THE CANTERVILLE GHOST
Characters
1. Mr. Hiram B-Otis : the American Minister he is new owner of the Chase.
2. Mrs. Lucretia Otis a healthy middle aged woman.
3. Washington Otis : Mr. and Mrs. Otis's eldest son.
4. Miss Virginia E Otis : a little girl fo fifteen.
5. The Twins Mr. and Mrs. Otis's youngest sons, called The Stars and Stripes
6. Lord Canterville : the former owner of conterville chase
7. Mrs. Umney : the house keeper of Lord Conterville.
8. Duke of Cheshire : a young friend of family.
9. The Ghost Sir Simon de Canterrville's guilty spirit
Summary
Mr. Hiram B. Otis. an American Minister wished to purchase conterville chase though his friends warned his against buying the haunted house soon after moving into the conterville chase, Mrs. Otis noticed a blood-stain on the floor near the fire place. However, the Otis reiterated that they were not afraid of the ghosts. The next morning the blood stain was found again. The family decided to go out for a drive to distract their minds. They avoided any mention of super natural in their conversation. Even when the ghost appeared before the Otis, he was taken a back at the unexpected reactions of members of the Olis family. The ghost got furious and decided to take revenge. The Otis decided to take revenge. The Otis family was amused on noticing that the blood stain kept changing colour. Only person
who did not joke was little Virginia who felt depressed to see that after the second encounter with the family, the Ghost was exasperated and fled to this room, injured and in pain. All efforts of the ghost to scare the family were wasted. The ghost decided to retire and take a break. The Otis twins still played their tricks on him. This was when he decided to teach a lesson to the twins, giving them the fright of their lives. The ghost become dejected and gove up all hope of frightening the Otis family. The ghost had become dejected and gave up all hope of frightening the Otis family. The ghost had become an invalid and made no appearance.
However, he was excited to discover his distant connection with Duke of Cheshire. In order to show his relation he planned to appear before Virginia's lover but his fear of the twins forbade him to otis out. On meeting the ghost Virginia broke the news to him about the twins going back. The ghost confided in Virginia about his wife being careless in repair work and horraible at cooking. The ghost pleaded before Virginia to weap and pray for him so that the angle of death would show mercy on him. Virginia agreed to help and pray for the ghost.
Virginia's consequent disappearance became a cause of concern and worry for the Otis fanily. Duke of Cheshire accompained Mr. Otis in his search for Virginia. Mr. Otis was touched by the Duke's concern for his daughter. At midnight, Virginia appeared mysteriously and to everyone's surprise said that she had been with the said ghost. She told them that ghost was dead. Four days later, a funeral procession was held Virginia's eyes were full of tears. She was told to keep the box of jewels gifted to her by the ghost. Following her marriage with the Duke of Cheshire and their honeymoon, Virginia visited the grave and strewed lovely roses on it. She told her husband that Sir Simon made her see "what life is and what death signifieds and why love is stronger than both."
THE CANTERVILLLE GHOST
CHAPTER 1
When the American, Mr
Otis, bought Canterville Castle, everyone told him that this was very foolish,
as the place was
haunted. But Mr Otis answered, 'I come from a modern country, where we
have everything that
money can buy. And if there were such a thing as a ghost in Europe, we would
have it at home in one
of our museums.'
A few weeks later, on a
lovely July evening, Mr Otis, his wife and their children, Washington, Virginia
and the twins, went down
to their new home. When they entered the avenue of Canterville
Castle, the sky suddenly
became dark and a spooky stillness was in the air.
Mrs Umney, the
housekeeper, led them into the library of the castle, where they sat down and
began
to look around.
Suddenly, Mrs Otis saw a red stain on the floor just by the fireplace and said
to Mrs
Umney, 'I am afraid
something has been spilt there.'
'Yes, madam,' said the
old housekeeper in a low voice, 'blood has been spilt on that spot.'
'How terrible,' said Mrs
Otis; 'I don't want any blood-stains in my sitting-room. It must be removed
at once.'
The old woman smiled and
answered, 'It is the blood of Lady Eleanore de Canterville, who was
murdered on that spot by
her husband, Sir Simon de Canterville, in 1575. Sir Simon disappeared
seven years later. His
body has never been found, but his ghost still haunts the Castle. The
bloodstain
is a tourist attraction
now and it cannot be removed.'
'That is all nonsense,'
said Washington, the eldest son of the Otis family, 'stain remover will clean
it
up in no time,' and he
took a bottle of stain remover out of his pocket and cleaned the spot. But as
soon as the blood-stain
had disappeared, a terrible flash of lightning lit up the room and a fearful
peal of thunder made the
whole building shake.
CHAPTER II
There was a horrible
storm that night, but apart from that nothing scary happened. The next morning,
however, when the family
came down to breakfast, they found the terrible stain of blood once
again on the floor.
Washington cleaned it a second time, but the second morning it appeared again.
