incident of the story The Canterville ghost in hundred to 120 words
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The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
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What are two incidents in the story "The Canterville Ghost" that illustrate Oscar Wilde's tendency to reverse situations into their opposites?
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BABY GORCZANY eNotes educator | CERTIFIED EDUCATOR
Wilde most aptly and humorously portrays these reversals by depicting the poor Canterville ghost's dilemma in his encounters with the Otis family. The ghost, obviously supremely confident of his ability to scare the wits out of whomever he encounters, sets about doing the same to the American family who were the new owners of Canterville Chase, his favorite and only haunt.
The first incident occurs when, on the third night of the family's stay, the ghost decided to give them the fright of their lives, as he had done to others so many times before. At one o'clock, the ghost walked down the corridor outside Mr. Otis's bedroom, loudly clanking his chains. He expected that the man would be terrified. However, in a surprising and humorous twist, Mr. Otis takes a small oblong phial out of his dressing-case and looks down the passage.
Explanation:
The Canterville Ghost is not Just a short story by Oscar Wilde about a haunted mansion with a ghost; it is also a comedy and a parody of British aristocracy. In this story, the author makes fun of American pride and love of wealth by having the American Ambassador who buys the mansion say: "l will take the furniture and the ghost at a valuation. I have come from a modern country, where we have everything that money can buy". Oscar Wilde's "The Canterville Ghost" is a story of a family's relationship with a haunted house and the ghost who resides there.
The novel begins with a warning to the Otis Family, who wants to move into the Canterville Chase house. Mr. Otis ignores the warning and moves his family into the house anyway. They are met with their first problem: a blood stain on the carpet. Mrs. Otis is bothered by the stain and asks that it be removed. However, the stain dates back to the late sixteenth-century. The cause of the stain is attributed to the former owner, Sir Simon de Canterville, who killed his wife. Now he resides in the house as a ghost unable to move to the next world.
Sir Simon tries to terrify the Otis Family, but they only end up tormenting the ghost. He uses many disguises only to be humiliated by the family. By the end of "The Canterville Ghost," Wilde brings together the ghost and Virginia, Mr. Otises' daughter. She sympathizes with him and accompanies him to the angel of death. At the same time, she learns life lessons that lead to her own personal enlightenment. Sir Simon, she tells her husband several years later, helped her understand "what Life is, what Death signifies, and why Love is stronger than both. "