband. Throughout The Scarlet Letter, Hawthorne demonstrates the theme of guilt through the characters of Hester Prynne and Arthur Dimmesdale, but also the relationships between Hester Prynne and Roger Chillingworth.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is filled with violence, hatred, and social ostracism, and contains a dark and sinister plot. These inherent values make this dark romance seem true to itself. However, I believe that there is another meaning to the story’s events. Many parts of the plot relate to religion and nature, showing to Hester how resorting to nature when the many challenging situations are presented results in a much better outcome. While The Scarlet Letter is very dark on the surface, its real point is to convey how the prominent role of religion in society is the source of its ailments and darkness, and that adapting to nature leads to a more enjoyable and prosperous life. The church is corrupt, forcing you to live a lie, and the solutions to the Puritan’s corruption and these lies are found when abandoned and resorting to nature.

The governess experiences the apparitions alone and she is determined to get the children to confess they see the ghosts as well. She is present when Miles calls Peter Quint’s name and is suspicious of Miles’s deceptive behavior when questioned. This convinces the governess that it’s not her imagination, rather the children do see the ghosts. As the book progresses, ambiguity is prevalent, giving the reader many interpretations for passages. It gives the reader a connection to the character and keeps them intrigued as to why certain situations affected their characters. This causes us to see how effective ambiguity is in literature by keeping the reader questioning and

Order is craved in our society. Take the recent terrorist attacks in London. What was the world’s response? World leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, instructed the public to remain “…united beyond all borders in horror and sorrow, but also in determination” (RT News, 2017). This sense of fortitude, avoidance of rash decisions and the importance of order is not new to western society. Despite originating in the 18th and 19th centuries, the central themes of Neo-Classicism are still deeply ingrained in our contemporary society. These themes inform the public of the importance of discipline and emotional restraint, the value of civility and the significance of social responsibility, all essential to maintain harmony in our

Analysis of The Red Room by H.G Wells, The Signalman by Charles Dickens, and An Arrest by Ambrose Bierce

Charles Dickens’s “The Signalman”, Elizabeth Gaskell’s “The Old Nurse’s Story”, Saki’s “The Open Window” and George Elliot’s “The Lifted Veil” all implement the supernatural to either impose a philosophical dilemma, a moral, or poke fun at the Victorian era’s fascination with the supernatural; furthermore, all of the authors utilize their spirits or spiritual gifts to represent various illnesses that manifest in their characters.

This can be seen in “his post was in a solitary and dismal a place”. The using of the words such as ‘solitary’ and ‘dismal’ construct the imagery of being abandoned and a lonesome place. Suspense is being built when the readers are reading through these words thinking of a ghastly place and something dreadful could happen here. Furthermore, this is being shown in “terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing and forbidding air”. The adoption of word of dim such as ‘gloomy’, ‘barbarous’, ‘depressing’ and ‘forbidding air’ fortify the image as being in a somber and eerie place as a dungeon. It’s a quite scary maybe dark and cold place. In using these dreary words, Dickens portrays an unfamiliar setting to readers and building up readers inquisitive to prophesy or assume that something will happen badly in this place. This creates a theme of suspense to the readers that are excited, anxious or uncertain about what may happen by reading through those helpless words that describe in an unfamiliar

He tries to reason on how to move forward, whether to believe in his account or to take him to get help from a practitioner, this consequently relates to the main theme of the supernatural versus logical reasoning. he describes the signalman to be ‘intelligent, vigilant ,painstaking and exact’, the emphasis placed on this description by dickens is striking as it establishes him as someone who makes sure to follow his duty and is aware of his surroundings, this will intensify the shock and tragedy of him being unable to interpret the warnings pertaining to his own death. Thus, by introducing such ideas and using words such as ‘treacherous’ dickens reinforces the gothic effect of the story and foreshadows future events. The narrator, satisfied with his choice resolves to return back the next day to implement