Pre-1914 literature coursework

The Signalman by Charles Dickens Learning objective: To understand and explore the importance of context for a short Victorian story.

Social and historical context.

Task one. Match the domino cards in a line. You must think about which statements link together. Eg) Setting is very modern to Victorian readers links to Railways were a recent invention. This shows us that the setting of a railway was modern to the readers!

The Signalman. Context of setting.

Answer the following in full sentences from your Domino cards

Why was the setting modern to Victorians? Why is the character the signalman seen as unsuitable for his job? The genre of the story is traditional. What is it? What happened a year before Dickens wrote The Signalman?

The Signalman
Listen as the first section of the story is read. REMEMBER question is about setting. Look out for descriptions about the setting and what kind of atmosphere is being produced.

The Signalman

Copy these quotations. Underline any unusual words and annotate around as shown. steeped in the glow of an angry sunset
Totally covers man. As if drowning. Unusual adjective. Sounds violent. Hint of danger

The Signalman

Quotations about setting.

Where I stood on the top of the steep cutting nearly over his head. a vague vibration in the earth and air, quickly changing into a violent pulsation It was made through a clammy stone, that became oozier and wetter as I went down

The Signalman
Examine this passage describing the Signalmans box. Make a list of any words that create an unpleasant feeling about this setting. His post was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw. On either side, a dripping wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky; the perspective one way only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot that it had an earthy, deadly smell; and so much cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I had left the natural world.

The Signalman
Examine this passage describing the Signalmans box. Make a list of any words that create an unpleasant feeling about this setting. His post was in as solitary and dismal a place as ever I saw. On either side, a dripping wet wall of jagged stone, excluding all view but a strip of sky; the perspective one way only a crooked prolongation of this great dungeon; the shorter perspective in the other direction terminating in a gloomy red light, and the gloomier entrance to a black tunnel, in whose massive architecture there was a barbarous, depressing, and forbidding air. So little sunlight ever found its way to this spot that it had an earthy, deadly smell; and so much cold wind rushed through it, that it struck chill to me, as if I had left the natural world.