The Canterville Ghost Summary by Oscar Wilde

“The Canterville Ghost”, written by the English author Oscar Wilde, is a humorous story about a ghost trying to
get the attention of an American family living in his castle.

Characters
Sir Simon Canterville, The Canterville Ghost
Sir Simon Canterville was a 16th-century English aristocrat who lived at Canterville Chase, where he
murdered his wife. As a result, when he died nine years later, he became a ghost destined to haunt
the house.
Virginia Otis
The adolescent daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Otis. She comes to live at Canterville Chase with her family,
and is one of few characters to show sympathy to the ghost.
Duke of Cheshire
The Duke of Cheshire is a young English aristocrat who falls in love with Virginia Otis., and eventually
marries.
Hiram B. Otis
Hiram Otis is a middle-aged American man who purchases Canterville Chase in order to live there
with his family. He is a pragmatic and no-nonsense character, but he also seems to be quite father
since he makes no attempt to discipline his children for unruly behavior.
Lucretia Tappan Otis (Mrs. Otis)
Lucretia is the wife of Hiram Otis, and mother to Washington, Virginia, and the twins.
Stars and Stripes (the Otis twins)
The youngest Otis children are a set of twin boys who are never named in the story, instead referred
to as "Stars and Stripes." They spend most of the story tormenting the ghost, and they do not seem to
be afraid of him at all.
Washington Otis
Washington is the eldest child of the Otis family .
Mrs. Umney
Mrs. Umney works as the housekeeper at Canterville Chase. She is initially employed by the Canterville
family, but she continues to work there after the Otis family buys the property and moves in.
Lord Canterville
Lord Canterville is an English aristocrat and the descendant of Sir Simon. At the start of the story, he
sells his ancestral family home to the Otis family.
Rev. Augustus Dampier
A well-respected British cleric and intellectual .
CHAPTER I

Mr. Otis bought Canterville Castle despite everyone warning him that it was haunted. A few weeks later, Mr.
Otis and his wife, his eldest son Washington, his daughter Virginia, and his two younger twin sons, moved to
their new home. Mrs Otis saw a red stain on the floor just by the fireplace and asked the housekeeper
Mrs.Umney, to clean it.  The old woman smiled and said It was 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. She said the bloodstain
was a tourist attraction now and it coudn’t be removed.’
Listening to this, Washington, the eldest son of the Otis family, wiped it off with the help of a stain
remover. But as soon as the blood-stain disappeared, a terrible flash of lightning lit up the room and the whole
building shook.

CHAPTER II

The next morning, the bloodstain reappeared. Washington cleaned it the second time and third, but it
reappeared every single day. Despite the library was locked all night.
At 1 AM that night, Mr. Otis woke up to the sounds of clank of metal.  So, Mr. Otis opened the door to check
what was happening. There, right in front of him, stood the ghost – whose wrists and ankles hanged heavy
chains.
 Mr Otis said to the ghost he must oil those chains because it was impossible to sleep with such a noise going
on outside the bedrooms. He told him he had brought a bottle of lubricator, and he would be
happy to supply him with more if he required it and went back to bed.
Shocked, the Canterville ghost stood quite for a moment, but then he growled angrily.
Just at that moment, the twins threw a large pillow at him! The ghost escaped, and took a deep breath upon
reaching his small secret chamber.

CHAPTER III

The ghost didn’t appear for the rest of the week. However, the blood stain was found every morning in
different colors. Some days it was red, some days brown or purple for some unexplained reason. Virginia was
rather annoyed at the sight of the blood-stain, and nearly cried the morning it was green.
The ghost appeared again on Sunday night.  A suit of armor fell on the ghost. 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.
Mrs. Otis noticed the wound on the ghost and said he had brought him a bottle of medicine. The ghost looked
at her furiously and disappeared.
He reached his room, completely exhausted and annoyed with that American family. That American family
was extremely annoying.
For some days, the ghost left his room only to renew the bloodstain. In order to scare the Otis family again,
the Canterville Ghost left his chamber but was terrified when he came across another ghost.

Then he quickly decided to look for help from the other ghost to scare the twins away. However, he later
realized that it was just a plain white sheet and there was no other ghost.
CHAPTER IV

The ghost stopped renewing the bloodstains. He was now more careful with his chains. However, the twins
continued to play their tricks on him. That annoyed the ghost further who decided to give them the fright of
their lives.One night, he reached the half-closed door of the twins and opened it with a jolt. Unfortunately, a
heavy jug of water fell on him, wetting him completely.  The twins laughed and the ghost flew away. He gave
up all hope, didn’t try to frighten the family anymore, and disappeared after that night.

CHAPTER V

One day, Virginia had an encounter with the ghost who looked very sad. She offered him food and asked him
to behave himself. The ghost confessed that he had killed his “not so nice” wife. The ghost also thanked
Virginia for being kind unlike the rest of her family.
Virginia argued stamping her foot, it was he who was rude, and as for dishonesty, he stole the
paints out of her box to renew that ridiculous blood-stain in the library. First, he took all her reds
and she couldn’t do any more sunsets, then he took the green and the yellow. Finally, she had nothing
left but blue and white, and she could only do moonlight scenes, which were not at all easy to paint.
Having said that, Virginia left the room. The ghost apologized for his behavior and asked Virginia for a favor.
When Virginia promised to help the ghost took her hand and kissed it thankfully. Then he disappeared across
the room and the wall closed behind them.

CHAPTER VI

Virginia didn’t return for hours after she was gone, and the entire family began to search for her in every
corner of the house. Just when Mr. Otis decided to contact Scotland Yard in the morning, a secret door
opened in the wall and out walked little Virginia with a box in her hand. Everybody run up to her. Virginia said
quietly she had been with the ghost and they must go and see him. He had been very nasty, but he was really
sorry for all that he had done, and he gave her that box of beautiful jewels before he died.’
Then she led the others down a narrow secret corridor to a little low room where Virginia prayed beside Sir
Simon’s skeleton. The twins noticed blossoms on an almond tree, which was a sign that the ghost had forgiven
Sir Simon.

CHAPTER VII

Four days later, a funeral was organized and in a quiet corner of the churchyard, Sir Simon’s
skeleton was buried.  The next morning, Mr. Otis talked to Sir Simon’s descendant, Sir Canterville, about the
jewels the ghost had given to Virginia.
The jewels were for 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. Virginia placed a
bunch of roses on the grave.
her husband asked her why she had never told him what happened when she was locked up with the ghost.’
she said she couldn’t tell him, but she owed Sir Simon a great deal. He made her see
what Life was, and what Death signified, and why Love was stronger than both.’