Great Schools Trust

Book 5: The Signalman, a short

story by Charles Dickens

It’s assessment week!

This week’s reader is a short story, to keep
things manageable.

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 Pre-Reading: Synopsis

What is ‘The Signalman’ about?

'The Signal-Man' (1866) is a short story by the English writer Charles

Dickens (1812-1870). In the story, a practical-minded narrator meets a railway
worker who has been seeing supernatural visions. The narrator doubts the
man. The entirety of 'The Signal-Man' takes place in a narrow gorge through
which passes a railway line. At one end of the gorge is a dark tunnel from
which trains emerge. Farther up the line is the hut where the signal-man
works. His job is to communicate with other signal-men up and down the line
and to warn the engineers of trains if there's some danger ahead on the tracks.

Predictions

When do you think it might be set?

What genre might it be?

Hint:
Do you know anything about this author already?
Could this help you with your predictions?

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 Pre-Reading: Biography

Who was Charles Dickens?

Charles Dickens (Charles John Huffam Dickens) was born in Landport,
Portsmouth, on February 7, 1812. The Dickens family moved to London in 1814
where they settled in Camden Town, a poor neighbourhood of London.

The defining moment of Dickens's life occurred when he was 12 years old. His
father, who had a difficult time managing money and was constantly in debt,
was imprisoned in the Marshalsea debtor's prison in 1824. Charles was
withdrawn from school and forced to work in a warehouse that handled
'blacking' or shoe polish to help support the family. This experience left
profound psychological and sociological effects on Charles. It gave him a
firsthand acquaintance with poverty and made him the most vigorous and
influential voice of the working classes in his age.

After a few months Dickens's father was released from prison and Charles was
allowed to go back to school. At fifteen his formal education ended and he
found employment as an office boy at an attorney's, while he studied
shorthand at night. From 1830 he worked as a shorthand reporter in the courts
and afterwards as a parliamentary and newspaper reporter.

In 1833 Dickens began to contribute short stories and essays to

periodicals. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club was published in
monthly parts from April 1836 to November 1837. Pickwick became one of the
most popular works of the time, continuing to be so after it was published in
book form in 1837. After the success of Pickwick, Dickens embarked on a full-
time career as a novelist. In 1842 he travelled with his wife to the United States
and Canada, which led to his American Notes (1842) and is also the basis of
some of the episodes in Martin Chuzzlewit. Dickens's series of five Christmas
Books were soon to follow: A Christmas Carol (1843), The Chimes (1844), The
Cricket on the Hearth (1845), The Battle of Life (1846), and The Haunted
Man (1848). After living briefly abroad in Italy (1844) and Switzerland (1846),
Dickens continued his success.

Charles Dickens died at home on June 9, 1870 after suffering a stroke. Contrary
to his wish to be buried in Rochester Cathedral, he was buried in the Poets'
Corner of Westminster Abbey. The inscription on his tomb reads:
"He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering, and the oppressed; and by
his death, one of England's greatest writers is lost to the world."

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 Pre-Reading

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 Reading the Short Story: Making Predictions

Can you judge a book by its cover?

Based on the cover, what are your
predictions about what it will be about?

Why do you think it is called ‘The

Signalman?

What does the blurb suggest?

Blurb
A ghost story loosely based on the tragic Clayton Tunnel crash that
happened five years before, it centres on a railway signal-man who
is being haunted by a ghost. Every appearance of the ghost
precedes a tragic event on the railway he works on. While
normally his fellow signal-men alert him of danger, three times he
receives phantom warnings of danger followed by the appearance
of the ghost and, inevitably, a tragedy on the rails. A darkly
haunting tale, “The Signal-Man” explores themes of fate, solitude,
and the plight of the working class in Victorian England.

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 Vocabulary Challenge

Choose a word from the list below.

For each one:

1. Use a dictionary to find the definition.

2. Use the word in a sentence.

perplexed
perturbed
distressed

tense
disconcerting
agitated

Choose three of the words above.
Find 3 synonyms for those words.
Find an antonym for those words.
Can you find a way to synthesise your
new vocabulary, so that it is used
together in a sentence?

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 Reading the Opening Section
As you read the text, consider the following:

How the does the writer make the scene seem unsettling or
unusual to the reader?

unsettling
Creating a feeling
of anxiety or uneasiness.

unusual
Remarkable or
different from the expected.

How do these phrases make the scene unsettling?

“clammy stone”
“dripping-wet wall of jagged stone”
“this great dungeon”

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 The Signalman
How does Dickens present the signalman?

The monstrous thought came into my mind as I perused the fixed eyes and the saturnine face, that
this was a spirit, not a man. I have speculated since, whether there may have been infection in his
mind.

In my turn, I stepped back. But in making the action, I detected in his eyes some latent fear of me. This
put the monstrous thought to flight.

He replied to my remarks with readiness, and

in well-chosen words. Had he much to do
there? Yes; that was to say, he had enough
responsibility to bear; but exactness and
watchfulness were what was required of
him, and of actual work—manual labour he
had next to none. To change that signal, to
trim those lights, and to turn this iron handle
now and then, was all he had to do under
that head. Regarding those many long and
lonely hours of which I seemed to make so
much, he could only say that the routine of
his life had shaped itself into that form, and
he had grown used to it. He had taught
himself a language down here--if only to know
it by sight, and to have formed his own crude
ideas of its pronunciation, could be called
learning it. He had also worked at fractions
and decimals, and tried a little algebra; but he
was, and had been as a boy, a poor hand at
figures.

