Wide Reading Coursework for GCSE English Language and Literature.
Ghost Stories from the 19th and 20th Century.
From your reading, what have you learnt about what makes a successful ghost story? How effective do you find the two stories we have read and why? To start off with I will explain what I think makes a good ghost story then I shall analyse each one and say if they match the criteria and whether they are effective or not.
For a good ghost story I think that you need most or all of the following things It must make the person reading it feel scared, It must have a good plot to keep you interested, It must have a reason why the ghost is appearing, It must have suspense and terror involved and it must be built up well. It must have a good opening; it must have a good structure and sequence of events.
Charles Dickens, a former resident of Lant Street.
"Charles Dickens as he appears when reading." Wood...
Signal ManIt must have the use of supernatural events, It must have a convincing ghost, and it must have an atmospheric setting where the events take place. It must create atmospheres and moods and feelings relevant to terrifying stories it must have a good ending with a rational explanation of why the ghost appears or disproving the ghost to exist. Also a twist to the plot would finish one of nicely.
To start off with I shall look the Signalman, which is a 19th century book by Charles Dickens. It is a short story set at a railway where a signalman works alone watching the track and changing the signals and doing other jobs around the track.
It starts off with a man coming down to the embankment by the track and he shouts down to the signal man he calls a few time...