"The Canterville Ghost" is a 1887 short story by Oscar Wilde which serves as an Affectionate Parody of the Haunted House tradition.
A wealthy American political family, headed by Hiram Otis, purchases Canterville Chase from its aristocratic owners. Initially, Mr. Otis scoffs at the news that the estate comes with a ghost, but sure enough, one soon appears: Sir Simon de Canterville, who murdered his wife in 1575, and was murdered himself a few years later. As Sir Simon discovers all too quickly, the Otis family proves resistant to his best haunting effects, and he becomes deeply melancholic. The innocent Virginia Otis, however, turns out to be the solution to his plight.
The story is in the public domain, and can be read here
. For another parodic ghost story (one that, coincidentally, also premiered in 1887) see Ruddigore.
There have been numerous adaptations over the years, including many which once had their tropes listed on this page but now have their own work pages.
"The Canterville Ghost" provides examples of:
- Adaptational Nice Guy: Most adaptations make Sir Simon more sympathetic than he was in the original by having his wife have died in an accident, suicide, or case of self-defense, or being Adapted Out.
- And I Must Scream: Sir Simon's corpse is found chained up in the basement, with a plate of (what used to be) food and a mug of water just out of reach.
- Animated Armor: Attempted, but since Simon hasn't worn it in 300 years, he instead falls down and hurts his knees.
- Bedsheet Ghost: The twins use one to play a prank on the ghost.
- A Bloody Mess: For most of the story, the mysteriously-regenerating bloodstain is actually paint that Sir Simon steals from Virginia.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Sir Simon's self-justification. "Oh, I hate the cheap severity of abstract ethics! My wife was very plain, never had my ruffs properly starched, and knew nothing about cookery. Why, there was a buck I had shot in Hogley Woods, a magnificent pricket, and do you know how she had it sent to table? However, it is no matter now, for it is all over, and I don't think it was very nice of her brothers to starve me to death, though I did kill her."
- Broken Tears: When Virginia hears how sad Sir Simon really is and that he cannot sleep and longs for peace in death, her eyes grow dim with tears and she hides her face in her hands.
- Creepy Housekeeper: Mrs. Umney, who speaks in a "low, mysterious voice." Though the effect is rather spoiled when she faints after Washington pulls out a stain remover on the bloodspot that won't go away.
- Creepy Crows: Rooks circle and croak ominously at a couple of points in the story. Like all the other omens, they're completely ignored by the Otises.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Simon's brothers in law execute him by immural — that is, putting a person in an alcove and building a wall over it.
- Dead Person Conversation: Virginia has a long chat with Sir Simon.
- Death by Materialism: Invoked and then hilariously subverted with the Otis family, who are walking infomercials.
- Deconstructor Fleet: Wilde leaves no Gothic and horror trope unstoned.
- Defanged Horrors: The house is haunted by a terrible spectre who destroys the lives of everyone who stays at the Chase, but you wouldn't know it if he didn't keep banging on about everyone he's Driven to Madness.
- The Dividual: The twins always appear and act together, and have no individual characterisation.
- Dramatic Thunder: When Washington Otis erases the bloodstain.
- Eagleland: The Otises are a mix of Type One and Type Two—most of them mean well, but are quite materialistic in multiple senses of the word. (On the other hand, after Sir Simon's treasure is discovered, Mr. Otis tries very hard to persuade his descendants to reclaim it, and is embarrassed when they decline.) It's notable that Virginia, who is the most sympathetic to the ghost's plight, ends up marrying into a British noble family after the main plotline is resolved.
- Embarrassing First Name: The eldest Otis child, "christened Washington by his parents in a moment of patriotism which he never ceased to regret".
- Evil Tainted the Place: The bloodstain on the carpet started out as Rustproof Blood from the murdered Lady du Canterville, however, Mr. Otis cleaned it up. Simon du Canterville, the titular spectre, won't have it and keeps replacing it. Using Virginia Otis's oil paints.
- Faint in Shock: The old housekeeper faints at the Dramatic Thunder that follows Washington Otis's disrespectful response to the Bloodstain.
- Forced Starvation: Sir Simon was executed by immural — basically, being locked in a closet for the rest of his life with no food or water to make sure that's only a few days. When the Otises find his skeleton, it's chained to the wall with a plate of dust and cup of moss that used to be bread and water just out of his reach.
- Genre Savvy: Sir Simon, who spends his entire ghost career acting out one Gothic trope after another.
- Ghostly Chains: Parodied. Sir Simon de Canterville's ghost bears in death the heavy, rusted chains with which he was bound when he was immured, and he clanks and drags these to create terrible noises in the night. When he first tries this routine on his house's new tenants, Mr. Otis just hands him a bottle of lubricant and goes back to sleep.
- Ghostly Goals: Played with. Sir Simon considers haunting to be his "solemn duty". And what he really longs for is to finally find his peace.
