Language
When analysing a literary text, it is also important to have an overview of the language used by authors, as it can help place the story into context and better understand the text.
The language used in “The Signal-Man” by Charles Dickens is occasionally hard to follow as Dickens uses a typically Victorian vocabulary with some old-fashioned words.
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Imagery
The short story abounds in imagery using descriptive words (mostly adjectives, verbs and adverbs of manner) which depict in detail the setting, how the signal-man looks like, the way he acts and reacts and his physical and facial expression. Bellow there is one such example of a very meticulous and vivid description of the setting in which we have highlighted the epithets:
Moreover, here we will focus on:
- Similes and comparisons
- Repetition
- Rhetorical questions
Repetition
Repetitions have an important function in the short story as they act like a leitmotif. The expressions used by the ghost are used by the narrator and by the railway worker who tries to warn the signal-man that the train is going to hit him. These repetitions contribute to the plot, as they are some of the coincidences between the man’s visions of the ghost and the real events of the story.
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Symbols
The eyes, the red light at the entrance of the tunnel and the landscape itself play symbolic roles in the story. The eyes reflect madness and the troubled nature of the signal-man: “The monstrous thought came into my mind, as I perused the fixed eyes and the saturnine face...”
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