3. author
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 1854 – 30 November 1900) was
an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became
one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s. Today he is remembered
for his epigrams, plays and the circumstances of his imprisonment, followed by his early
death.
Wilde's parents were successful Dublin intellectuals, and their son showed his
intelligence early by becoming fluent in French and German. At university Wilde
read Greats; he proved himself to be an outstanding classicist, first at Dublin, then
at Oxford. He became known for his involvement in the rising philosophy
of aestheticism (led by two of his tutors, Walter Pater and John Ruskin), though he also
profoundly explored Roman Catholicism, to which he would later convert on his
deathbed. After university, Wilde moved to London into fashionable cultural and social
circles. As a spokesman for aestheticism, he tried his hand at various literary activities:
he published a book of poems, lectured in the United States of America and Canada on
the new "English Renaissance in Art", and then returned to London where he worked
4. author
At the turn of the 1890s, he refined his ideas about the supremacy of art in a series of
dialogues and essays, and incorporated themes of decadence, duplicity, and beauty into
his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890). The opportunity to construct aesthetic
details precisely, and combine them with larger social themes, drew Wilde to write
drama. He wrote Salome (1891) in French in Paris but it was refused a licence.
Unperturbed, Wilde produced four society comedies in the early 1890s, which made him
one of the most successful playwrights of late Victorian London.
At the height of his fame and success, whilst his masterpiece, The Importance of Being
Earnest (1895), was still on stage in London, Wilde sued the father of his lover, Lord
Alfred Douglas, for libel. After a series of trials, Wilde was convicted of gross
indecency with other men and imprisoned for two years, held to hard labour. In prison he
wrote De Profundis (1905), a long letter which discusses his spiritual journey through his
trials, forming a dark counterpoint to his earlier philosophy of pleasure. Upon his release
he left immediately for France, never to return to Ireland or Britain. There he wrote his
5. introduction
"The Canterville Ghost'' was first published serially in 1887 in Court and Society Review,
a magazine for the leisured upper classes. The story did not immediately receive much
critical attention, and indeed Wilde was not viewed as an important author until the
publication, during the 1890s, of his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891) and of
several well-received plays, including The Importance of Being Earnest (1895). In 1891,
‘‘The Canterville Ghost’’ was republished in Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, and Other
Stories.
6. introduction
The collected stories were severely criticized by
contemporary reviewers; early critics found Wilde's work
unoriginal and derivative. More recently critics have
celebrated Wilde's ability to play with the conventions of
many genres. In ‘‘The Canterville Ghost,’’ Wilde draws upon
fairy tales, Gothic novels, and stories of Americans abroad to
shape his comic ghost story. Though Wilde offers a comic
treatment, he finds inspiration for Sir Simon's character in
Alfred Tennyson's serious poem "Maud," as well as in the
Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Christabel." Critics
also point to the possible influence of Henry James's Portrait
of a Lady (1881) on ‘‘The Canterville Ghost.’’
7. introduction
Wilde used a myriad of comic sources to shape his story. Thomas
De Quincey's ‘‘Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts,’’ a
satirical essay, is one apparent source. Wilde would also have been
aware of Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey (1818), a parody of the
Gothic novel so popular in the early nineteenth century. Finally,
Wilde's own experience on the lecture circuit in the United States
undoubtedly helped him ridicule stereotypical American behavior.
Indeed, one of the major themes in the story is the culture clash
between a sixteenth-century English ghost and a late nineteenth-
century American family. But the story also examines the disparity
between the public self and the private self, a theme to which Wilde
would return again in his later writings.
9. Purchasing Canterville Chase
As the story opens, Horace B. Otis, the brusque American minister,
ignores the warnings of several English friends and buys the
haunted Canterville Chase. Lord Canterville desires to sell the
home but feels honor-bound to tell Otis stories of skeleton hands
and mysterious noises. However, Otis refuses to believe in the
existence of ghosts.
