Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Signalman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Responsibility and Guilt
Helplessness, Fate, and Death
The Supernatural and the Unknown
Summary
Analysis
The narrator calls out to a signalman working below ground in a trench, yelling, “Halloa! Below there!” The signalman, instead of looking up immediately, glances toward the train tracks, which the narrator finds strange—it seems obvious to the narrator that his voice is coming from above. Eventually, though, the signalman spots the narrator above him. The narrator asks whether he can come visit the signalman in the trench, and a train passes with a “violent pulsation,” which the narrator almost believes will drag him downward. The signalman guides the train through his station with a flag.
The physical position of the signalman and narrator establishes their dynamic and respective social positions: the narrator seems to be casually passing by the signalman’s trench, suggesting he has some free time. The signalman, meanwhile, works below ground—his social position is literally below the narrator’s, and he stands below him at the start of the story. The narrator’s decision to greet the narrator seems to be an impulsive one; because the first line of the story is “Halloa! Below there!” readers aren’t privy to his reasoning. The signalman’s instinctive reaction, which leads him to look toward the tunnel instead of at the narrator, suggests that something is amiss. But only thing that immediately appears to be amiss is the passing of a “violent” train, which symbolizes the crushing power of industry over humans. The narrator’s fear that the train will harm him by dragging him down—presumably to where the signalman is—establishes the signalman’s trench as a hellish landscape where someone would go only if forced.
Themes
After the narrator repeats his question, the signalman points out a path leading down to his post—the narrator notices that the signalman does so reluctantly and awaits the narrator’s approach with “expectation.” Once the narrator is below ground, he notices how bleak the signalman’s surroundings are: the stone walls block the sky, and the only thing to look at is a black tunnel with a red light above it. Even the smell is “deadly,” the air is cold, and the narrator almost feels that he has “left the natural world.”
The narrator has to descend below ground to visit the signalman at his post, again suggesting the signalman’s trench is in some way akin to Hell. Because the signalman doesn’t actually want the narrator to visit him, the way he awaits the narrator with “expectation” suggests that he’s waiting for some grim encounter and isn’t trying to stop it. The narrator’s observations about the signalman’s trench seem to confirm that it is a hellscape, since the narrator observes that there’s no sign of life there: the signalman can’t look up at the sky, it smells “deadly,” there’s no warm air, and the place seems to be separate from the “natural world.”
Themes
The narrator tries to make conversation; after living a sheltered life, he’s now interested in the railroad industry. But the signalman keeps looking at the red light and then back at the narrator. The narrator asks whether the red light is part of the signalman’s job, and the signalman strangely replies, “Don’t you know it is?” The narrator notices that the signalman seems afraid of him, and the signalman tells the narrator that they may have met before, near the red light. The narrator replies that he’s never been there before, which the signalman accepts.
This passage confirms that the narrator is likely wealthy. His life experience has been limited, and he wanted to talk to the signalman because of an interest in trains and industrialization. However, this interest seems superficial, not only because he was so frightened of the train only moments before, but also because he asks the signalman whether monitoring the red light is his responsibility, implying he has no knowledge of the signalman’s job (presumably, the red light warns of approaching trains). But strangely, the signalman’s response suggests that he believes that the narrator does have some previous knowledge about the red light, which seems to be a fixation of the signalman’s—eventually, the red light will come to represent the unavoidability of death. The signalman’s belief that he’s met the narrator before explains why he was so reluctant to let the narrator visit, but he’s apparently wrong or misinformed.
Themes
Friendlier now, the signalman answers the narrator’s questions about his job. The signalman acknowledges that monitoring trains requires “exactness and watchfulness.” It’s lonely, but he says that he’s used to it—he’s dabbled with hobbies, but ultimately, his work has to be his priority. Even when he’s able to go above ground to see the sunlight, he can be called back by his bell at any moment, and as a result is always listening for it anxiously.
The signalman is clearly a very responsible person. If he failed at his job, there might be a train accident, and passengers could be injured or killed—this is why his job requires “exactness and watchfulness.” While the sacrifices the signalman has to make seem extreme—he can never mentally leave his post, even when he can physically leave, because the bell might call him back—those sacrifices also seem necessary, given that the signalman is responsible for the lives of others. Even his anxiety upon leaving his post is a testament to his responsible character, since it means he cares about his job and the safety of passengers. But the signalman’s job means that he’s essentially tethered to his post underground and can’t escape, strengthening the association between the trench and Hell. The fact that the signalman accepts these bleak circumstances implies that he’s a pretty passive person.
Themes
Get the entire The Signalman LitChart as a printable PDF.
The signalman takes the narrator into his box (the little room he works in near the tracks), which contains the bell that warns of approaching trains. The narrator remarks that the signalman seems unusually well educated, and the signalman tells him that he was once a natural philosophy student but squandered his opportunities. He doesn’t resent this, and he explains that “he had made his bed, and he lay upon it”—there’s no way to change his circumstances now.
