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

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 4 Summary

As this chapter begins, Sir Simon is exhausted. He considers certain tasks to be a part of his duty, such as roaming the corridor on Saturday nights. However, he stops creating the blood stain and goes so far as to take off his boots and oil his chains with the Rising Sun Lubricator, which he grudgingly comes to appreciate. Despite this, he feels tormented by the twins’ constant efforts to make him fall. They stretch strings across the corridor and make a butter-slide for him.

He decides he will rally to retaliate once more, and will try to scare the twins by dressing as Reckless Rupert, or the Headless Earl. When he gets to their room, known as the Blue Bed Chamber, he flings open the door only to be doused with water from above. The jug that formerly held the water nearly hits his shoulder as it falls. The twins laugh at him.

Sir Simon then tries not to get caught at all during his hauntings. He wears slippers instead of boots, continues to oil his chains, and dons a thick red scarf to ward off drafts. He carries an arquebuse (a long gun) to defend himself from the twins should they attempt to attack him. One night, he is in the great hall mocking photographs of the Otis family when the twins and Washington set upon him. Surrounded, Sir Simon panics and flees through the stove, returning to his quarters via flues and chimneys.

The family members, thinking that Sir Simon is defeated and gone, return to their chosen pursuits. Hiram continues his research on the Democratic party and Lucretia hosts a clam-bake. Washington and the twins play lacrosse and euchre. Virginia entertains the Duke of Cheshire. Sir Simon has a long history with the Duke’s family, and plans to frighten the young man, but at the last minute, his fear of the twins stops him.

Chapter 4 Analysis

It’s important to recall at this point that the narrator has not yet provided real names for the twins. They are referred to either as the twins or as Stars and Stripes, because they represent America. They are young, just like the country itself. They are bold and fearless in the face of Old World superstitions. However, they are also annoying—both to Sir Simon and, on occasion, to their parents.

This chapter is a turning point for Sir Simon. He has been bullied out of his job of scaring guests at Canterville Chase, thanks to the twins. He muffles his footsteps and oils his chains so that he doesn’t wake or disturb the Americans, though he also clings to tradition and continues to haunt the corridor every Saturday night. When he discovers the Duke of Cheshire is there, he gets up the nerve to plan one more great scare, but at the last minute he backs out when he thinks of the twins and his fear of them.

Sir Simon represents the Old World and the former strength of England and Europe. Bowing to the twins, to Stars and Stripes—to America—means a loss of that strength. It means not only a loss, but a surrender, and that’s exactly what Sir Simon does. He surrenders to his fear of the twins and lets the Duke of Cheshire sleep in peace and dream of Virginia.

A related symbolic event is that Sir Simon not only uses the Rising Sun Lubricator, but—though at first he is embarrassed to use it—he also comes to appreciate it for its invention. America was, at the time The Canterville Ghost was written, experiencing an age of invention. The Canterville Ghost was published for the first time in 1887, when inventors such as Alexander Graham Bell, James Ritty, John Wesley Hyatt, George Eastman, and Thomas Edison were actively changing the world in new and exciting ways. Some inventions, such as the lightbulb, were feared by those clinging to traditional values in England and Europe alike, just as Sir Simon fears the twins.