Paranormal Stories
...three or four stories you have read relating to this part of your GCSE course, discussing some of the issues this question raises.
In the nineteenth century people were far more superstitious than today. This is because there were no explanations for the odd things that went on, so they were forced to have superstitious beliefs. Today, we have science and technology that give us answers.
Stories about the paranormal were not necessarily about ghosts. They normally had the same/similar ingredients such as the dark inevitability of fate, eerie settings and atmospheres, symbolism of death and mostly contain simple plots.
The three stories, 'The Signal Man', 'The Monkey's Paw' and 'The Withered Arm' are three examples of stories that allude to the paranormal. Charles Dickens' 'The Signal Man' is about a "gloomy" man who works at a railway track and claims to see specters, whereas W.W Jacob's 'The Monkey's Paw" is about a sergeant major who insists that his relic from foreign climes can grant three wishes. On the other hand Thomas Hardys' 'The Withered Arm' is about the result of a woman's vision that took place in her sleep, about a woman she envied.
'The Signal Man' and 'The Monkey's Paw' both have fairly simple plots; on the other hand, 'The Withered Arm' has a far more complicated story line.
"The Signal Man" a "sallow" skinned man, who works by the railway tunnel, sees specters that call out to him, with their "left arm across the face" and their "right arm waved" to him. At first, the signalman thought that it was a real person, so he "ran on into the tunnel five hundred yards" to find no one. Six hours after the "appearance" the "memorable accident" on that line took place:
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and within ten hours the dead and wounded were brought along through the tunnel over the spot where the figure had stood"
After a few months, the Signal man had recovered...
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