10. The Persistent Blood Stain
The Otis family moves into the Chase, a Tudor mansion. Mrs. Lucretia Otis,
disturbed by a blood stain in the sitting-room, orders that it be removed at
once. But the housekeeper, Mrs. Umney, explains that the blood stain dates
back to 1575, the day Lady Eleanore de Canterville was murdered by her
husband, Sir Simon, and cannot be removed. Washington Otis, the oldest
son, quickly declares that Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover and
Paragon Detergent will prove a match for even so historic a stain. Before the
housekeeper can stop him, Washington drops to his knees and scrubs out
the blood. Thunder and lightening greet his success, and Mrs. Umney faints
in fear. The stain, however, reappears the following morning, and again
Pinkerton's is applied. But each successive morning brings a new stain, and
the Otises begin to believe that the Chase really is haunted.
11. The Ghost Appears
Several nights later, Mr. Otis awakes to the sound of clanking metal. In the
hallway, he encounters a ghost with burning-red eyes, matted hair, and heavy
chains. As a practical American, Mr. Otis suggests to the Ghost that Tammany
Rising Sun Lubricator will quiet his chains. The Ghost, stunned by this
effrontery, is further insulted as the young Otis twin boys throw pillows at his
head. The Ghost retires to his chamber and ponders his past glories of
terrifying housemaids and driving members of the aristocracy to madness and
suicide. Refusing to be intimidated by upstart Americans, the Ghost plans his
revenge. Meanwhile, the Otises discuss the Ghost and note the changing hues
of the sitting-room bloodstain. Only the beautiful fifteen-year-old Virginia Otis
cannot laugh as the stain mutates from red, to purple, to bright emerald green.
When the Ghost next appears, the twins shoot pellets at it. But more insulting
is that after the Ghost tries to scare the family with a hideous laugh, Mrs. Otis
offers him Dr. Dobell's tincture to cure his indigestion.
12. The ghost appears
Sickened by the experience, Sir Simon retreats for a few days before
making another attempt to horrify the Otises. However, when the
Ghost next appears, it is he who is frightened. The twins create a
fake ghost out of a hollow turnip, bed curtain, kitchen cleaver, and
broom. Their trick succeeds, and Sir Simon, humiliated, gives up on
his bloodstain and begins to use Mr. Otis's Rising Sun Lubricator. The
twins continue to torment the Ghost, setting traps along the corridor
to trip him. The Ghost, in one final effort, prepares an elaborate
costume, "Reckless Rupert, or the headless Earl,'' to revenge himself
on the twins. When he tries to enter the twins' bedroom, a jug of
water crashes down on him, leaving Sir Simon with a severe cold and
13. Virginia Otis and the Canterville
Ghost
As the Ghost dreams of his past glory, the Otis family carries on with
their normal pursuits. The young Duke of Cheshire, madly in love
with Virginia, arrives as a guest. One day after riding with the
Duke, Virginia stumbles upon the Ghost's hiding place. Pitying
him, Virginia entreats Sir Simon to behave himself. But, in a well-
known passage, the Ghost replies:
14. Virginia Otis and the Canterville
Ghost
‘‘It is absurd asking me to behave myself,’’ he answered, looking around in astonishment at the
pretty little girl who had ventured to address him, ‘‘quite absurd. I must rattle my chains, and
groan through keyholes, and walk about at night.... It is my only reason for existing.’’
‘‘It is no reason at all for existing, and you know you have been very wicked. Mrs. Umney told us,
the first day we arrived here, that you had killed your wife.’’
‘‘Well, I quite admit it,’’ said the Ghost petulantly, ‘‘but it was a purely family matter, and concerned
no one else.’’
‘‘It is very wrong to kill any one,’’ said Virginia, who at times had a sweet Puritan gravity, caught
from some old New England ancestor.
‘‘Oh, I hate the cheap severity of abstract ethics! My wife was very plain, never had my ruffs
properly starched, and knew nothing about cookery. Why, there was a buck I had shot in
Hogley Woods, a magnificent pricket, and do you know how she had it sent up to table?
