The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde: A Summary
The Canterville Ghost is not just a short story by Oscar Wilde about a haunted mansion with a ghost; it is also a comedy and a parody of British aristocracy.
In this story, the author makes fun of American pride and love of wealth by having the American Ambassador who buys the mansion say: "I will take the furniture and the ghost at a valuation. I have come from a modern country, where we have everything that money can buy".
Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost" is a story of a family's relationship with a haunted house and the ghost who resides there.
The novel begins with a warning to the Otis Family, who wants to move into the Canterville Chase house. Mr. Otis ignores the warning and moves his family into the house anyway.
They are met with their first problem: a blood stain on the carpet. Mrs. Otis is bothered by the stain and asks that it be removed. However, the stain dates back to the late sixteenth-century. The cause of the stain is attributed to the former owner, Sir Simon de Canterville, who killed his wife. Now he resides in the house as a ghost unable to move to the next world.
Sir Simon tries to terrify the Otis Family, but they only end up tormenting the ghost. He uses many disguises only to be humiliated by the family.
By the end of "The Canterville Ghost," Wilde brings together the ghost and Virginia, Mr. Otises' daughter. She sympathizes with him and accompanies him to the angel of death. At the same time, she learns life lessons that lead to her own personal enlightenment.
Sir Simon, she tells her husband several years later, helped her understand “what Life is, what Death signifies, and why Love is stronger than both.”
In this story, the author makes fun of American pride and love of wealth by having the American Ambassador who buys the mansion say: "I will take the furniture and the ghost at a valuation. I have come from a modern country, where we have everything that money can buy".
Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost" is a story of a family's relationship with a haunted house and the ghost who resides there.
The novel begins with a warning to the Otis Family, who wants to move into the Canterville Chase house. Mr. Otis ignores the warning and moves his family into the house anyway.
They are met with their first problem: a blood stain on the carpet. Mrs. Otis is bothered by the stain and asks that it be removed. However, the stain dates back to the late sixteenth-century. The cause of the stain is attributed to the former owner, Sir Simon de Canterville, who killed his wife. Now he resides in the house as a ghost unable to move to the next world.
Sir Simon tries to terrify the Otis Family, but they only end up tormenting the ghost. He uses many disguises only to be humiliated by the family.
By the end of "The Canterville Ghost," Wilde brings together the ghost and Virginia, Mr. Otises' daughter. She sympathizes with him and accompanies him to the angel of death. At the same time, she learns life lessons that lead to her own personal enlightenment.
Sir Simon, she tells her husband several years later, helped her understand “what Life is, what Death signifies, and why Love is stronger than both.”