How does Dickens Interest and Engage the Reader
How Does Dickens Interest and Engage the Reader in "The Signalman?"In this essay I am going to discuss the things that dickens writes to interest the reader and makes them want to read more of the story.Charles Dickens wrote the Signalman in 1986. This period of time was a time where industry was growing in Britain. There was a lot of new technology being developed and many people were interested in using the railway. Previously, a year before Dickens had written 'The Signalman', he himself had been involved had previously been in a train an accident at Staplehurst, Kent. The train had been derailed whilst going into the tunnel. Many 1st Class passengers were seriously injured. Dickens had been one of the people helping people out, once he had managed to free himself. I think this had a great effect on him writing this story.The Victorians were generally interested in the supernatural, so a ghost railway station would have been of grate interest.Also at this time there was a vast upsurge of interest in philosophy and science. Many Victorians were beginning to question things in there life and question what the y didn't know. For instance they were studying and for the first time questioning religion
After a long talk the narrator too gets frustrated and does not really know what to say, he now believes what the signalman is saying but is still doing his best to stay rational. At the beginning the first three words really grasp your attention and make you want to read on. With that the narrator says, "how your imagination misleads you" he says that he was there yesterday and so was listening to the bell and then says, "If I am a living man, it did NOT ring at those times nor any other time, except when it was rung . Also you're through back when the signalman tells you that he used to be a "student of natural philosophy. " He also says the wind and wires blowing about would make eerie noises. You can almost imagine him as just an illusion. I was very interested in what was going to happen to the signalman through out the story because of the way he acted. Another interesting thing through out the book is that the signalman kept looking at the bell and acting weird. But being the man he was said, " I did my best against" Showing that he is still trying be rational and is trying to shake off the fact that there was a ghost. Even at the beginning when it seems the signalman is looking at the tunnel for something that isn't there, and also how it never mentions once in the book why the signal man was actually there in the first place, and weather by unnatural causes he was somehow driven there, also you don't get any details about him or his live in the story. Although in this language it still conveys meaning to the story that we can all understand. The narrator now just tries to comfort him by saying things like at least he is a man that understands his duties better than anyone, even if he does not understand the appearancesYou could see that he was beginning to question things himself when it says about him thinking about what he would do if he was in the same situation, it also says that he was worried about the signalman.
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