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The loneliness of a man could be fixed with imagination. From my point of view, this man suffered alone because of his job. He didn't have interaction with other human beings or dreams about a better future. So, he worked hard that's why he imagined a ghost who was his only company on the railway.
Maybe, his way of escaping from his reality was trough imagination. If I make the link between this text and today's reality we can find many similar points. For example, this idea of work alone because in this way you are going to work better, the loneliness of a person, the individual work. Today we could have many people around us but we decided if give them life or not.