Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan Senior Secondary School – KKN

English Literature
THE SIGNALMAN BY CHARLES DICKENS
Std. EIGHT
I. Annotate
A. ‘Why, see ‘’said I,’ how your imagination misleads you .My eyes were on
the bell and my ears were open to the bell and if I am a living man, it did not
ring at those times.’
1. The speaker is the narrator and the listener is the signalman.
2. Why does the speaker say the listener’s imagination misleads him?
Ans. The narrator was with the signalman in his cabin when the signalman told
him that his mind was troubled as the specter appeared now and then at the
signal light. He added that it rings the bell and calls him; ‘below there, look out,
look out’. When the signalman mentioned about the ringing of the bell, the
narrator stopped him and said that the bell did not actually ring and it was only
his imagination that misled him.
3. How did the listener react?
Ans. The signalman was not at all surprised that the narrator did not hear the
bell ring. He strongly believed that only he could hear it.
4. Why do you think the listener was troubled?
Ans. The signalman was troubled because of his premonition that the specter
rang the bell to warn him against a dreadful calamity.
B. ‘With an irresistible sense that something was wrong, I descended the
notched path with all the speed I could make.’
1. What causes the narrator to feel that something was wrong? Is he right?
Ans. When the narrator was on his way to the signalman’s post, he noticed a
figure gesticulating in a similar manner which the signalman had described the
previous evening; a man with his left sleeve across his eyes and waving his
right arm. The narrator sensed that there had been a mishap and hurried down
the narrow path only to know that the train had struck the signalman.
2. What was strange about the manner of his death?
Ans. A man known for his alertness was run over by an engine in broad
daylight. He was also noticed to have been holding a lamp in his hand at that
time. To add to the mysterious circumstances revolving around the signalman’s
death, the engine driver had been calling the signal man, making the same
gestures as that of the specter that had been haunting him for several days.
II. Explain the following phrases with reference to the context by citing a few
examples from the lesson:
a) Foreshadowing: a literary device used by the writers to generate an
atmosphere of expectation and suspense in the story.
Eg. gloomy entrance to black tunnel,
terrible screams and cries…..
I put this arm before my eyes not to see…
b. Premonition: It’s a strong feeling or a warning that something unpleasant is
going to happen.
Eg. It calls to me….in an agonized manner
What troubles me dreadfully, sir, is the question, what does it mean?
III. Complete the following:
1. The signalman worked in a solitary, gloomy, eerie and impenetrable place
where everything was crude and unnatural with a deadly smell and barbarous
air.
2. He was responsible for regulating the movement of the trains by operating
the railway signals from the signal box.
3. Though the narrator empathizes with the signalman he feels that the
signalman was hallucinating and the solitary place and setting and the
calamities that had previously taken place on the line were playing on his
mind.
IV. Question and Answer

Q. What is the significance of the story's opening line?

Ans. The opening line of "The Signalman" is a motif that recurs throughout the
story, gaining new meaning with each utterance. While the phrase "Halloa!
Below there!" is friendly and innocuous-sounding at first, the phrase seems to
stun the signalman and throw him into a reverie. Later, the signalman discloses
that the spectre shouted "Below there!" at him. The narrator understands the
repetition as an eerie coincidence. The ultimate significance of the phrase is
revealed when the train driver explains how he shouted "Below there!" to the
signalman before the train ran over him. In this way, the opening line
transforms from casual to eerie to tragic as the supernatural story unfolds.
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