Charles Dickens - The Signal-Man

Short biography:
Charles Dickens was born in Portsmouth on the 7th of February in 1812. Because his parents got impris-
oned in a prison for debtors, Charles moved in with a family friend called Elizabeth Roylance. Charles
lived there under rather poor conditions, which led to him having to find a job and quit school. He found
work in a blacking factory, which would leave a permanent scar on Dickens as he was still of a really
young age while experiencing these bad circumstances. When his parents finally got the money to pay
their debts, they were released and Charles went back to school. He went to Wellington House Academy
and became a junior clerk and reporter. At least, that was until he started his career in writing.
Charles married Catherine Hogarth on the second of April in 1836 and they had ten children together.
They got a divorce in 1858 and many think that was because Charles was having an affair with Ellen Ter-
nan, even though that had already been going on for a long time. Ellen was only 18 years old when she
met Charles (who was 45 at the time) and became his mistress.
On the 9th of June in 1870 Charles suffered from a stroke and died. He was buried four days later in the
Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey.

Connection to The Signal-Man:

There were two railroad crashes that are linked to this story.
The first crash was the Clayton Tunnel rail crash, which took place on a Sunday, specifically the 25th of
August in 1861, which was exactly five years before Charles wrote The Signal-Man. A wrong signal send
by the signalman on the job that day caused this crash, which would lead to the death of 23 people and
176 people getting injured. The first accident in the story also involves two trains colliding, which leads
many to the probable conclusion that this part of the story is inspired by the Clayton Tunnel rail crash.
The second crash was the Staplehurst rail crash in which Dickens himself was involved as he was travel-
ing with his mistress, Ellen Ternan, and her mother. The train derailed while crossing a bridge where a
length of track had been removed during engineering works, killing ten people and injuring forty. Dick-
ens survived physically completely unharmed as he was in the first carriage that derailed sideways but
did not fall completely. Dickens helped with the rescue of the other passengers, some of whom died
while he was with them. The experience changed Dickens’s mental state, since he was from that day for-
ward not keen on travelling by train and he got very paranoid. His son also said that “he had never fully
recovered”. Many belief that the woman who dies in the story is inspired by Ellen (who was with Dick-
ens when the crash happened) and that the Signal-Man might be inspired by Dickens himself as the Sig-
nal-Man tries to explain what is happening to him in order to maybe stop more people from getting
hurt, but the other man thinks he might be crazy and paranoid.

Other works:
Oliver Twist
A Christmas Carol
David Copperfield
A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations
 Oscar Wilde - The Model Millionaire

About Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was born on October, 1854 in Dublin. He was an author, playwright and poet and
was a popular literary figure in late Victorian England. He was known for his brilliant, flamboy-
ant style and infamous imprisonment for homosexuality. After graduating from Oxford Univer-
sity, he lectured as a poet, art critic and a leading proponent of the principles of aestheticism.
He published in 1891 his only novel called: The Picture of Dorian Gray. It is now considered as
one of his most notable work. He also published satirical comedies as Lady Windermere’s Fan,
and his most famous play: The Importance of Being Earnest(1895). Wilde’s affair with a young
man led to his arrest on charges of “gross in decency” in 1895. He was imprisoned for two years
and died in poverty three years after his release at the age of 46.

Wilde’s connection to ‘The Model Millionaire’

In ‘The Model Millionaire: A note of Admiration’, Wilde states at the beginning that there are
four great truths in life, and if those apply to you, you’ll be sure to make it. The rest of the story,
however, proves that one does, not necessarily need to live by those rules to ‘make it’ and to
have a great life: you can come a long way with a little kindness. The character, Hughie Erskine,
can be seen as a reflection of Wilde himself, as he too was very charming and kind of a dandy.
Hughie can be seen as a typical charming and pretty boy, and Wilde has almost always written
such a character into his stories. Although he never stated that one of his characters was (possi-
bly) gay, people do think so, as it would mean that there is some kind of personal reflection of
Wilde in each story. The hope of coming a long way with a little kindness was probably very im-
portant to Wilde, as he was not accepted by society because of his homosexuality, and none of
the great truths apply to him either.
 James Joyce - Evelyn
James Joyce was an Irish novelist, short story writer and poet. He was born in Dublin on
the 2nd of February in 1882. He was the eldest of ten children. His parents were John
Stanislaus Joyce and Marry Murray Joyce. Joyce was very and had a gift for writing
and a great passion for literature. He was married to Nora Barnacle. He was baptized
Catholic, but left his religion later in life. His father was a talented singer, but didn’t
support a stable household, he drank a lot and his lack of interest fort he family finances
meant they never had much money. In his short story Evelyne, Evelyne’s father also
didn’t take care of his family enough, so he and Evelyn have the same kind of
childhood.

James Joyce moved a lot to other countries and in 1902 he moved fort he first time. He
moved out of Ireland to Paris, to study medicine there. This was around the same time
he wrote Evelyn. (that was published in 1904). He faced a lot of struggles, which Evelyn
faces in the story, in real life. In the end of the story Evelyne didn’t leave, and he did but
the struggles are quite the same.

Even though James Joyce spent most of his lifetime in France and Switzerland, most of
his books are set in Dublin. His most famous works are Ulysses, A Portrait of the Artist
as a Young Man and Dubliners. Ulysses is one of the most influential books of the 20th
century. It is a modern version of Odyssey, set in Dublin. Most of the characters in the
novel are based on either figures in the Odyssey or people he met in real life. A portrait
of the Artist as a Young Man is Joyce’s first novel and it depicts his journey from
childhood and adolescence and is gradual growth into artistic self-consciousness.
Dubliners is a collection of short stories, all set in Dublin. Evelyne is one of the fifteen
short stories in the book.
James Joyce died after taking a surgery for a perforated duodenal ulcer in 1941.
 Katherine Mansfield - The Fly
Her life
Kathleen Mansfield Beauchamp, also known as Katherine Mansfield was born on the
14th of October in 1888 in Wellington, New Zealand. She was an English writer, but her
specialties were short stories.