The signalman’s box—the structure he lives and works out of— comes to represent his limbo state between life and death: he has to watch trains pass him by from his room and must look out for the safety of passengers, who might otherwise die. But he can never travel himself and have new experiences, since the box’s bell will always call him back.. The signalman’s passivity is again on display here, as he believes his fate is sealed. But he contradicts himself by saying that he “made his bed,” or fixed his circumstances, by squandering his educational and professional opportunities. If he really believed he was helpless to the workings of fate, he wouldn’t admit that he singlehandedly created his current circumstances.
Themes
The narrator finds the signalman to be humble and responsible: during their conversation, the signalman sometimes has to leave to fulfill various tasks, such as displaying flags and speaking to train drivers. In this, the narrator notes that the signalman is “exact and vigilant,” even stopping in the middle of a syllable to fulfill his duty. However, the narrator also notices that the signalman is distracted. Twice, the signalman stops speaking, turns pale, and looks toward the silent bell. He then opens the door of his box and looks toward the red light before returning inside, clearly shaken.
This passage proves that the narrator is both highly observant and a fair judge of character. He watches the signalman carefully and comes to a final judgment about him: that he’s responsible, so “vigilant” in his duties that he prioritizes the safety of passenger over finishing a word or sentence. Though the two men come from different walks of life, the narrator’s balanced observation of the signalman leads readers to trust his judgement—he seems to be a reliable narrator, and his observations about the signalman are likely unbiased. But because the narrator is so observant, he also notices that the signalman is upset about something, unduly fixated on the bell and red light. Since the narrator has watched the signalman carefully and concluded that he’s almost overly responsible, the signalman’s distraction suggests that something is seriously wrong.
Themes
Hoping to get him to speak about this distraction, the narrator tells the signalman that he seems content. The signalman replies that he was once but is now “troubled,” and he says that he’ll explain why if the narrator visits again tomorrow. The signalman warns the narrator that if he does visit, he shouldn’t call out this time. He then asks why the narrator said “Halloa! Below there!” The narrator doesn’t know, but the signalman wonders whether the words may have been “conveyed” to the narrator in “a supernatural way.” The narrator denies this and leaves the trench.
The narrator’s observation that the signalman seems content is a bit of reverse psychology: he wants to get the signalman to tell him what’s wrong. Meanwhile, the signalman’s insistence that the narrator not call out if he returns reminds readers of their strange meeting. This is the first explicit mention of “supernatural” forces, but the narrator’s claim that he didn’t say “Halloa! Below there!” because of those forces seems true, especially because readers are predisposed to believe the narrator, who observes the world around him carefully and rationally.
Themes
The next night, the two men sit in the signalman’s box again, and the signalman reveals that when he first saw the narrator, he mistook him for someone else. Though the signalman doesn’t know this other person’s face, they waved to him; the signalman demonstrates the gesture, which the narrator thinks looks similar to saying “For God’s sake, clear the way!” The figure called to the signalman one night, standing near the red light and yelling, “Halloa! Below there!” and “Look out!” The signalman followed the figure into the tunnel, but it disappeared. The signalman left the tunnel, which frightened him, and telegraphed an alarm to nearby stations, who replied that nothing was wrong.
The signalman’s story explains why he was initially frightened of the narrator, and why he looked toward the tunnel when the narrator greeted him instead of looking above. The mysterious figure he saw greeted him the same way as the narrator, yelling “Halloa! Below there!”—but the figure stood near the red light by the tunnel. This association between the red light, which has already unsettled the narrator, and the mysterious figure hints that the figure’s appearance is likely harmful. It also suggests that the figure means to warn the signalman of something—the red light, while frightening, is also part of the rail line’s warning system. This is heightened by the narrator’s description of the figure’s gesture; if the figure appears to be saying “For God’s sake, clear the way!” it likely believes there will be a crash on the rail line. The signalman, true to character, acts responsibly by telegraphing an alarm. But his fear of the tunnel confirms that something is strange about this visitation, even though the other stations claim that nothing is amiss. The signalman should be comfortable with the tunnel, given that his life is dedicated to staring at it. His fear suggests that, while this visitation appears to be a warning, it might be meant to unsettle rather than help.
Themes
The narrator tells the signalman that this encounter must have been a figment of his imagination, especially because the wind in the “unnatural valley” of the trench could sound like a cry. But the signalman continues his story, saying that six hours after the encounter, there was a crash on the train line, which killed and wounded passengers. The narrator agrees that this is a coincidence but says that the signalman shouldn’t dwell on coincidences in his life.
