Ranjan Kumar Singh
Recently I read two classics – An Honest Thief by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky and The Signalman by British author Charles Dickens. What do Dickens and Dostoevsky have in common? Dostoyevsky’s short story An Honest Thief was first published in 1848, while Charles Dickens’s The Signalman was first published in 1866. Remarkably, both Dickens and Dostoevsky share same era, but lived in different geographical locations, bringing forth different settings. Whereas the first story is of a thief who feels guilty for his actions, the second is a ghost story. Both these stories hold a unique place in world literature.
Dickens and Dostoevsky both have chosen to tell their story in first person. It is also a wonderful coincidence that there are three characters in both stories. In both stories, the narrator is engaged with some unknown person. The unknown person of Dostoyevsky had lived with the narrator for a long time and there was an inexplicable relationship between the two, but the narrator of Dicken had just met with the unknown person. It may also be a coincidence that in both the stories, the protagonist or the unknown person meets a tragic death in the end. The first story succeeds in garnering our sympathy for a thief, while the second story opens to the uncertainties of life and creates a fear of the mysterious world. However, both are stories of human sensibilities.
As I have already stated, Dickens and Dostoevsky have featured three characters in their stories. In An Honest Thief, there is a writer as well as a narrator and a drunkard, while in The Signalman, apart from the writer, there is rail personnel and a ghost. In the first story, the author and the narrator are different, while in the second, the author is also the narrator. The narrator of An Honest Thief narrates the story to the writer of the story, while the narrator of The Signalman interacts directly with the readers. Here the author should be considered the character of the story, and not Dostoyevsky or Dickens. Whether it is the narrator of An Honest Thief or the narrator-writer of The Signalman, both are full of human sensibilities. The narrator of An Honest Thief becomes the patron of a drunkard, while the author of The Signalman offers to take the stranger to a psychotherapist for treatment. Remarkably, where the protagonist of An Honest Thief is a victim of psychosis, the protagonist of The Signalman is assumed to be a victim of psychosis.
An Honest Thief’s drunkard behaves almost like a dog, wagging its tail for a few loaves of bread. Although he does not care about his food, he has become such an alcoholic that now only liquor can keep him alive. No advice has any effect on him. Whether it is advice to take up some job, or advice to give up drinking, it all fells on deaf ears. In the true sense, he represents the people of the Soviet Union, who were left with no ambitions because of the prevailing socio-political system of the time. When he is not given alcohol to drink, he steals the breeches of his patron and buys alcohol for himself. He tells lies every time he is asked about it but the guilt of stealing the breeches haunts him till the last breath of his life, and before he dies he even confesses to the theft.
On the other hand, The Signalman, as the name suggests, is the story of a signalman who endeavors to perform his duty honestly. However, from time to time he gets to see a specter who signals in a certain way and asks him “Halloa! Below there!” The story begins with “Halloa! Below there!” and ends with ‘Below there! Look out! Look out! For God’s sake, clear the way!'” In between such phrase is heard many times and whenever it is heard, some untoward incident follows. The author, who is also the narrator, does not believe in superstition at all and that is why to him the conscientious railway worker is like a mental patient who is tormented by his loneliness. He wants to help him and offers to take him to a psychiatrist, but when he comes to the next time from where he had seen the signalman, he sees some other people in his place. On getting down, he comes to know that the signalman is dead. he has been a victim of a train accident. Remarkably, the driver of the train had called aloud, ‘Below there! Look out! Look out! For God’s sake, clear the way!'” And at the same time, he had put this arm before his eyes not to see and had waved this arm to the last! A posture that the signalman talked of. In the end, the readers are confronted with the question, who was in fact there?
Remarkably, whereas the protagonist of An Honest Thief ends up with a pathetic death while evading his duties, the hero of The Signalman ends up in a horrific death while fulfilling his duties.
