The story begins when the American Minister to the Court of St. James's, Hiram B. Otis, and his family move into Canterville Chase, an English country house, despite warnings from Lord Canterville that the house is haunted. Mr. Otis says that he will take the furniture as well as the ghost at valuation. The Otis family includes Mr. and Mrs. Otis, their eldest son Washington, their daughter Virginia, and the Otis twins. At first, none of the Otis family believe in ghosts, but shortly after they move in, none of them can deny ...
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The story begins when the American Minister to the Court of St. James's, Hiram B. Otis, and his family move into Canterville Chase, an English country house, despite warnings from Lord Canterville that the house is haunted. Mr. Otis says that he will take the furniture as well as the ghost at valuation. The Otis family includes Mr. and Mrs. Otis, their eldest son Washington, their daughter Virginia, and the Otis twins. At first, none of the Otis family believe in ghosts, but shortly after they move in, none of them can deny the presence of Sir Simon de Canterville. When Mrs. Otis notices a mysterious bloodstain on the floor, she simply replies that "She does not at all care for bloodstains in the living room". When Mrs. Umney, the housekeeper, informs Mrs. Otis that the bloodstain is indeed evidence of the ghost and cannot be removed, Washington Otis, the eldest son, suggests that the stain will be removed with Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent. When the ghost makes his first appearance, Mr. Otis promptly gets out of bed and pragmatically offers the ghost Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator to oil his chains. Angrily the ghost throws the bottle and runs into the corridor. The Otis twins throw pillows on him and the ghost uses the fourth dimension of space to flee. Disappointed with his first attempt to scare the family, he starts wondering what went wrong. He thinks of his previous successful appearances when he was in his prime form.The Otis family witnesses reappearing bloodstains on the floor just by the fireplace, which are removed every time they appear in various colors. But, humorously, none of these scare the Otis family in the least. Despite the ghost's efforts to appear in the most gruesome guises, the family refuses to be frightened, and Sir Simon feels increasingly helpless and humiliated.Wilde describes Mrs. Otis as "a very handsome middle-aged woman" who had been "a celebrated New York belle". Her expression of modern American culture surfaces when she immediately resorts to giving the ghost 'Doctor Dobell's tincture', thinking he was screaming due to indigestion at the family's second encounter with the ghost. She expresses an interest in joining the Psychical Society to help her understand the ghost. Mrs. Otis is given Wilde's highest praise when he says: "Indeed, in many respects, she was quite English...."The most colorful character in the story is undoubtedly the ghost himself, Sir Simon, who goes about his duties with theatrical panache and flair. He assumes a series of dramatic roles in his failed attempts to impress and terrify the Otis family, making it easy to imagine him as a comical character in a stage play. The ghost has the ability to change forms, so he taps into his repertoire of tricks. He takes the role of ghostly apparitions such as a Headless Earl, the Strangled Babe, the Blood-Sucker of Bexley Moor, Suicide's Skeleton, and the Corpse-Snatcher of Chertsey Barn, all having succeeded in horrifying previous castle residents over the centuries. But none of them works with these pragmatic, unsentimental Americans. Sir Simon schemes, but even as his costumes become increasingly gruesome, his antics do nothing to scare his house guests, and the Otis beat him every time. He falls victim to tripwires, toy peashooters, butter slides, and falling buckets of water. In a particularly comical scene, he is frightened by the sight of a "ghost" rigged up by the mischievous twins.
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