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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
“The Signalman” is a Gothic short story. While the Gothic novels that Dickens read in his youth influenced him to incorporate gothic elements in all of his works, the genre's impact is most apparent in his ghost stories. Gothic fiction is characterized by its inclusion of the supernatural, death, gloomy settings, and characters experiencing overwhelming fear and distress, all of which are present in “The Signalman.” In "The Signalman," Dickens updates the typical gothic focus on the haunting nature of older (often aristocratic or religious) buildings to instead highlight the horrors of the rapidly industrializing Victorian world. The foreboding castle corridor of earlier gothic novels becomes the “black [train] tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing and forbidding air.” Dickens makes this switch to portray the unsettling, dynamic forces of industry and technology in the contemporary Victorian era rather than convey a fear of a haunting past.
As in many works of Gothic fiction, Dickens also explores the dual themes of isolation and the supernatural in relation to the mind. The signalman's work in the box separates him from the natural world and human interaction, heightening his distress over the ghostly appearances and guilt. Dickens uses the supernatural to reflect the tormented psyche of the signalman, who is so harshly haunted by his guilt that it has manifested physically. The ghosts also function as gothic doppelgängers in how they uncannily have the same language and physicality as some living counterparts, such as the narrator and Tom. These doubles heighten the frightening uncertainty about who is living and dead and what is real and unreal. This supernatural uncertainty reflects the signalman’s helplessness when faced with the overwhelming forces of death and industry, as he is unable to gain control over death, industry, or supernatural encounters.
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