- Ghost Story: A parody of a ghost story, but the ghost is real.
- Haunted House: Canterville Chase is haunted by the ghost of Sir Simon de Canterville.
- Headless Horseman: Sir Simon as "Reckless Rupert, or the Headless Earl."
- Heaven: Sir Simon's idea of heaven is a quiet garden with long, soft grass that he can sleep in forever. His remains finally get buried in a place exactly like he described to Virginia.
- Horrifying the Horror: Parodied. Poor Sir Simon winds up being completely terrorized by the little Otis twins.
- The Ingenue: Virginia Otis is a quintessential example of this, being a sweet, good-natured girl who loves to paint. Unlike most classic examples of this trope, she survives the end of the story.
- Innocent Blue Eyes: Virginia has big beautiful expressive eyes. She's a very sweet, innocent girl who helps Sir Simon to find his final rest.
- It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: A massive storm blows up right as the Otis family reaches the Chase. Nobody is concerned.
- Jacob Marley Apparel: Sir Simon's first manifestation is a Shout-Out to Marley, complete with lots of chains. However, he can change his outfits at will.
- Large Ham: Sir Simon's whole persona as he tries to scare the family out of the house.
- Meaningful Name: The innocent, virginal Virginia.
- Monster and the Maiden: The titular character was a lonely and grumpy Elizabethan ghost bound to his English family mansion by a curse. When an American family with young, rambunctious children moves in, he attempts to scare them out. The boys think it is a great adventure and play along with his tricks. The daughter, however, makes friends with Canterville, and assists him in solving the riddle of the curse.
- No Name Given: The names of the twins are never given; it's mentioned at one point that they have the collective nickname "Stars and Stripes", but mostly they're just "the twins".
- Our Ghosts Are Different: Uses Finnish rules, where the ghost has a semi-corporeal body that can be hurt and get sick, but also has supernatural powers, such as walking through walls and vapourizing to make use of flues.
- Parental Marriage Veto: Virginia's parents don't consent to the Duke of Cheshire's marriage proposal. He's madly in love with her. They do agree in the end, when Virginia is presumably older.
- Prophecies Are Always Right: The belatedly-introduced prophecy in the library.
- Prophecies Rhyme All the Time: Played straight:When a golden girl can win
Prayer from out the lips of sin,
When the barren almond bears,
And a little child gives away its tears,
Then shall all the house be still
And peace come to Canterville. - Pun: Virginia suggests to Sir Simon that if he's unhappy in his work he might try emigrating to the USA, but warns him that there's "a heavy duty on spirits of every kind".
- Really Fond of Sleeping: Sir Simon is The Sleepless who hasn't slept for three hundred years, but he longs to go to sleep and dreamily describes a beautiful garden where he could sleep in peace. Virginia soon realizes he talks about death.
- Red Eyes, Take Warning: Sir Simon first manifests with eyes "like red burning coals," which doesn't impress Mr. Otis.
- Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere: Sir Simon's brothers-in-law murdered him by locking him up in a secret room in the Chase, then leaving him there to starve.
- Supernatural-Proof Father: Invoked and then inverted. Everybody, including Mr. Otis, believes in the ghost; it's just that nobody finds him frightening. The ghost makes its first appearance by clanking its chains. Mr. Otis' response is to hand him a bottle of lubricant and go back to sleep.
- Take That!: This is as much a parody of ghost stories as of Americans.
- The Otis family is named after one of the pre-eminent American political dynasties of the period.
- Two of the products poke fun at American political corruption: Tammany Rising Sun Lubricator (Tammany Hall) and Pinkerton's Paragon Detergent (Pinkerton Detective).
- Sir Simon's various "roles" ("Dumb Daniel, or the Suicide's Skeleton") are all send-ups of Gothic stage melodrama.
- Sir Simon himself behaves a lot like a bombastic but down-on-his-luck actor.
- Trickster Twins: The youngest members of the Otis family, who spend much of their time playing pranks on poor Sir Simon.
- Twin Theme Naming: The Otis twins are stated to be named (or nicknamed) Stars and Stripes, although in the text, they are mostly referred to as "the twins".
- Undeath Always Ends: In the book and its many adaptations, Sir Simon has spent centuries as a miserable ghost who needs a human to fulfill conditions that will end the curse binding him to his ancestral castle and let him go to Heaven, something that finally happens at the end of the story.
- Voluntary Shapeshifting: Played with. Sir Simon's roles combine this with actual costumes and props.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Sir Simon swears to kill everyone with a Cruel and Unusual Death when the rooster crows twice. Then he hears the rooster crowing. Sir Simon expects a second time without success. Puzzled, he retires to his room and checks on their Gothic Horror books that whenever someone says that oath, the rooster always sings twice. Discouraged, he's off.