The Signalman & Other Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens

The signalman's primary task is to decode messages. Ultimately, both men are helpless to avert the coming disaster: the signalman can't move when the train cuts him down, and the narrator is too late to help. Even the specter is helpless to avert the disasters he preemptively mourns. His instinct is to discredit the specter's appearances as coincidences, but he can't shake the sense of eeriness he feels when he looks at the red light or hears the wind whistle through the tunnel. The narrator, similarly, is unable to tell how much of the signalman's take on reality he should believe. The signalman's sense of responsibility causes distress and he sits and waits helplessly for disaster to strike. Though the specter warns the signalman of impending doom, the signalman is helpless to take action on the cryptic messages, as his usual decoding tools for telegraph messages are of no use. HelplessnessĪs a counterpart to responsibility, the theme of helplessness affects both the signalman and the narrator. The line had only been heard in the narrator's head, suggesting that perhaps he played some part in the supernatural circumstances that led to the signalman's death. The theme of responsibility is driven home with the story's final line, when the narrator notes that the train driver said 'For God's sake, clear the way!'-a statement the narrator attached to the action the signalman earlier demonstrated for him.

Worried about the signalman's mental health, the narrator feels the weight of his own responsibility, too, unsure whether it is his duty to report the man to the railway superiors or to have faith in the signalman, with whom he has developed a connection. The narrator takes pity on the signalman, observing how genuinely disturbed he is to be in a position where he is responsible for people's lives but has no way to take action. As the specter haunts him, the signalman finds himself in the dilemma of knowing that a disaster is coming, yet being unable to send out a danger message without being questioned by operators at either end of the line. Responsibility is one of the story's most prominent themes.

The Signalman & Other Ghost Stories by Charles Dickens