The way in which Westall and Dickens create suspense

Ghost stories have always been enticing to read, they originated in the Victorian Era. They usually present a message, and writers like Shakespeare used ghosts to create emotion in their audiences, for example the ghost of Banquo in Shakespeare's play Macbeth. The genre of ghost stories is to make the reader think. To think about whether there is life after death and to associate the ghosts with death and dying.

No one can be sure what happens after death so this gives the writer an opportunity to make their stories believable.They use the fear of the unknown, suspense and superstition to create excitement and keep readers on the edge of their seats. They use the idea of the meeting of the two worlds (the dead and the living) and tension builds over whish will win. Ghost stories became popular during the industrial revolution period of Victorian Era. They were popular because it was a subject science couldn't explain, a rarity during the industrial revolution. The response to the new scientific and industrialised Britain was a rise in spiritualism.

Writers like Dickens wrote stories to express their doubts about the new technology, for example the railway in "the signalman". In the 18th Century, people began to read more, particularly gothic novels. Dickens serialised his fiction by publishing a magazine every week and left the story unexplained, so people will have to wait till the next week to find out what happened. This proved to be very popular. For this piece of coursework I am studying "The Call" by Robert West all and "The Signalman" by Charles Dickens.

I am using these two stories because I want to compare a story written in the 20th century with a pre 20th century story. The Signalman" is set in the industrial revolution and Dickens is expressing his doubts about the new technology such as the railway. Westall wrote "The Call" in 1989 and is familiar to the reader as the society is sceptical about ghosts. Both stories create suspense and mystery in their own ways and I am going to look how each writer creates suspense and mystery.

At first in Robert Westall "The Call" the story has narrative voice and is told by first person "I'm rota-secretary of our local Samaritans". The narrator is the rota-secretary and must be reliable and trustworthy.He generates and explains the story as many ghost stories are told from second person. He tells the story from knowing it and heard it from someone else who he believes and trusts. This creates mystery and suspense as you are on the edge of your seats to find out who the narrator is and how he knows everything. However in the pre 20th century story "The Signalman" by Charles Dickens the story starts off with no real exposition and fires straight into it.

It also happens that a stranger is lurking around the railway and someone who we don't know anything about.Also we are made to think about the curiosity of a man hanging around a railway- who is he? Dickens creates mystery by not giving detail information about the narrator. We are left to think "what has he got to do with it? " we in fact don't find out who he is which is kind of scary and creates mystery. Dickens "Signalman" is much more condensed compared to Westalls "The Call" as the pre 20th century story doesn't go in to much description and detail as to how it all began where as "The Call" gives more detail on who, why and when it all began. "I'm rota-secretary..

.....

. Harry was the branch".In Dickens "Signalman" the narrator is closely linked to all the action as he is only aware of the peculiar happenings and whereas Westalls "The Call" the narrator has heard from someone else but he is still trustworthy seeing as he is Rota-secretary and is fairly secure in telling the story and believes it as he has heard it from someone he trusts. Both stories have narrators that are reliable and trustable and wouldn't make it up. This yet again creates mystery.

Suspense and mystery are created in both stories "The Call" and "The Signalman". In "The Call" suspense and mystery are created when the first indications are not quite right.The first indication in which creates suspense and mystery is when Harry is determined to get to the office. "Swore he was still coming, he was desperate to come". That was the first indication in which created suspense and mystery.

Another factor that created suspense and mystery was when the first phone call rang and confirmed that something bad will happen- death. As soon as the first call was made suspense was created as to who is going to be ringing on Christmas Eve? "They heard distant bells of church....

when the emergency phone rang. " During the first call Geoff said all that could be heard was the crackling.Crackling gave a weiry effect and a spooky atmosphere. Slowly voice spoke, a female voice, through the crackle. The voice sounded very cold and sounded like death.

At first before the phone call everything was going well and Meg and Geoff were happier than ever, ant you got that sense that something bad was going to happen. Both Meg and Geoff are scared by the first call and it sends shivers down their spines. As soon as the line went dead, Meg "looked like a corpse, white as a sheet, dull dead eyes, full of pain, ugly almost" exactly what a ghost would look like.It was as if "The Call" had an immediate affect on her, and by now the atmosphere was getting cold, and the clock just stroke past twelve, everything needed for a ghostly atmosphere.

