The Signalman

A detailed Summary of The Signalman


First impressions last. In "The Signalman," the narrator meets a signalman frightened about the apparitions he has been seen. After every apparition he sees, a disaster happens on the Line. The signalman wonders what the apparition means. A look into how the narrator perceives the signalman, the conflict of the story and the narrator's realization of the meaning of the signalman's apparition will help understand "The Signalman." This analysis shall be done through the eyes of the narrator.

In their first meeting, the signalman made the narrator feel awkward. The signalman spooked the narrator out, "there was something in the man that daunted me" (p. 741, col. 1) by the way he acted. He seemed to be afraid of something, which caused the narrator to believe that he (the signalman) had an "infection in his mind" (p.741, col. 1). Despite the first impression the signalman left on the narrator,


In the second meeting, the narrator learns why the signalman acted strangely during their first rendezvous. The signalman tells the narrator that he has been seeing "apparitions." Skeptical about the signalman's story, the narrator tells the signalman how the senses can be deceiving sometimes, "I showed his how that this figure must be a deception of his sense of sight" (p. 744, col. 1). The narrator continues his skepticism by telling the signalman that the events that occurred after the apparitions were merely coincidence, "this was a remarkable coincidence, calculated deeply to impress his mind" (p. 744, col. 2). The narrator tries to disprove everything the signalman tells him with logical/scientific information. (He is like agent Scully and the signalman is like agent Mulder from "The X-files" where Mulder believes in the supernatural and Scully gives scientific explanations for everything.) The

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 614
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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