She was the daughter of a rich trader and banker. In 1903 she left Wellington to study
three years on the Queen’s College in London. She became a specialist in education
and upbringing for young girls and women. She moved back to New Zealand in 1906 for
two years, but she didn’t like it in her country of birth, so from 1908 she officially settled
in Europe, England. In 1909 she married George Bowden, but the day after their mar-
riage she left him for unknown reasons. After that she became pregnant of another man
and got a miscarriage. This was became the inspiration for her first story bundle.

Her brother, Leslie Heron Beauchamp, died in 1915 in Belgium in a training accident.
Her thoughts returned to her childhood and homeland and she wrote some short stories
with New Zealand in the background. One of them was The Fly.

The fly
The fly is a story about a boss and a man who comes to visit him at work. Both of their
sons in World War I. The boss is very sick. The visitor reports that his daughter recently
visited his son’s grave. When the visitor has left, the boss sits down at his desk thinking
he might cry. Instead, he tortures a fly until he forgets what he was sad about.

Similarities
Just as Katherine’s brother died in the WWI, the men their sons did too. This is a simi-
larity between Katherine’s real life and her story the fly. Another thing that is the same
between her life and her stories is her death and the death of the boss. The boss is sick
for a long time. Katherine died because of tuberculosis, which is also an illness that
hurts a long time before you die. She died on the 19th of January in 1923, at the age of
34.

Some other work

Manfield’s work is related to that of Tsjechov, whom she considered her example. She
especially excels in atmospheric drawings and attention to realistic details. Some of her
other works are
In a German Pension, which are thirteen stories, The Garden Party, Somehing Childish
and Predule, a novella.
 Ernest Hemingway - Indian Camp

Ernest Hemingway was born on July 21, 1899 in Oak Hill, Illinois (Chicago). He was born to
Clarence and Grace, had three sisters and no brothers. Both his parents were well-educated
and respected. Ernest attended Oak Park and River Forest High School, where he excelled at
English. In 1916, he sent his first work to the high school newspaper (it was about the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra).
During WWI he was an ambulance driver in Italy. He once was injured by a mortar shell, but
proceeded to bring other soldiers to safety. For this action, he was rewarded the Italian Silver
Medal of Bravery.
After the war, he went back to the USA, where he was an editor for a newspaper. Then he met
Hadley Richardson, who became his wife. When Hemingway was hired as a foreign corre-
spondent, the couple moved to Paris. Here Hemingway was writing for the newspaper and also
published his first book: Three Stories and Ten Poems. It was also in Paris in 1924 that he
wrote the short story Indian Camp.
Hemingway was interested in Native Americans and their culture, and that’s one reason he
wrote this story. The little boy, Nick Adams, resembles Hemingway himself, and there are some
things that happened in Hemingway’s life, that also happen in the story. For example:

 Hemingway was on a train when his wife went into labour, and he was believed to be
scared that his wife and child wouldn’t make it. He was absent during the birth, just like
the man in the story (who committed suicide, maybe because he, too, was scared that
his wife and child were going to die). He therefore believed it was more difficult on him
than it had been for his wife

 Hemingway’s father was a gynecologist, just like the Nick’s father in the story.

 Hemingway hated his mother and called her “that bitch”, just like uncle George did with
the Indian mother.

 Hemingway’s father was very strict, and would hit him if necessary. In the story Nick has
to watch the childbirth as something to learn from, also some kind of punishment.

 Hemingway’s father had committed suicide, like the man in the story.
The story is thought to symbolize the moment that the white man arrived in America and took
control over the indigenous peoples. The man killing himself represents the rejection for the
white man of the Indians. His skill is needed, but it brings the man with destruction.
Other works:
The Sun Also Rises
A Farewell to Arms
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Old Man and the Sea
 Roald Dahl - Genesis and Catastrophe
Roald Dahl’s Life
Roald Dahl was born on September 13th 1916 in Wales to Norwegian parents in
Whales. At a young age, Roald lost his father and sister. His mother died quickly after,
at Roald’s age of 13. At school he was never seen as a talented writer. After school he
joined the Shell Petroleum company. Because of this, he had lived in Africa for quite
some time. Shortly after arriving in Africa, he served in the Royal Air Force during World
War 2 in the British army. He then became a flying ace and intelligence officer, rising to
the rank of acting wing commander. After being invalided home, he aimed to become an
instructor. He rose to prominence as a writer in the 1940s with works for both children
and adults, and he became one of the world’s best-selling authors. He has been re-
ferred to as “one of the greatest storytellers for children of the 20th century.”
Connection to “Genesis and Catastrophe”
Dahl’s short stories are known for their unexpected endings, and his children’s books for
their unsentimental, macabre, often darkly comic, featuring villainous adult enemies of
the child characters. His books champion the kind-hearted, and the feature an underly-
ing warm sentiment. This also implies for his book “Genesis and Catastrophe: A True
Story”, a book in which the birth of Adolf Hitler is told. Though this type of stories is not
very reminiscent of his writing style, the fact that he wrote about this subject is not so
weird. Because he was a flying ace in WW2, fighting for the UK, it was not unthinkable
that he was going to write a story about the birth of his enemy. The link between the au-
thor and the story is clear, however, it does have a twist, Dahl actually sympathized to
Hitler. He was anti-sematic, and he was disgusted by Zionism and Israel.

Other works:
James and the Giant Peach
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The BFG
The Witches
Matilda