Charles Dickens Research Paper

Short stories started to gain popularity after the industrial revolution; as printing became more widespread it was much easier to get a short story published in a newspaper or magazine. The advantage of a short story over a novel is that it manages to hold the readers attention, as the short story tends to be dramatic, has no need for a sub-plot and are without lengthy description. Where novel writing is complicated, has many different things going on and creates a world of possibilities, short story writing focuses on a quick, powerful impact. As a result of this the reader can focus on the pivotal climax of the short story, as the authors do not need to concern them selves with thinking up unnecessary details. Short stories today remain
Also, the train would have been the fastest means of transport at that time and it may have seemed very uncontrollable and dangerous to the Victorians. Trains were transforming a society which was moving from the rural to the urban. The theme of the story may have been influenced by Dickens's own involvement in the Staplehurst rail crash<file:///wiki/Staplehurst_rail_crash> on the 9th of June<file:///wiki/9th_June> 1865<file:///wiki/1865>. While passing over a viaduct in Kent, the train on which he was traveling jumped a gap in the line, causing the central and rear carriages to fall onto the riverbed below. Dickens was in the only first-class carriage to survive. The first accident, in the story of 'The Signalman' involves an awful collision between two trains in the tunnel, most likely to be based on The Clayton Tunnel Crash, in 1861, five years before Dickens wrote the story. 'The Signalman' is not a typical ghost story because it is set mainly in the daytime, although it it still effective. Many ghost stories were, and still are set in the past to create a sense of the
His style of writing is much less concise than 'Napoleon And The Spectre' or 'The Withered Arm'. It contains large chunks of description, however, this does leave time to develop setting, character and plot. Furthermore, there is smooth interaction between dialogue and narrative. This adds coherence to the story from the narrators point of view, and the Signalman's. Dickens had an advantage when writing 'The Signalman' because of his personal experience. He uses repetition in the throughout this story as the opening phrase 'Halloa! Below there!' was repeated at least four times. Used as the opening phrase it makes you want to read the story as you wonder who is speaking. When this is repeated several times it creates a good sense of mystery, in that we wonder why the ghost says it and it has a supernatural feeling. The language used in this story establishes the atmosphere well. For example, the phrase 'a dripping wet wall of ragged stone excluding all but a strip of sky,' shows us that it is an eerie place, and even though it has a daylight feel it is still menacing. Other descriptive phrases that describe the setting, 'a gloomy red light and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel', 'a barbarous, depressing and forbidding air.' These show that although it is daytime it has an effective gloomy, dark and foreboding feeling; and this makes the