The Signalman

Charles Dickens
 The fantastic genre :
existing only in the imagination;
proceeding merely from imagination;
fabulous, imaginary, unreal;
 The Signalman is a short story whose genre can
be generally identified as that of fantastic
literature.
 The central aspect of the fantastic story should
be the moment in which the protagonist or the
reader doubts what is happening. Moreover, the
fantastic entails that the reader integrates totally
with the characters’ world.
Another important element:

Charles Dickens’s story is written in an unusual first

person and one of the main characters is, at the
same time, also the narrator of the events.

The ‘narrator-character’ suits the fantastic genre,

because it creates a strong ambiguity in the text. As
a matter of fact, what Dickens’s character says as a
narrator cannot be doubted by the reader.

On the other hand, we are aware that all he is saying

as a character may not be true:
For this reason, the beginning of Charles
Dickens’s The Signalman may be taken as perfect
evidence of the ambiguity which runs through all
the text.

Probably, it is not by sheer coincidence that the

first words of the story are those pronounced by
the “narrator” and that they are not received clearly
by the signalman.

On one hand, at the end of the story we may doubt

about just every single word said by the “ narrator”;
on the other, we may decide that everything is
true.
Moreover, going on in the reading, those first
words “Halloa! Below there!” echo into
the reader’s mind and, at last, become the “sign”
of the supernatural event that takes place at the
end of the story.
 Fantastic narrative devices
 The fantastic, in order to reveal itself, needs some
narrative devices which are likely to help the reader to
grasp the supernatural.
 The Signalman is a text rich in “signs” that stand there
to introduce something “strange” that is going to
happen. The behaviour of the signalman himself is
continuously described by the narrator by highlighting
his odd reactions in front of something natural: for
example the signalman’s reaction at the greeting of the
“visitor” from above the “cutting” which is described
exactly in a paragraph:
 There was something remarkable in his manner of
doing so, though I could not have said for my life what.
But I know it was remarkable enough to attract my
notice
Analysing carefully the words used by the writer,
some relevant observations can be made.
On the one hand, Charles Dickens uses capital
letters – “did NOT ring” - in order to give more
emphasis to that negative which highlights a strange
event.

On the other hand, what at first was called ‘the

entrance’ of the tunnel becomes a ‘mouth’, signalling
a kind of antropomorphic personification of the
tunnel. This becomes the mouth of a kind of
“monster”, that emphasizes, one more time, the
presence of the “strange”.
The breaking-off of the conversation while the two
characters are talking into the box is another
interesting example. They are interrupted several
times by the ring of a little bell which requires the
attention of the signalman: he has to read
messages and send replies in order to guarantee
the perfect state of the line. But the “guest” notices
that something “strange” happens:
“while he was speaking to me he twice broke off with
a fallen colour, turned his face towards the little bell
when it did NOT ring, opened the door of the hut and
looked out towards the red light near the mouth of
the tunnel. On both of those occasions, he came
back to the fire with the inexplicable air upon him”
These are only two examples from Charles Dickens’s
text; reading through the story there are many others
that can be pointed out.

There are a lot of “strange events” that can be

noticed. The most remarkable ones are the
appearance and the ensuing accidents in the Line.
Charles Dickens’s narrator defines these
appearances as “coincidences”.

It must be underlined that once the narrator tries to

explain away the accidents as mere coincidences, he
leads the reader to question whether there really is
any supernatural happenings .
On the contrary, at the end of Charles
Dickens’s story the narrator
underlines a remarkable coincidence
which has the opposite aim:
Without prolonging the narrative to dwell on any one
of its curious circumstances more than on any other,
I may, in closing it, point out the coincidence that the
warning of the Engine-Driver included, not only the
words which the unfortunate Signal-man had
repeated to me as haunting him, but also the words
which I myself--not he--had attached, and that only
in my own mind, to the gesticulation he had imitated
In fact, in this circumstance the device of the
coincidence is used in order to allude to the
strange and supernatural side of the event.
Moreover, it leaves the story with no
conclusion: the reader will continue to doubt
the nature of the accidents and, above all,
question the signalman’s death
 Language Focus
 Setting the scene – supernatural
 Developing the theme of supernatural
 Building tension
There is another important aspect of the text: every
single word in the story aims at the building of the
supernatural atmosphere which pervades characters
and location. All the descriptions, all the narrator’s
thoughts, all the places have something remarkably
“strange” which distinguishes them. First of all, the
description made by the represented narrator at the
beginning of the story shows a hostile place, and
hostile nature all around him: the place from which he
is calling is a ‘steep cutting’; the path he descends is a
‘rough zigzag descending path’ which “was made
through a clammy stone, that became oozier and
wetter as [he] went down”
Moreover, in the first part of the story there is a
significant description of the signalman, and of the
place in which the whole story takes place: it gives a
clear idea of the importance of descriptive words and
negative nouns and adjectives such as ‘dark sallow
man’, ‘solitary’, ‘dismal’, ‘crooked’, ‘dungeon’, ‘gloomy
red light’, ‘barbarous’, ‘forbidding’, ‘deadly’ have a
strong impact on the reader: the whole paragraph
alludes to something supernatural, as the narrator
himself underlines in the end: “ and so much cold
wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I
had left the natural world”
“drawing nearer to him, saw that he was a dark
sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy
eyebrows. His post was in as solitary and dismal a
place as ever I saw. On either side, a dripping-wet
wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of
sky; the perspective one way only a crooked
prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter
perspective in the other direction 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. So
little sunlight ever found its way to this spot, that it
had an earthy, deadly smell”
A relevant example is the definition of the “visions” that
haunt the signalman. At the beginning, what he sees is a
«some one else» ; then, after coming closer to it, it
becomes a «figure»; later, it is an «appearance»; finally,
it is a «spectre».