The narrator’s impulse is to explain away evidence of the supernatural and the unknown, to the point where he no longer trusts his own instincts. From the beginning, he noticed something was strange about the trench, even referring to it as an “unnatural valley” in this passage. But he still claims that the figure’s cry was the wind. His certainty that the figure was a figment of the signalman’s imagination is at odds with the signalman’s horrific story. Instead of accepting uncertainty, the narrator insists not only that the crash was a coincidence, but that coincidences shouldn’t affect the day-to-day lives of humans—in other words, that humans should be able to control their responses to events, even if they can’t control the events themselves. No matter what the signalman says, the narrator seems ready to dismiss him.
Themes
Undaunted, the signalman reveals that six months after the accident, the figure—which he now believes is a ghost—appeared at the red light again. This time it was silent, holding its hands over its face in an “action of mourning.” The signalman retreated into his box. The next day, he noticed hands waving in a passing train; he ran after the train, signaling the driver to stop, but the train drifted many yards before stopping. By the time the signalman reached the train, a young woman had died and was laid down in the signalman’s box.
The fact that the ghost—which, based on its position near the red light, should be warning the signalman about accidents—adopts an “action of mourning” before any accident occurs hints that the train crashes aren’t actually preventable and are instead fated to happen. The signalman’s helplessness in the face of the train’s power also suggests this. Though the signalman must have been watching the passing train closely and responsibly in order to notice waving hands in the window, and though he signaled to the driver immediately, neither of them were able to stop the train in time, which drifted even with the engine off. The train seems to have more power than humans, which means that the ghost’s “warning” is useless—the signalman is clearly unable to heed it. It’s also noteworthy that after the woman dies on the rail line, she’s brought into the signalman’s box, which represents his limbo state between life and death, and thus suggests that the signalman’s limbo might be coming to an end.
Themes
The signalman presses on with his story, telling the narrator that a week ago, the ghost returned at the red light and has been haunting him in “fits and starts” ever since. The ghost gestures with the motion the narrator believed to mean “For God’s sake, clear the way!” and yells “Below there! Look out!” The narrator realizes that the signalman was distracted last night because he heard and saw the ghost, which the signalman claims rang his bell (though the narrator never heard it). In an attempt to prove that the signalman’s hauntings are imaginary, the narrator takes the signalman out to look at the red light, and the ghost isn’t there.
Though the narrator doesn’t notice it, there are now a few holes in the signalman’s story. This third haunting breaks all previous patterns; after the first haunting, people died within six hours, and after the second, someone died within a day. This time, the ghost is haunting the signalman continuously, in “fits and starts.” It’s possible that this foreshadows a particularly important or gruesome death, which would add significance to the mysterious bell. Previously, the bell tethered the signalman to his box, or his limbo state underground—whenever he went above ground, he’d have to listen for it. Now, because only he can hear it and because it rings to announce the ghost’s presence, it tethers him to the tunnel and red light, which represents unavoidable death and implies that his limbo state will soon end. It’s also possible that the narrator is right to doubt the signalman. The narrator’s attempt to explain away the hauntings by looking out at the red light with the signalman seems pointless—the signalman made it clear that only he can see the ghost—but this third haunting is different than the first two, which could imply that the ghost really is just a figment of the signalman’s imagination.
Themes
While the narrator thinks about other ways to convince the signalman, the signalman tells the narrator that he wants to figure out what the ghost means and what it’s warning him about, because he’s now certain that there will be a third accident. He believes that this is a “cruel haunting”: if he telegraphed an alarm, he wouldn’t be able to give specifics and might be fired. The narrator notes that the signalman seems to have an “unintelligible responsibility involving life.” The signalman wonders why, if the accidents were preventable, the ghost wouldn’t give him more details, or wouldn’t notify someone with more power than him.
The signalman has already proven himself to be a passive person, willing to accept his fate. However, he still seems to believe that he has some power over what happens on his rail line, and that he can understand the supernatural by figuring out the hauntings’ purpose. This attitude is contradictory, especially because he questions whether the hauntings are preventable at all, implying that he thinks they might not be. The signalman believes that he has a “responsibility” to the passengers on his line. But he also acknowledges that he’s helpless in this situation; if he tried to shut down the rail line based on the ghost’s vague warning, he’d be fired. He feels guilty about the hauntings, but still thinks they might serve a purpose, though he admits that they seem “cruel.” Because he’s fixated on discovering the purpose of the hauntings, it doesn’t occur to him that the ghost may be taunting him, and that the cruelty could be the point.
Themes
The narrator decides that he should try to calm the signalman, rather than convince him the hauntings aren’t real. He tells the signalman that even if he doesn’t understand the hauntings, he at least “understood his duty.” After leaving, the narrator reflects that the signalman’s story is disturbing but is primarily concerned about his ability to do his job: though the signalman is careful now, he might grow more distracted and accidentally cause a rail accident. The narrator decides that the next day, instead of expressing his concerns to the signalman’s boss, he’ll offer to accompany the signalman to a doctor.
