New Technology, New Anxieties, and New Forms of Oppression

This poem, authored by William Wordsworth in 1833, showcases the speaker’s stance on the emergence of 19th century transportation technology. He proposes that these technologies are merely an extension of humanity, seeing as they are the offspring of “Man’s art.” It is difficult to isolate trains, and the like, from the perception that they are quotidian and merely an integral part of mass transit as it operates in the modern world. However, for contemporary 19th century writers such as Wordsworth, such technologies were only beginning to emerge, and with great admiration came great anxiety. Nevertheless, Wordsworth seems to conclude that technology does more to enhance humanity than to detract from it, saying that it offers a “crown Of hope.” However, the chasm in viewpoints surrounding technology seemed only to widen as time went on and technology advanced.

This distinction is exemplified by Charles Dickens’ treatment of the matter. “The Signalman,” written in 1866—30 years after Wordsworth’s work—elevates the more daunting aspects of this growing development and places humanity and technology in tension rather than harmony. The story superficially presents itself as a ghost story in which the appearance of a spectre, to the unnamed signalman, repeatedly acts as an ill omen of death by train. Its final appearance presages the signalman’s own death. However, to take Dickens’ “ghost story” at face value would be to do it a disservice by undermining the much more daunting realities that potentially operate along the undersurface of Dickens’ writing. The anxiety related to new technology manifests itself in the form of the signalman and of the spectre. His story climaxes when the signalman, companion of the story’s narrator, suffers death by train; an ironic twist which perhaps illustrates the loss of control humanity will potentially suffer at the hands of technology. Though the specters in the story serve to conjure presentiments of violence, the actual danger is only ever perpetrated by the train itself. The tension between humanity and technology is further demonstrated by the naming, or lack thereof, of the main characters. The duty of the signalman was to warn train drivers of the potential for danger, and his death is ironically caused by the train itself. Even in his death, he is only referred to as the signalman, meaning that his entire identity resided within his relationship to the train, the same technology that led to his ultimate demise. Though Wordsworth is not entirely commendatory in his writing, the juxtaposition of his work and Dickens’ offers a more creative lens through which to view, and perhaps mitigate, this rivalry.

Railways were an immense step forward when it came to the speed and ease of transportation. However, in their early years especially, trains disproportionately benefited wealthy, presumably white, patrons. This fact was reflected by the design of the trains. Railway companies intentionally avoided catering to the broader public by only offering second and first class carriages (“How Did the Railways”). Additionally, they purposely avoided stopping at certain stations. It was not until 1844 that the Railways Act stated that at least one train a day had to stop at every station and include third class carriages (“How Did the Railways”), but, even so, intervention was minimal.

Not only does Dickens’ work showcase the anxieties surrounding new technology, but it is perhaps demonstrative of  the classist and racist underpinnings, as well as the exploitative practices that characterized railroad work. What might appear to be a seemingly insignificant detail in Dickens’ description of the signalman, instead harbors meaningful insight about the hierarchical structures of Victorian society. Dickens’ narrator describes the signalman as “a dark, sallow man, with a dark beard and rather heavy eyebrows.” From this description, readers can gather that the signalman was most likely a person of color. This is entirely plausible, and in fact likely, when considering the history of race dynamics in England, and the danger that the job of a signalman entailed. Though England passed the Slavery Abolition Act in 1833, this in no way alleviated the racial hierarchies that dominated Victorian society at the time of “The Signalman”’s publication. Not only was railwork dangerous, but it also demanded very long hours with very poor pay. Therefore, the people working these jobs would have been at the margins of society.

The article published in a British periodical in 1889, is demonstrative of the kind of conditions signalmen were subjected to. The various complaints and impending strikes covered by the article reveal workers’ demands for shorter work days, safer conditions, and payment for overtime. This article also brings verisimilitude to Dickens’ writing, affirming that the dangers experienced by the signalman were not only limited to his story, and instead affected thousands of lives. The value, or lack thereof,  placed on the lives of these workers is put into perspective when considering the aftermath of the Brighton Railway accident of 1861. The news of the crash is described in the article as “the theme of universal conversation throughout the country during the past week.” In the wake of the accident, Victorians demanded for reform “in the interests of public safety.” Furthermore, the article’s author stated that “We are not now dealing with the responsibility of the unhappy signalman who for twenty-four consecutive hours had to remain in the signal-box [and] . . . He might well be excused for getting confused.” Nevertheless, they asserted that the public had a right to demand reformation that would prevent similar accidents from happening in the future. However, as the article produced in 1889 demonstrates, signalmen and other railway workers were still demanding that the same conditions contributing to this accident be remediated, almost thirty years later. Though the Brighton Railway accident was no doubt a tragedy, audiences should account for the fact that many of those who lost their lives in the incident were passengers, and therefore many would have considered their lives important in comparison to the railroad workers, given the aforementioned demographics of those who were able to ride the train, versus those who worked on it. The fact that conditions for workers had not changed so many years later is telling of a blatant disregard for their wellbeing.

With the emergence of new train technology, there was more to gain for those of higher classes and more to lose for already marginalized groups. This dichotomy was demonstrated by the actuality of harsh and dangerous working conditions for those employed in railroad related work, and simultaneously by the luxury railway travel promised in targeted advertisements such as Roker and Seaburn’s. The first advertisement depicts the same woman in a side-by-side portrait which features her at the beach by day and dining at a cocktail party by night. This advertisement was not just selling a getaway, it was selling luxury as a concept—one that was facilitated and maintained by train travel, testified by the train services plug at the bottom of the poster. This manner of advertising was exemplified by the  London & North Eastern Railway ‘Quicker By Rail’ campaign of the 1930s, and its influence extended more than 30 years into the future. This advertising was mutually beneficial for railway companies as well as resorts. However, the lifestyle it sold was subliminally yet undoubtedly exclusionary. All of the subjects pictured were thin, white, conventionally, eurocentrically attractive, and exuded a lifestyle of wealth. These getaways were ironically made possible by the same people these advertisements ostracized: those who were socioeconomically disadvantaged and/or people of color. Though railway travel did wonders to transform the landscape of wherever it touched, and rapidly industrialized the nation, the development of this new technology intersected with pre-existing conventions in a way that perpetuated the hierarchical structures of the Victorian world and broadened the disparity of race and class experiences.