As can be seen, there is not only just one word to

describe the signalman’s “visions”, but many words
which underline, every time, the evanescent nature of
reality.

Moreover, this particular use of the words keeps the

reader in a situation of total suspense and
uncertainty during all the rest of the story.
 Use of tense
 The prevailing tense is the simple past: it is used
in order to give a detailed description of the
events and environment. The event is something
that happened in the past and which is
perceived as completely over: moreover, all the
elements belong to the sphere of the narrator’s
memory which brings to life what caught his
attention.
The author uses the simple past in different
situations in order to strengthen the sense of
uncertainty, and in these cases the simple past
contributes to underline an action which took place
in the past but which can be also perceived as
continuing in the present.
In the story the signalman confesses to his
interlocutor: “I took you for some one else yesterday
evening.”
Even if the mistake was made the day before, the
affirmation is ambiguous: the reader cannot be sure
whether the signalman still has some doubts about
the identity of “what” he saw the day before.
The simple past is also used in order to underline
the distance between the character of the past and
the present narrator, as in the following sentence:
‘His pain of mind was most pitiable to see.’
As far as the present tense is concerned, we can
make a similar consideration: the present tense
introduces an idea which belongs to the present
narrator, but probably the character of the past did
not share the same thought:

‘Nor did I like the two sequences of the accident and

the dead girl. I see no reason to conceal that either.’

In this case, the present tense is extremely

significant: in fact, it underlines not only the current
narrator’s thought but also a certain ambiguity.
Why does the narrator affirms now that he has ‘no
reason to conceal’ his fears?

The narrator doesn’ t go on to explain and only

adds to the reader’s uncertainty and makes him
question the reliability of the narrator.
 Use of conditionals
There
 are many other expressions such as “I am
afraid”, “I may”, “maybe” and many conditional
forms. Let’s observe the following sentence: “One
would have thought, considering the nature of the
ground, that he could not have doubted from what
quarter the voice came.” These conditionals
contribute, one more time, to produce uncertainty.
‘I saw that he was standing between the rails on the
way by which the train had lately passed, in an
attitude as if he were waiting for me to appear.’
The use of ‘as if’ underlines the uncertainty of that
thought: the narrator character interprets the
signalman’s behaviour but he doubts it. In fact, it is
strange to think that a person “appears” as spectres
do, but the narrator aims to make the reader doubt
his own words and this is a very important effect in a
fantastic story.
 Raising tension
 Something unusual/unexpected/dramatic
in plot/ character/dialogue to grab
reader’s attention
 Writer drops ‘hints’ of something unusual
to come
 Use of descriptive language – adjective /
adverbs, imagery to reinforce this
 Long/short sentences to lighten/heighten
tension
 Symphony of tension – language/action to
lighten/heighten mood
 The importance of the sight
contact
At this point, there is something else that
must be noticed, the presence of a kind of
“intruder” that acts in the main episodes
of the story: the train.
 The train is an element that interferes in
the moments of great suspense. First of
all, at the beginning of the story a train
passes after the man’s call.
“I showed him how that figure must be a deception
of his sense of sight, and how that figures,
originated in disease of the delicate nerves that
minister to the functions of the eye, were known to
have often troubled patients.”
In this paragraph it can be noticed that the
narrator is reluctant to accept the supernatural
aspect of the events; for this reason he tries to
find a scientific explanation. He is sceptical about
the nature of the events and the reader doubts
with him. The narrator puts the reader off the
scent of the “fantastic” nature of the story by
explaining these visions with the signalman’s
presumed insanity. It is clear that, in the narrator’s
thoughts, it is a deception of the sight that troubles
the signalman.
The whole story is full of elements that focus
on this aspect. There is often something that
distorts the characters’ sight; something that
intervenes among the protagonists and the
environment, or the “spectre”. Just at the
beginning of the story, the signalman’s figure
appears “foreshortened and shadowed” and
very soon the narrator loses sight of him
when the train passes through.
At the beginning, what he sees is a “some
one else” (p.4); then, after coming closer to
it, it becomes a “figure” (p.4); later, it is an
“appearance” (p.5); finally, it is a “spectre”
(p.5). As can be seen, there is not only just
one word to describe the signalman’s
“visions”, but many words and this particular
use of the words keeps the reader in a
situation of total suspense and uncertainty
during all the rest of the story.
At the end of the text there is a significant
description made by the driver of the engine
while explaining how the accident
happened: “I saw him at the end, like as if I
saw him down a perspective-glass.” It is not
said if it is the train smoke that causes this
distortion or rather something else; this
could be seen as evidence of the
supernatural aspect of the accident, a
distortion of the man’s sight and reason.
the evanescent nature of the fantastic finds its confirmation
in Charles Dickens’ story, especially when the writer tries to
talk about the supernatural: in fact, there are many attempts
to “capture” the supernatural by defining it through “natural”
words which are as evanescent as what they try to define. In
this sense, a relevant example is the definition of the
“visions” that haunt the signalman. which underline, every
time, the evanescent nature of reality. Moreover, this
particular use of the words keeps the reader in a situation of
total suspense and uncertainty during all the rest of the
story.