The narrator’s claim that the signalman at least “understood his duty” is ironic—the signalman’s duties on the rail line are clear, but his duties related to the accidents are not. The signalman isn’t sure whether he should be trying to stop the accidents or whether he’s helpless to do so, and either way, he feels responsible for the loss of human life. The narrator—who likely has little responsibility in his life—decides to take responsibility for both the signalman and the passengers on his line, who might be hurt if the signalman’s mental health left him unable to carefully monitor trains. Of course, there have already been at least two accidents on the signalman’s watch that the signalman was unable to prevent, suggesting that the narrator’s attempt at responsibility is misguided—even someone in a lucid state of mind might not be able to help others. Still, the narrator believes that he needs to institutionalize the signalman for everyone’s benefit, and in his certainty, he doesn’t even consider the possibility that the signalman may be telling the truth about the hauntings.
Themes
However, when the narrator arrives at the signalman’s station, he notices a man waving his arms near the tunnel and is temporarily frightened. This turns out to be a train worker, standing with a group of other workers, apparently demonstrating the gesture. The red light is off, and the narrator notices a hut made out of wood “no bigger than a bed.” Climbing down to the scene, the narrator worries that there’s been a rail accident, and that it was his fault for leaving the signalman alone.
The narrator’s initial impression of this scene places him in the signalman’s shoes, though he views it from above ground. It’s obvious that, for a split second, he thought he was seeing the ghost, which always appeared near the tunnel and often waved its arms. The fact that the narrator is in the same location he was in when he first greeted the signalman adds significance to this impression, because the signalman thought the narrator was the ghost at first—now, the narrator knows what that uncertain experience was like. It’s also noteworthy that the red light is off—because the red light was so closely tied to the hauntings and symbolizes unavoidable death, it seems that something horrible has happened if the red light no longer signals anything. Readers are given a subtle clue about what that “something” might be: the narrator’s claim that the wooden hut looks like a bed recall’s the signalman comment that he had “made his bed,” or fixed his lot in life. But the narrator doesn’t pick up on this, and he instead worries that train passengers died on the signalman’s watch, meaning that he failed at his newfound responsibility—if there was an accident, it would be the narrator’s fault for leaving the signalman alone the previous night.
Themes
Instead, one of the workers tells the narrator that the signalman was “cut down” and killed by a train earlier that day. He was standing outside the tunnel with a lamp, and the train hit him after emerging from the tunnel. The engine-driver, Tom, who was conducting the train, demonstrates where the signalman was standing. Tom had no time to “check speed,” and the signalman seemed not to hear the whistle, so he turned it off, instead waving his arms and yelling, “Below there! Look out! […] For God’s sake, clear the way!”
Crucially, the signalman died near the tunnel—because that’s where the ghost always stood, it’s likely that he died while investigating the hauntings. But his manner of death is odd: the signalman should have heard the train’s whistle, heard Tom’s cry, or seen Tom’s wave. There are two possible reasons for his death: either the signalman died because he was trying to understand the supernatural and was distracted, or because he believed he did understand the supernatural and interpreted the ghost’s third warning to mean he was fated to die. Regardless of the signalman’s manner of death, it seems likely that the supernatural was involved: Tom unconsciously mimicked the ghost’s behavior by yelling “Below there!” and waving, and he even gave voice to the narrator’s own musings. Earlier in the story, the narrator thought that the ghost’s gesture seemed like it was saying, “For God’s sake, clear the way!” but he never said so out loud, making Tom’s words particularly eerie. This passage also proves that humans are powerless in the face of industry: even though he saw the signalman well in advance, Tom couldn’t “check speed” in time to stop the train. And even though the signalman was an expert in trains, he failed to jump out of the way in time.
Themes
The narrator decides to end the story without “dwell[ing] on any one of its curious circumstances,” but he reminds readers that Tom’s words included both his initial greeting to the signalman (“Below there!”) and the phrase he assigned to the ghost’s gesture (“For God’s sake, clear the way!”). However, the narrator never spoke the second phrase out loud.
The narrator’s decision to end the story quickly without analyzing the “curious circumstances” of the signalman’s death at first seems like his dismissal of the supernatural. But his reiteration of the coincidence—that Tom spoke both the narrator’s greeting the narrator’s own thoughts out loud—suggests that he may now believe the signalman, or may at least be uncertain about whether or not the hauntings were real. After all, he provides no alternative explanation, which seems to be an acknowledgment of his own helplessness—throughout the story, he attempted to control and explain events, but now realizes he can’t do so. Because the narrator is tied to the signalman’s death through his greeting and thoughts, it’s unclear whether he’s somehow responsible for the tragedy. The story ends on a note of uncertainty, and Dickens lets the reader decide who was responsible, and whether the hauntings were real.
Themes
