30 pages • 1 hour read
Charles DickensThe Signal-Man
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1866A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
The Signal Man
Described by the narrator as a “dark, sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows” (313), the signal man initially seems to mirror the dark and clammy conditions in which he works. The protagonist and tragic hero of the story, the signal man is a sympathetic character who has ended up with an underground job as the result of squandering educational opportunities. Nonetheless, the signal man is a reflective man who acknowledges both his past failings and current responsibilities: “He had no complaint to offer about that. He had made his bed, and he lay upon it” (314). He performs his job with “exactness and watchfulness” (314), breaking off conversation with the narrator when he must respond to telegraphs or signal to a train driver, and “remaining silent until what he had to do was done” (315). The narrator concludes, after watching the signal man at work, that he is “remarkably” punctilious about his duties.
However, it is this very acute attention to his responsibilities that torments the signal man in the wake of the third appearance of a ghost near the tunnel. The torture does not lie in the appearance of the ghost itself, but in the warning signals that the ghost gives. Having experienced two tragedies immediately after the ghost’s previous two warnings, the signal man is desperate to determine the exact nature of the danger the ghost portends so that he can prevent it: “What can I do?” (319), he implores. The narrator describes the signal man as experiencing “mental torture” due to The Burden of Responsibility. The terrible irony of the story is that the most crucial signals of the signal man’s career are unclear to him, and he does not know how to effectively signal in response.
Also unclear is whether or not the signal man’s own death on the tracks is the result of his selfless sense of responsibility—i.e., whether he is so distracted by the ghost’s warnings regarding what he assumes to be a threat to others that he does not hear Tom’s warnings regarding his own life. Another possibility is that he dies by suicide on the tracks as a result of “failing” to be an effective signal man—the very job that defines him to the story’s readers. The reader is left, like the signal man, with a tragedy of indeterminate origin.
The Narrator
The narrator is unnamed and reveals little about his background beyond the fact that he is currently staying at an inn in the area. He describes himself as someone “who, being at last set free, had a newly-awakened interest in these great works” (313)—i.e., the railway infrastructure (and possibly other technologies). He has the time and money to travel for pleasure, so he is at least middle class.
Like the signal man, the narrator is a sympathetic character. He is humble, revising his initial assumptions about the horrors of the setting and tediousness of the signal man’s job after listening attentively to his story. He earns the trust of the signal man, who feels comfortable enough with the narrator to reveal that he is “troubled” by the end of their first conversation and, during their second conversation, tries to communicate the specifics of this trouble, despite it being “very, very difficult to speak of” (315).
The narrator is the first person the signal man has taken into his confidence, and he is worthy of this trust. He tries to help the signal man in the moment by calming his mind, and he plans to accompany the signal man to the best medical advisor he can find in the near future. The narrator is punctual, always returning at the times he tells the signal man he will, and he never forgets the signal man’s requests that he not call out to him. He offers to stay the night with the signal man upon hearing of his troubles; though the signal man declines the offer, the narrator nonetheless stays until two in the morning.
Most importantly, the narrator becomes tormented by the signal man’s torment. This establishes another link in the chain of responsibility, as the narrator tries to determine how best to safeguard the safety of those on the rail and also help the signal man without unnecessarily jeopardizing his job: “But what ran most in my thoughts was the consideration how ought I to act, having become the recipient of this disclosure?” (320). Nevertheless, this concern and shared sense of responsibility cannot save the signal man.
Rather than focus on the tragedy of the signal man’s death, the narrator concludes the story with a brief comparison of the ghost’s and Tom’s warnings. Previously, the narrator resisted acknowledging The Supernatural and the Limits of Human Understanding, so his words here may indicate a shift in his thinking. If so, however, he is still following in the signal man’s footsteps, attempting to draw connections to solve a mystery that cannot be solved; his explanations have merely shifted from the physical plane (i.e., mental illness) to a metaphysical one. It is unclear how the trauma of finding the signal man dead at the end of the story will affect the narrator.
The Ghost
The narrator and the signal man use a variety of terms to refer to the ghost: the “spectre,” the “Appearance,” “Some one else,” and the “apparition.” This array of terms signifies the broader difficulty surrounding the ghost: It is impossible for the signal man to get any kind of hold on it, whether it be physical (“I ran right up at it, and had my hand stretched out to pull the sleeve away, when it was gone” [316]) or interpretive (“What does the spectre mean?” [319]). While the ghost appears in human form, no other details are provided about its physiognomy, and the signal man’s consistent reference to the apparition as “it” creates some doubt as to its personhood.
The ghost’s gestures are likewise ambiguous. In the first sighting, the ghost covers its face and wildly signals. During the second sighting, the ghost is described as again covering its face, this time in mourning. The ghost returns to frantic signaling during its third set of appearances. Its warnings, though dramatic, are as cloaked as its face, with crucial details never revealed, even though the ghost’s desperation implies that there is indeed something that should and can be done. It is unclear whether the confusion lies with the signal man for not being a proficient reader of the ghost’s warnings, or with the ghost for not being a good “signal-ghost” and providing a message that is not only readable but actionable.
Finally, the ghost’s motivation is also unclear: neither the signal man nor the reader can determine whether this is a friendly ghost trying to help, an evil ghost attempting to torture the signal man, or something in between.
Tom
Though he does not appear until the very end of the story, Tom is the only named character. He is the engine-driver of the train that kills the signal man, and the narrator initially mistakes him for the ghost.
After spotting the signal man on the track, Tom does everything that he can to signal to him, turning off his whistle when it fails to elicit a response from the signal man, and yelling “as loud as [he] could call” (321). Both his words and gestures are strikingly similar to those of the ghost, and the narrator concludes the story with this “coincidence.” Another parallel, which the narrator does not make, involves Tom’s description of his actions as of “no use.” This invokes the futility of the signal man’s own attempts to prevent unnecessary suffering and death, which are similarly of “no use.” The trauma of being helpless to prevent the signal man’s dramatic and quick death recalls the chronic, but no less traumatic, “trouble” that the signal man experiences in his helplessness to prevent impending disaster. The torture of living in this limbo of inevitability leads to the signal man’s death, and readers do not know how Tom will live with his own experience of futility.
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