The Canterville Ghost

Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1887

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Chapter 2Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 2 Summary

The first night that the Otis family stays at the Chase, there is a violent storm. The next morning, the blood stain is back in the library. Washington is certain that its return can’t be due to the detergent he used the previous evening, and that it must, therefore, have been caused by the ghost. He cleans the stain twice more, and in the morning, it always returns. Hiram starts to think he may have been too hasty in judging that the ghost wasn’t real, Lucretia wants to join the Psychical Society, and Washington writes a letter to Mr. Myers and Mr. Podmore about “the Permanence of Sanguineous Stains when connected with Crime” (6).

On their third night at Canterville Chase, the family goes for a drive before supper, and then talks about various topics far removed from the blood stain, the ghost, Sir Simon, or anything relating to the supernatural. They go to bed at eleven o’clock, and at precisely one in the morning, Hiram is woken by a clanging sound and footsteps that appear to be getting closer to his room. He grabs a vial and goes out into the corridor to meet the ghost, who wears bedraggled, antique clothing, and chains. Hiram speaks to the ghost: “My dear sir, I really must insist on your oiling those chains, and I have brought you for that purpose a small bottle of the Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator” (7).

The ghost is indignant at first, and smashes the vial before flying up the corridor and a flight of stairs. At that point, the Stars and Stripes appear and throw a pillow at the ghost’s head, so it disappears through the wainscoting. The ghost of Sir Simon spends the rest of the night remembering all the people he’s scared over three hundred years of haunting, and how they had the good sense to either leave, become ill, or even die. He then decides that the Americans treated him as no ghost has ever been treated before, and that he will have his revenge.

Chapter 2 Analysis

Though the Otis family comes to believe in the presence of the ghost when they cannot permanently remove the blood stain, they are still unafraid. When Hiram is woken by the ghost in the early morning hours, he’s annoyed that the ghost is rattling his chains, so he offers it a vial of lubricator to grease the metal. He offers to provide as much of the Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator as the ghost needs. The ghost, Sir Simon, is at first surprised and indignant at this behavior—it’s the first time he’s not been met with awe and fear. He feels both are due to him, especially as he is a renowned ghost who has accomplished three hundred years of successful haunting.

Sir Simon’s attitude toward Hiram and the Stars and Stripes reflects the attitude of some in the Old World toward those in the New World. Sir Simon calls Hiram and his family “wretched, modern Americans” (9), because they refuse to honor the centuries-old tradition of being afraid of him. Instead, they offer to fix his rusty chains and they throw pillows at his head. Their brazen attitude angers the ghost and he broods for the rest of the night before deciding he will have his vengeance. Hiram’s response to seeing a ghost is also ironic; readers would expect him to be frightened, but instead he offers to stop the chains from squeaking.

Sir Simon’s ghost wears chains and gyves, or shackles. Another famous ghost in literature wears chains and gyves—Marley’s ghost from A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. Published in the middle of the nineteenth century, Dickens’ story was famous in its day, and continues to be widely read. In the story, Marley’s ghost says that the chains he wears were forged during his life, and that they are a symbol of his faults and wrongdoings.

Sir Simon murdered his wife, so his chains are symbolic of that wrongdoing, and as a ghost, he must carry and rattle them. They are important to him, which is part of the reason he becomes angry when Hiram offers him the Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator. Sir Simon is indignant at the idea that though he has carried these chains for centuries, this American thinks he can swoop in and fix them.