The Canterville Ghost

Sir Simon de Canterville of Oscar Wilde's delightful story “The Canterville Ghost” is a ghostly actor extraordinaire. He has a strong theatrical streak that makes him take great pleasure in scaring...

The Canterville ghost makes a number of attempts to scare the Otis family. In Chapter Two, for instance, he reapplies the blood stain in the library, which the family have cleaned off. In the same...

Mr Otis is clearly forceful and direct. He openly speaks his mind as illustrated when he speaks to Lord Canterbury about the ghost. He tells the lord that if such a thing existed, it would be used...

The Otis family does not treat Sir Simon in the way that readers would expect them to treat a ghost. When the story begins, Mr. Otis is informed about the presence of the ghost. However, he denies...

The themes of love and death are intertwined in "The Canterville Ghost." Beneath the surface comedy of role reversal, in which the American Otis family frightens the ghost and not vice versa, lurks...

In "The Canterville Ghost," the twins delight in playing tricks on the ghost. In Chapter Three, for example, the twins set upon the ghost with their pea-shooters. They also help their brother to...

In "The Canterville Ghost," the ghost makes his first appearance to the Otis family in Chapter Two. Every member of the family is in bed after a busy day of driving and, around 1 a.m., Mr Otis is...

The blood stain has been on the floor near the fireplace in the sitting room of Canterville Hall since the murder of Lady Eleanore de Canterville in 1575. Lady Eleanore was killed by her husband,...

Virginia in "The Canterville Ghost" is empathic, compassionate, active, courageous, gentle and pure. While her parents take a practical approach to the Ghost, scrubbing out the blood stains he...

If we begin first with the members of the Otis family, there are six in all. Firstly, there is Mr. Hiram Otis, the head of the family, who is a very practical and outspoken man. Next is his wife,...

The Canterville ghost did really kill his wife. When the sweet Virginia asks him about it, he says: 'Well, I quite admit it,' said the ghost, 'but my wife was not very nice, you know, and she...

For being such a pivotal moment in the story, there is not much description of the Garden of Death. Sir Simon first mentions the Garden of Death in section five of the story. At this point in the...

Mr. Otis offers Sir Simon's ghost some oil. Mr. Otis wants Sir Simon to oil his squeaky ghost chains, so the chains won't make so much noise at night. Soon after the Otis family moves into...

Oscar Wilde's novella The Canterville Ghost is both a ghost story and a parody of this kind of suspenseful tale. In this story, the ghost of the title attempts to haunt an American family staying...

In the story, Lord Canterville warns Mr. Otis about the ghost by telling him of its existence. In addition, Lord Canterville tells Mr. Otis about his family's experience of living at Canterville...

In Chapter Five of "The Canterville Ghost," Virginia helps the ghost by enabling him to enter the Garden of Death. She does this by accompanying the ghost through the wall of the Tapestry Chamber...

"The Canterville Ghost" is described as a comico-horror story because it has elements which both amuse and scare the reader. Beginning with comedy, there are a number of humorous elements in the...

In "The Canterville Ghost," the Otis family consists of two adults and four children. First of all, there is Mr Hiram B. Otis, an American Minister, who has packed up his family and moved them to...

Mrs. Umney, the housekeeper at Canterville Chase, explains the origin of the bloodstain that Mrs. Otis spies on the floor of the library near the fireplace. Mrs. Umney says that the blood stain...

In the story, the Canterville Ghost gave Virginia a box of jewels before he died. Upon Virginia's return to her family, she presented her father, Mr. Otis, with the box of jewels. Later, however,...

The first appearance of the Canterville Ghost occurs after Washington Otis declares that special stain remover will get rid of the blood stain that has been there since the 1500s. The stain is...

"The Canterville Ghost" is a hilarious short story written by Oscar Wilde. It is about the American Otis family and their recent move into a haunted mansion. The mansion is haunted by Sir Simon's...

The plans made by Sir Simon the ghost are fairly standard ghost practices. Sir Simon starts out his haunting of the house by manipulating a blood stain in the carpet. Sir Simon himself doesn't...

In the short story "The Canterville Ghost," the young Virginia helps the ghost find peace and move on to the Garden of Death. In the story, she is the only character who listens to and heeds the...

The ghost's initial attempt to frighten the Otis family is a disaster. Instead of being scared, Mr. Otis instead advises him to oil his clunky, rusty chains and manacles. He gives the ghost some...

