Literature Essays

Set in the mid 19th century, “The signal man” takes place. The Signal Man is primarily situated near a railway tunnel, where the main character lives to facilitate train passage. Most of the story unfolds at night, and I felt an eerie aura while reading it. The ambiance was tense, and there was a crucial […]

Short stories were once considered inferior to novels until the 19th century, despite their existence for centuries. However, shifts in cultural, political, and social dynamics during this era led to an increased popularity of short stories, resulting in them being recognized as equal to poetry, plays, and novels. In Northern Europe, the industrial revolution brought […]

Examining H. G. Wells’ “The Red Room” and Charles Dickens’ “The Signalman,” my essay will compare and contrast these two pre-1900 prose short stories. In the story “The Red Room,” the narrator describes his encounter with Lorraine Castle and his decision to investigate the notorious room of the same name. Initially, the origin of its […]

“Hello, down there!” – this simple and seemingly harmless greeting to the unknown person, who becomes involved in the complicated life of the signalman, is a phrase that is repeated multiple times in the story. However, throughout the story, Dickens changes the meaning of this line. At the beginning of the story, the way this […]

Despite their seemingly unpredictable titles, “The Black Cottage” and “The Signalman” are both stories that immediately create a gloomy and adventurous mood. Authors Collins and Dickens have a talent for making readers feel uneasy about the setting and characters in each tale. Although not classified as a horror story, “The Black Cottage” is an exhilarating […]

Suspense is created through supernatural, horror and ambiguity. Dickens’ ‘The Signalman’ has all of these factors, which combine together excellently for a thrilling suspense story. The novel opens with the quote “Halloa! Below there! ” This short, but effective line becomes very decisive as the story unfolds. We don’t know who is speaking and so […]

The purpose of this essay is to explore how in the novels ‘Great Expectations’ and ‘Jane Eyre’ by Charles Dickens and Charlotte Bronte, the authors use language to create suspense and tension and how this enhances the storyline for a reader. Both these books were written and published during the 18th century and display many […]

The Signalman written by Charles Dickens in 1866 is a short story that falls into the gothic fiction genre. This particular style of writing combines elements such as the supernatural, castles, darkness, madness and the unknown. At the time the story was being written, the industrial revolution was in full force. This had a huge […]

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in the Georgian era and died on June 9, 1870 during the Victorian era. He wrote Great Expectations, which is considered to be one of his best works, from December 1, 1860 to August 1861. Charles Dickens’ book Great Expectations was influenced by the treatment of children […]

The Victorian era, from the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1837 until her death in 1901, was an era of several unsettling social developments that forced writers more than ever before to take positions on the immediate issues animating the rest of society. Thus, although romantic forms of expression in poetry and prose continued to […]

The Pickwick Papers has been one of the most read and most popular novels of all time since its publishing in 1836. This novel exalts the joys one can live as Dickens portrays the pleasures of travel, food and drink, companionship between men, benevolence, the joys of youth and romance. While the novel primarily deals […]

In “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens, conflict is presented as the outcome of industrialisation, material prosperity and a strict utilitarian way of life. In the 1850’s when the novel was written in instalments in ‘Household Words’, Victorian England was in the age of reform, which was creating new tensions between social classes, and creating a […]

Tom Christian Watts, known locally as Pop Eye, is an elderly white man living in the village with his black wife, Grace. Grace is from the village and now suffers from an undisclosed mental illness. He and his wife are local eccentrics, providing the children with entertainment on occasions when Pop Eye, wearing a clown’s […]

The novel “Hard Times” by Charles Dickens portrays Victorian society in the industrial revolution through characterizations and comparisons. It juxtaposes strict Victorian education with the ideals of a rigid, authoritarian society, as well as an idealistic, romantic, and emotional world. However, unlike other novels by different authors, “Hard Times” does not extensively explore the working […]

Great Expectations is a novel that was written by Charles Dickens and published in the late 19th century. It was firstly published in serial form in ‘All The Year Round’, which was Dickens weekly literary magazine. It was founded and owned by him and published between 1859 and 1895 throughout the UK. It is a […]

Charles Dickens uses the motif of doubles throughout his novel, A Tale of Two Cities. In fact, Dickens? very first line, “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,” (Dickens, 3) illustrates this motif. The entire first paragraph introduces the motif of doubles, which sets the precedent for the entire novel. […]

Important ideas and feelings don’t die easily and even survive the transition from one generation to another. Two authors from two different centuries try to communicate the same ideas through their books; they are Charles Dickens, from the 19th century, and James Watson from the 20th century. Both of these authors wrote a book that […]

In this essay I will be examining how Charles Dickens, in the Victorian period, ensured that his readers would continue to read Great Expectations after the first instalment. Dickens made the strategic decision to release his novel in instalments, and therefore, the success and engagement of the opening instalment were crucial for the novel’s profitability. […]

We will be examining how tension and suspense are created in two short stories. I will analyse the use of language, setting, characters and plot to see where tension has been created for he reader. We are looking at ‘The Signalman’, which is a pre-1990 Dickens’ story and ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, a more modern […]

For our chosen text we read “The Signalman” by Charles Dickens. This short story was written about one hundred and fifty years ago, therefore it was written for a purpose that we would not write for today. Dickens would have written this story to be read out to a public audience. This was because it […]

“The Signalman” by Charles Dickens is the first story I will discuss. It was written in the 1840’s or 1850’s, during a time when people believed in rational explanations for everything. However, Dickens challenges this belief by presenting a ghost story without a clear explanation, allowing readers to engage their imaginations. The story centers around […]

The tradition of the mystery story begins with Gothic writing, around 1810. From the Gothic story sub-categories were then created through a progression of stories. These further categories were ghost story, horror and detective. Each different category has some common key features which help to distinguish them and some other, now well known, stereotypical characteristics. […]