The third morning it was
there, too, although the library had been locked up at night by Mr Otis
himself.
The following night, all
doubts about the existence of the ghost were finally removed forever. At
eleven o'clock the
family went to bed and some time after, Mr Otis was awakened by a strange noise
in the corridor, outside
his room. It sounded like the clank of metal, and it came nearer every moment.
Mr Otis got up and
looked at the time. It was exactly one o'clock. So Mr Otis put on hisslippers,
went to the door and
opened it. There, right in front of him, stood the ghost - his eyes were as
red as burning coals;
long grey hair fell over his shoulders and from his wrists and ankles hung
heavy chains.
'My dear Sir,' said Mr
Otis, 'you must oil those chains. It's impossible to sleep with such a noise
going
on outside the bedrooms.
I have therefore brought you this bottle of lubricator, and I will be
happy to supply you with
more if you require it.' With these words Mr Otis laid the bottle down,
closed his door and went
back to bed.
Shocked, the Canterville
ghost stood quite motionless for a moment, but then he growled angrily.
Just at this moment, the
twins appeared on the corridor and threw a large pillow at him! The ghost
hastily escaped through
the wall, and the house became quiet again.
When the ghost reached
his small secret chamber, he took a deep breath. No ghosts in history had
ever been treated in
this manner!
CHAPTER III
The ghost did not appear
for the rest of the week. The only strange thing that happened was the
blood-stain, which they
found on the library-floor every morning. It was also quite strange that the
colour of the stain
changed from time to time. Some mornings it was red, then brown or purple, or
even green. These
changes amused the family very much, and bets on the colour were made every
evening. The only person
who did not enter into the joke was Virginia. For some unexplained reason,
she was rather annoyed
at the sight of the blood-stain, and nearly cried the morning it was
green.
The second appearance of
the ghost was on Sunday night. Shortly after the family had gone to bed
they heard a fearful
crash in the hall. A suit of armour had fallen on the floor and in a chair sat
the
Canterville ghost and
rubbed his knees, which seemed to hurt. When the twins started shooting peas at
him with their pea-shooters, the ghost stood up with an angry growl and passed
through them like a mist. He also blew out the candle, leaving them all in
total darkness. On top of the stairs the ghost turned around and, in order to
frighten the Otis boys, laughed his most horrible laugh. Just then, a door
opened and Mrs Otis came out of her bedroom. 'I am afraid you are not well,'
she said, 'I have therefore brought you this bottle of medicine.' The ghost
looked at her furiously, and then he disappeared.
When he reached his
room, he was completely exhausted. This American family was extremely annoying.
But what annoyed him
most was, that he had not been able to wear the suit of armour. The
weight of it had made
him fall and hurt his knees.
For some days after this
the ghost only left his room to renew the blood-stain. However, on Friday,
the 17th of August, he
tried to frighten the Otis family again. At half-past ten the family went to
bed. For some time the
ghost heard the twins laugh, but at a quarter past eleven all was still. So, at
midnight he left his
secret chamber and glided through the corridors, when suddenly, behind one
corner, a horrible ghost
stood right in front of him. As the Canterville ghost had never seen another
ghost before, he was
terribly frightened. He quickly hurried back to his room. But then he thought
that he should go and
and speak to the other ghost. After all, two ghosts were better than one, and
his new friend might
help him to frighten the twins. However, when he came back to the spot, he
found that this 'other
ghost' was not real, but only a white sheet which the twins had hung there to
play a trick on him.
Very upset the Canterville ghost went back to his chamber.
CHAPTER IV
For five days, the ghost
did not leave his room. He was very weak and tired and his nerves were
completely shattered. He
also gave up the point of the blood-stain on the library floor. If the Otis
family did not want it,
they clearly did not deserve it. Whenever the Canterville ghost roamed the
house now, he was
careful to have oiled his chains and not to make a sound. However, the twins
still played their
tricks on him. They stretched strings across the corridor, over which he
tripped in
the dark, and once he
slipped on a butter-slide, which the twins had constructed for him on the
staircase.
This so annoyed the
ghost, that he decided to teach the twins a lesson and give them the fright
of their lives.
All day long the ghost
had prepared this grand event and at a quarter past one at night he finally
glided out of his room
and crept down the corridor. When he reached the twins' bedroom, he found
the door slightly open.
In order to frighten the boys enormously, he flung the door wide open, when
a heavy jug of water
fell right down on him, wetting him to the skin. The twins burst out in shrieks
of laughter and the
ghost fled.
He now gave up all hope
of ever frightening this rude American family and, as he was very afraid of
the twins, from now on
he crept around the house as quietly as possible. One night, it was on the
19th of September, he
went downstairs to see if there were any traces left of the blood-stain. It was
about a quarter past two
in the morning, and he thought that everyone was fast asleep, when suddenly from
a dark corner two figures came running at him who waved their arms wildly above
their heads and shouted 'BOO!' in his ear. Full of panic, which under the
circumstances was only natural, the ghost hurried back to his room.
