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"The Signal-Man" is a short story by Charles Dickens, first published as part of the ''Mugby Junction'' collection in the 1866 Christmas edition of ''All the Year Round''. The railway signal-man of the title tells the narrator of a ghost that has been haunting him. Each spectral appearance precedes a tragic event on the railway on which the signalman works. The signalman's work is at a signal-box in a deep cutting near a tunnel entrance on a lonely stretch of the railway line, and he controls the movements of passing trains. When there is danger, his fellow signalmen alert him by telegraph and alarms. Three times, he receives phantom warnings of danger when his bell rings in a fashion that only he can hear. Each warning is followed by the appearance of the spectre, and then by a terrible accident. The first accident involves a terrible collision between two trains in the tunnel. It is likely that Dickens based this incident on the Clayton Tunnel crash that occurred in 1861, five years before he wrote the story. Readers in 1866 would have been familiar with this major disaster. The second warning involves the mysterious death of a young woman on a passing train. The final warning is a premonition of the signalman's own death. ==Plot summary== The story begins with the narrator calling "Halloa! Below there!" into a railway cutting. The signalman standing on the railway below does not look up, as the narrator expects, but rather turns about and stares into the railway tunnel that is his responsibility to monitor. The narrator calls down again and asks permission to descend. The signalman seems reluctant. The railway hole is a cold, gloomy and lonely place. The signalman still seems to be in fear of the narrator, who tries to put him at ease. The signalman feels that he has seen the narrator before, but the narrator assures him that this is impossible. Reassured, the signalman welcomes the newcomer into his little cabin and the two men speak of the signalman's work. His labour consists of a dull, monotonous routine, but the signalman feels he deserves nothing better, as he wasted his academic opportunities when he was young. The narrator describes that the signalman seems like a dutiful employee at all times except when he twice looks at his signal bell when it is not ringing. There seems to be something troubling the signal man, but he will not speak of it. Before the narrator leaves, the signal man asks of him not to call for him when he's back on the top of the hill or when he sees him the following day. The next day, as directed by the signalman, the narrator returns and does not call. The signalman tells him that he will reveal his troubles, that he is haunted by a recurring apparition: he has seen a spectre at the entrance to the tunnel on separate occasions and that each appearance was followed by a tragedy. In the first instance, the signalman heard the shouted words that the narrator spoke and saw a figure with its left arm across its face, while waving the other in desperate warning. He questioned it but it vanished. He then ran into the tunnel but did not find anybody. A few hours later there was a terrible train crash with many casualties. During its second appearance, the figure was silent, with both hands before the face in an attitude of mourning. Then a beautiful young woman died in a train passing through. Finally the signalman admits that he has seen the spectre several times during the past week. The narrator is skeptical about the supernatural and he suggests that the signalman is suffering from hallucinations. During their conversation the signalman sees a ghost and hears his bell ring eerily, but the narrator sees and hears nothing of these events. The signalman is sure that these supernatural incidents are presaging a third tragic event waiting to happen, and is sick with fear and frustration: he does not understand why he should be burdened with knowledge of an incipient tragedy when he, a minor railway functionary, has neither the authority nor the ability to prevent it. The narrator believes that his new friend's imagination has been overtaxed and suggests taking him to see a doctor. The next day the narrator visits the railway cutting again and sees a figure at the mouth of the tunnel. This figure is not a ghost, however. It is a man, one of a group of officials investigating an incident on the line. The narrator discovers the signalman is dead, having been struck by an oncoming train. He had been standing on the line, looking intently at something, and failed to get out of the way. The driver of the train explains that he attempted to warn the signalman of his danger: as the train bore down on the signalman the driver called out to him “Below there! Look out!” Moreover, the driver waved his arm in warning even as he covered his face to avoid seeing the train strike the hapless signalman. The narrator notes the significance of the similarity between the driver's actions and the actions of the spectre as the signalman had earlier described them, but leaves the nature of that significance to the reader. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「The Signal-Man」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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