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The Signalman
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Signalman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Responsibility and Guilt
In “The Signalman,” an unnamed narrator strikes up an acquaintanceship with a railroad signalman, whose job is to monitor trains passing through a station. Although the narrator is impressed by the signalman’s commitment to keeping people safe, the signalman feels guilty about accidents that have occurred on his watch; even though these tragedies were seemingly random, he feels somehow responsible for them. Later, when a passing train hits and kills the signalman, the narrator…
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Helplessness, Fate, and Death
Throughout the story, the signalman feels helpless: it’s his job to keep train passengers safe, yet he couldn’t prevent the mysterious accidents that recently happened on the railway. In contrast, the narrator believes that he can help both the signalman and the train passengers who depend on him. But the narrator soon learns that he was always as helpless as the signalman, as he’s unable to prevent the signalman’s death at the end of the…
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The Supernatural and the Unknown
The titular signalman in the story is responsible for keeping people safe by monitoring the trains that come through his station. However, two mysterious train accidents occurred before the events of the story, which the signalman believes were caused by supernatural forces—a ghost supposedly warned him about the accidents in advance. But the narrator doesn’t believe the signalman’s ghost story, instead assuming that the signalman has lost his mind. At the end of the story…
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