After this he was not
seen again at night. His feelings were so wounded that he just did not appear
anymore.
CHAPTER V
One day, Virginia was
walking along the corridor, when she saw a person in one of the rooms and
went in. To her
surprise, it was the Canterville ghost himself and he looked really sad.
'I am so sorry for you,'
she said, 'but my brothers are going back to Eton tomorrow, and then, if you
behave yourself, no one
will annoy you.'
'It is absurd asking me
to behave myself,' the ghost answered, '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 nasty. Mrs Umney told us that
you had killed your
wife.'
'Well, I quite admit
it,' said the ghost, 'but my wife was not very nice, you know, and she knew
nothing about cookery. However, it is all over now, and I don't think it was
very nice of her brothers to starve me to death.'
'Starve you to death?
Oh, Mr Ghost, I mean Sir Simon, are you hungry? I have a sandwich in my
case. Would you like
it?'
'No, thank you, I never
eat anything now; but it is very kind of you. You are much nicer than the rest
of your rude, dishonest
family.'
'Stop!' cried Virginia,
stamping her foot, 'it is you who are rude, and as for dishonesty, you stole
the
paints out of my box to
renew that ridiculous blood-stain in the library. First you took all my reds
and I couldn't do any
more sunsets, then you took the green and the yellow. Finally I had nothing
left but blue and white,
and I could only do moonlight scenes, which are not at all easy to paint.'
Having said this,
Virginia turned around to leave the room.
'Please don't go, Miss
Virginia,' the ghost cried; 'I am so unhappy and I really don't know what to
do.
I want to go to sleep
and I cannot. I have not slept for three hundred years, and I am so tired.'
'Poor, poor Ghost,' she
murmured; 'have you no place where you can sleep?'
'Well, I know a place
where I could sleep – it's the Garden of Death, the churchyard. But only if you
weep for me and my sins
and pray with me for my soul, the Angel of Death will have mercy on me.’
When Virginia promised
to help the ghost and pray for him, he rose from his seat, took her hand and
kissed it thankfully.
Then he led her across the room. Virginia saw the wall slowly fading away like
a mist, and a bitter
cold wind was around them. 'Quick, quick,' cried the ghost, 'or it will be too
late.'
Then the wall closed
behind them, and the chamber was empty.
CHAPTER VI
About ten minutes later,
the bell rang for dinner, and, as Virginia did not come down, Mrs Otis sent
up one of the servants.
After a little time he returned and said that he could not find Miss Virginia
anywhere. So, the whole
family started looking for her.
The hours passed, but
they could find no trace of Virginia. So, after dinner, Mr Otis ordered them
all to bed, saying that
nothing more could be done that night, and that he would contact Scotland
Yard in the morning.
Just when everybody was about to leave the dining-room, the clock struck
midnight, and when the
last stroke sounded, a secret door opened in the wall and in that door stood
Virginia with a little
box in her hand. Everybody ran up to her.
'Good heavens! child,
where have you been?' said Mr Otis, rather angrily, as he thought she had
been playing a trick on
them.
'Papa,' said Virginia
quietly, 'I have been with the ghost. He is dead, and you must come and see
him. He had been very
nasty, but he was really sorry for all that he had done, and he gave me this
box of beautiful jewels
before he died.'
Then she led the others
down a narrow secret corridor to a little low room. There the family found
the skeleton of Sir
Simon, who had been starved to death by his wife's brothers. Virginia knelt
down
beside the skeleton,
and, folding her little hands together, began to pray silently.
Meanwhile, one of the
twins was looking out of the window in the little room and suddenly said,
'Look! The old
almond-tree has blossoms.'
'Then God has forgiven
him,' said Virginia and stood up.
CHAPTER VII
Four days later, a
funeral started from Canterville Castle. In a quiet corner of the churchyard,
Sir Simon's skeleton was buried. When the ceremony was over, Virginia stepped
forward and laid a large cross made of white and pink almond-blossoms on the
coffin.
The next morning, Mr
Otis talked to Sir Simon's descendant, Sir Canterville, about the jewels the
ghost had given to
Virginia. Their value was so great that Mr Otis had scruples about allowing his
daughter to keep them.
But Sir Canterville shook his hand and said, 'My dear Sir, your charming little
daughter saved my
ancestor's soul. The jewels are hers.'
The jewels were admired
by everyone when, in the spring of 1890, Virginia married the Duke of
Cheshire. After their
honeymoon, Virginia and her husband went down to Canterville Castle and on
the day after their
arrival they walked over to the churchyard. Virginia had brought some lovely
roses, which she strewed
upon the grave, and after they had stood by it for some time her husband
took her hand.
'You have never told me
what happened to you when you were locked up with the ghost.'
'Please don't ask me, I
cannot tell you,' she said, 'but I owe Sir Simon a great deal. He made me see
what Life is, and what
Death signifies, and why Love is stronger than both.
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