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 Steps to Success
How does Dickens present the signalman in this extract? Collect quotations from the text to
illustrate what the signalman is like, based on the description in this extract. Add your
inferences to explain why you have selected those quotations and what they tell the reader
about the signalman.

Summarise what you have found out about the

signalman so far in a sentence using exactly 15
words.

Now edit your response to 10 words.

Can you precis it in 5 words?

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 Define the Genre!

genre
the type or category of a
text, film, etc.

conventions
the ingredients or
elements that typically
make up a certain
genre.

What conventions of a ghost story can you spot in

‘The Signalman’?

How do these quotes meet the conventions of a ghost story?

‘distant clocks were striking eleven’ ‘night-time’

‘one moonlight night’ ‘darkness’

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 Conventions of a Victorian Ghost Story

 A ghost
 An isolated haunted house or location
 Extreme weather conditions
 The motif of sleep and lack thereof
 First person narrative
 The use of women and children who are vulnerable/evil
 A Byronic hero – A key protagonist who doesn’t believe in
ghosts at the outset but changes when he has experienced
the presence of one. They are intelligent, sophisticated and
educated, but struggling with emotional conflicts, a troubled
past and ‘dark’ attributes.

Useful words and phrases to consider using when writing a

ghost story
Chill Spooky Gloom Flooding Scary Hair-raising Cobwebs Eerie
Frightened Spine-chilling Spirit Grotesque Old Cold Shivers of fear
Uncanny Atmosphere Paranormal Abandoned Spectre Dare
Chain-rattling Shriek Phantom Vaporous Apparition Deathly
Creepy Whispering cries Howling Frostiness Blood-curdling
Sensation Indistinct Shrill darkness Abnormal Mist fog vision
headless Footsteps Graveyard Apprehension Corpse Ghoul
Shadow Horse and carriage hooves Aura Weeping Weird
Supernatural Banshee Poltergeist Lifeless Scream

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 Write Your Own…
Can you write your own ghost story using the conventions
identified previously? You should also look at the success
criteria below.

• Accurate use of capital letters, full stops and commas.

• Use of at least three ghost story conventions in your description.
• Ambitious adjective,
verb and adverb
choices to add detail to
your work.
• Varied sentence openers e.g. adverb opener, verb opener.
• Use of literary devices e.g. simile, personification, pathetic fallacy.

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 Sequencing: Put the Plot in the Correct
Order
The signalman confides that the They talk and the signalman talks
vision keeps ringing his bell and about his childhood, education and
had done so just before the man younger years.
had arrived on the first night.

The vision covers his

eyes with one hand and
waves the other hand in
front of his face like he
is giving a warning and
shouts ‘Below there!
Look out! Look out!’
A man shouts ‘Halloa! Below there!’
to the signal man.
The men go into the signalman’s
station where there is a fire, a desk and
machinery for his job.

Six or seven months later, he saw

the figure again, who was silent The man thinks the signalman may
this time. That day, a woman died be ill and advises him to see a
during a train journey near doctor.
his station.

The signal man acts strangely when he

first sees him. He makes his way down to
the signalman’s hut.
The signalman tells a story about
seeing a ghost who called for his
attention. Six hours after, there
was a terrible accident on the line.
The man leaves the signalman and
Great Schools Trust February 2021 returns the following night.
 How do the events in ‘The Signalman’
foreshadow the ending?

Foreshadow
to hint at or What effect does foreshadowing
predict future have when it is used within a
events text?

Find quotes from the end of the story which

link to quotations from earlier in the story.

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 How do the events in ‘The Signalman’
foreshadow the ending?

Success Criteria
• Identify a quotation that answers the question.
• Explain how the quotation answers the question.
• Explore another meaning of the quotation.
• Link either one of your ideas (explain or explore)
with another quotation or idea in the text.

Example
The events in ‘The Signalman’ foreshadow the ending
through the repetition of the phrase ‘Below there!
Look out!’ This phrase is used right at the beginning
of the story by the narrator to get the attention of
the signalman. Later, the signalman admits that a
vision has come to him saying the same words. The
fact it is repeated makes it memorable for the reader
and also serves as a recurring warning for the
signalman. At the end of the story, the signalman is
killed by a train on the tracks and the train driver tried
to warn him to move by shouting the same phrase.

Great Schools Trust February 2021

 After You’ve Read…

Write a review of
‘The Signalman’, Make a poster Create a bookmark
explaining what showing the explaining the key
you enjoyed, and classic reading techniques
how it reflects skimming,
narrative arc
what you have scanning and
and include
analysing.
been learning. labels for each
stage.

Select a paragraph Write a

Create a comparison of two
from a short story
booklet different stories
of your choice,
and write an explaining what you have read.
analysis ten key Make sure you
language compare their
of the author’s
devices mean. language,
use of language.
Include an structure, and
Make sure you
their effect on the
include example for
reader.
quotations! each one.

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 After You’ve Read…
Compare the Book Covers

Great Schools Trust February 2021