The Signalman by Charles Dickens and The Darkness Out There by Penelope

The Signalman by Charles two and The phantom aside There by Penelope LivelyComparing The Signalman by Charles Dickens and The lousiness OutThere by Penelope Lively is an sample way of looking at two authorsfrom several(predicate) times and backgrounds. Dickens, committal to writing in thenineteenth century, would have had a very different auditory sense to writefor from Lively, writing in the twentieth century. Therefore, eachauthor uses different techniques to create stress in the two pieces.During the nineteenth century in that respect was a strong belief in ghosts andthe spiritual world notice ghost stories around the fireplace isoften seen as a regular form of Victorian entertainment. Dickens drawson this tradition to create a short story that would have stronglyappealed to readers of that time. Lively, however, is not writing foran audition that would enjoy a ghost story as much, therefore TheDarkness Out There, is not blatently a ghost story. To capture herreaders interests she instead uses the fight and the attitudes to theGermans as a focus of concern. As Dickens lived in a time when theQueen was married to a man of German origin, war with Germany was veryunlikely. This meant he had to use an alternate burn down to draw the auditory sense into the story. For this he used the recent invention of thesteam train to put one over a foothold into the readers minds. This wasalready causing a lot of solicitude so it would have been easy to takeadvantage of the reader. He uses this approach to create tension.Another way the writers create tension is by exploring elements of theunknown. They some(prenominal) do this but in contrasting ways. In TheSignalman, the unknown is explicitly explored and it is obviously aghost story from ... ...s and Lively create tension through their useof plot, eccentric persons, style and setting. The eerie Packers Endmatches the claustrophobia enhancing setting of The Signalman.Dickens unknown characters of the narrator and the signalman keepthe readers on edge in The Signalman, whereas Sandras naivety,Kerrys suspicious character and Mrs Rutters seeming innocence then theabrupt exposure of true character build up tension and surprise inThe Darkness Out There. Dickens compacted plot works well to holdthe readers attention and the build up to Livelys final climax keepsher audience hooked to the end. On the whole two authors use eventsof their time well to create suspense. I feel that although Dickensappears to do this more effectively, the seeming normality yet thesense of edginess about The Darkness Out There creates just as muchtension.