Meg was warm and uniting, she also used modern language and wasn't complex or informative. This created suspense and mystery as audience wondered what affect Meg had and why? In Dickens "Signalman" the first indication that told me that something was wrong was when the man calls for the signalman and the signalman looked at a completely way, "There was something remarkable in his manner of doing so". This yet again created suspense and mystery.The "Signalman" stated that he was getting troubled and that was the point which created most mystery. To go with the suspense and mystery is the atmosphere and in the "Signalman" the spooky atmosphere was created by little amount of light and temperature.

This gave the spooky and ghostly atmosphere, "There was something in that man that daunted me" this added to the suspense and mystery that was already created previously with the ghostly atmosphere. The mans response and reaction was most mysterious, the "Signalman" seemed to ignore the man at first and then " came a vague vibration in the earth and air which forced me to draw down.The Signalman didn't speak and acted as if the man wasn't there, he completely ignored him. Also the language used by Charles Dickens was rather ghostly and pre-century type, "prolongation, dungeon, termination, barbarous, earthly and deadly" these words all created a spooky and cold atmosphere. The suspense and mystery in both stories increased rapidly.

In "The Call" more phone calls were being received and each one of them gave more detail and confirmed that death was inevitable. In "The Call" suspense and mystery increased as phone calls increased, Meg gets closely connected to the "female cold voice" and gets annoyed with Geoff.Geoff leaves Meg alone and goes looking for the lame wife, this is really daft leaving women alone, this however created suspense as we were expecting something bad to happen to Meg. Geoff is also alone looking for this lame wife, this yet again creates suspense and mystery. Slowly, slowly Meg is getting annoyed and frustrated with Geoff and as it started happier than ever it had to go downhill.

The relationship between the two becomes very distant, as Meg blames Geoff for the death of the lady "Oh, Geoff". Geoff doesn't anything bad to happen to his wife and like any husband he acts as a husband and slams the phone down away from Meg.Slowly, slowly as time goes on and suspense and mystery is created more by the linkage between Meg and the lady, the calls seem to have immediate affect on her, as if she was the ghost. In "The Signalman" however the suspense and mystery is increased when the signalman checks under the tunnel for the train coming. What also increases the suspense and mystery is when the signalman admits there's something troubling him but doesn't want to talk about it "You shall not to have to ask me twice what troubles me! " Slowly the signalman trusts the stranger and tells him what is troubling him.The stranger doesn't believe him at first until the signalman tells him the past tragedies that occurred on the line.

In both stories there was purposed to the story, both stories have a message and both are different. In Robert Westell's "The Call" the message is that the ghost wants company and wants her case to be re-opened and for something to be done about it. In Charles Dickens " The Signalman2 the message is that there is a set time of death for every one of us. The ghost's motive in "The Call" was that she was lonely and wanted company.In the Signalman the ghost motive was to warn the signalman of the inevitable. Mystery was created in both stories, firstly "The Call" where Meg is entranced and follows the ghostly lady in the water.

This also creates mystery an dsuspense in "The Signalman" as to why the signalman wasn't moving away from the railwayline when the train was coming, seeing as he was a very careful person, it was as if he was entranced just like Meg in "The Call". Another message in the call was about Harry Lancaster , the fact that he had been a faithful Samaritan all his life and he still took his problems with him.Another message in the signalman is that the supernatural side always wins. Finally both stories had an ending, but was the story resolved? Well in the call, yes it was resolved well, and explains fully as to what happens and that Harry Lancaster being a good Samaritan all his life takes the ghost with him to relieve her from the suffering and to relieve the stress and suffering from everyone else at the office. The story is well is resolved as there is no call next year, and also the fact that Lack Cottage was knocked down a year after the "suicide".

The Call" was not typical of a ghost story, as ghost stories are rarely resolved and they leave you to ponder where as this doesn't. So "The Call" wasn't typical of ghost story genres, where as "The Signalman" is typical of a ghost story and leaves the reader to ponder about many details which weren't detailed enough throughout the story. "The Signalman" unlike "The Call" was not superbly resolved leaving the reader to question himself on what exactly happened and why? It also was a very brief resolution , it was only one paragraph long where as "The Call" had a couple of paragraphs.The Signalman" also explains very little compared to "The Call" and as I said before unlike "The Call" it leaves you to ponder as to what happened and why, a typical ghost story genre. Throughout both stories there are a number of similarities, for example "The Signalman" and Meg were both entranced by the ghosts.

Overall after reading both stories I have to admit I did find "The Signalman" fairly boring and preferred "The Call" by Robert Westell. It was more interesting than "the signalman" because it was a lot more explained and also was scary and sent shivers down my spine at times.