In "The Canterville Ghost," the Cantervilles, who are British lords, believe in the ghost that haunts their estate as part of their storied history. Lord Canterville tells the American Minister...

"The Canterville Ghost" ends with a conversation between Virginia Otis and her new husband, the Duke. The Duke laments to Virginia that she has been keeping a secret from him. Virginia has never...

In "The Canterville Ghost," the ghost is constantly troubled by the twins, the youngest children of Mr and Mrs Otis. Nicknamed 'The Stars and the Stripes,' the twins are boisterous and mischievous...

Mr. Otis has no doubt in his mind that there is no such thing as ghosts. In fact, he is so sure of his belief that he even mocks Lord Canterville's assertion that spirits exist. He states that he...

While Oscar Wilde seemingly has created a typical setting and specter for his story, there are irregularities in his ghost story. Oscar Wilde uses his tale to satirize Victorian society and its...

Virigina is a good-hearted, active fifteen year old girl. Wilde says of her that she “was a little girl of fifteen, lithe and lovely as a fawn, and with a fine freedom in her large blue eyes. She...

The story's main characters are the Canterville Ghost and the Otis family. The Canterville Ghost, a former English lord named Sir Simon, murdered his wife centuries ago. For this crime, he is...

As an honest man, Lord Canterville feels that it is his duty to inform the Otis family that the Canterville house is haunted by a ghost. As an aside, I figure a really honest man would have said...

The most basic attitude difference between Mr. Otis and Lord Canterville is their attitude toward the ghost. The attitude difference starts out as a difference in belief. Lord Canterville...

The Canterville ghost describes the Garden of Death to Virginia as follows: There the grass grows long and deep, there are the great white stars of the hemlock flower, there the nightingale sings...

The twins in the Otis family are unafraid and bold. They throw a pillow at the ghost when he growls at them, and they shoot at him with a pea-shooter. The twins are tricksters and devise a ghost...

The answer to this question can be found in the first two paragraphs of this hilarious short story. Readers enter the story, and they are immediately informed that Mr. Otis has bought the...

"The Canterville Ghost" is a short story written by Oscar Wilde. It begins with the Otis family, who are Americans, buying the Canterville mansion in England. The previous owner warns the Otis...

Cool question. I am not allowed to write it out word for word for you though. I will try and steer you in the right direction though. Based on how I read the writing prompt, it sounds like you...

A chase is a hunting or game preserve. Canterville Hall or Canterville Chase is called a chase because it was once, and probably still is, a place where upper-class people would gather to hunt. It...

In Chapter Five of "The Canterville Ghost," the ghost admits to Virginia that he wants to enjoy eternal rest in the Garden of Death: "For three hundred years I have not slept, and I am so tired."...

Sir Simon, also known as the ghost, is one of the main characters in the story, "The Canterville Ghost." One of the strongest impressions of Sir Simon is that he has criminal tendencies. When he...

The Canterville Ghost, otherwise known as Sir Simon, planned to take his revenge on the Otis family is the standard ghostly fashion. He plans to scare them out of his house. Many, many years ago,...

Sir Simon's first meeting with Mr. Otis is hilarious. It's hilarious, because Mr. Otis's response is completely unexpected. The encounter starts off spooky enough. It is late at night, and...

Early in Oscar Wilde’s novella The Canterville Ghost, the Otis family is being shown through the estate of the Canterville family, a large, palatial home with a library befitting the aristocracic...

Mr. Otis completely humiliates Sir Simon by not being afraid of the ghost at all. Sir Simon takes pride in the fact that he has been scaring owners of the Canterville house for years and years....

The Garden of Death is featured in Chapter Five of "The Canterville Ghost," when the ghost tells Virginia Otis of his strong desire to leave Canterville Chase and to sleep forever. Though the...

Mr. Otis, because he is American, simply does not believe in ghosts. He also is not afraid of ghosts, even if they do exist. Being a can-do American, he believes he will quickly have any ghost...

Hiram Otis, patriarch of the Otis family, is presented by Wilde as being the quintessential American. Direct, outspoken, and down-to-earth, Mr. Otis has no time for anything that smacks of...

Chapter VII of Oscar Wilde's parodic ghost story resolves the conflicts of the English and the Americans, as it concludes with the marriage of the American Virginia Otis to the Duke of Cheshire, an...