However, it is no matter now, for it is all over, and I don't think it was very nice of her brothers
to starve me to death, though I did kill her.’’ (Excerpt from ‘‘The Canterville Ghost’’)
15. Virginia Otis and the Canterville
Ghost
Though she berates him for stealing her paints to refurbish the blood stain, this exchange marks the
beginning of Virginia's sympathy for the Ghost. Virginia offers to help the Ghost emigrate to America.
He declines claiming that all he wants is to sleep in the Garden of Death. Sir Simon asks Virginia to
pray for his soul, so that he can finally rest. Despite the pleas of the huntsmen embroidered on the
tapestry and the gargoyles carved on the chimneypiece, Virginia takes the Ghost's hand and follows
him into another dimension. Virginia Lost and Found
Virginia's family and the Duke search for her. At the last stroke of midnight, the house shakes, and
Virginia appears at the top of the stairs. She explains that she has been with the Ghost and has
brought him eternal rest. Sir Simon, in turn, has given her a box of jewels. Virginia leads her family into
a secret room where they find the skeletal remains of Sir Simon. Four days later, Sir Simon, with much
ceremony, is buried. A few years later, Virginia marries the young Duke, who was struck by her
kindness to the Ghost. Even after marriage, however, Virginia resists her husband's entreaties and
refuses to reveal what happened when she disappeared into the wall with Sir Simon. But she states
simply that the Ghost taught her the meaning of Life, Death, and Love.
17. The ghost
The ghost: The ghost of the castle for centuries. He was Sir Simon de Canterville and
died in 1584, his spirit still haunts the Chase. His aspect is very terrible: “He is an old man,
his eyes were as red burning coals, long grey hair fell over his shoulders in matted coils,
his garments, which were of antique cut, were soiled and ragged, and from his wrists and
ankles hung heavy manacles and rusty gyves.”
18. Mr. otis
Mr. Otis: The father of the Otis family. He is a middle-aged American minister; he is
determinated, inflexible, rational, practical and pragmatic, in conclusion a true American. In
fact at the beginning he believes that the ghost doesn’t exist, then, when he personally
meets him, he is indifferent: he has more important things to do, making money, for
example.
19. Virginia: “She is a little girl of fifteen, lithe and lovely as a fawn, and with a fine
freedom, in her large blue eyes. She is a wonderful amazon. In respect to her
family she is kind and with weling heart.”The daughter is the only one in the family
who is scared by the ghost. She never speaks except to the ghost, at the end of
20. Washington: the Otises' oldest son; “he is a fire-haired rather cood-
loooking young man; gardenias and peerage are his only weaknesses.”
21. The twins: “they are usually called The stars and stripes, they are delightful boys
and the only true republicans of the family.” These children always play tricks on
the ghost and make him depressed and desperate. All along the story, they
imagine jokes and even dress up as ghosts.
22. Mrs Otis: The mother isn't scared of the ghost and even asks him if he wants
a remedy for his stomach. “She is a very handsome middle-aged woman with
fine eyes and a superb profile. She has a magnificent constitution and a
wonderful amount of animal spirits.”
23. Duke of Chesire: “He is a handsome young scapegrace” desperately in love with the
fifteen-year old Virginia Otis. However, his guardians pack him off to Eton, and he must
wait to marry. When Virginia vanishes, he insists on being part of the search party. As soon
as she reappears, he smothers her with kisses. His devotion is rewarded, and Virginia
consents to become the Duchess of Cheshire.
24. Lord Canterville: A respectable descendent of the Canterville family, that
was the owner of the Canterville Chase. “He is an English men of the
most pounctilious honour.”
25. Mrs.Umney: the old house-keeper of Canterville Chase is very terrified by
the ghost and tries to warn the family.
26. My reviews
Oscar Wilde's story of The Canterville Ghost tells the
tale of a malevolent ghost who discovers there is no
peace to be found when a rumbustious American
family take over his ancestral home.This classic tale
by one of the 19th century's most celebrated wits is
here reproduced in a stunning little book with stylish
illustrations which perfectly capture the atmosphere
and imagination of the story. An ideal gift for young
readers who enjoy classic stories, The Canterville
Ghost is perfect for reading alone or reading aloud.
