Question

The canterville ghost mirrors the mind set of a middle class family.Discuss

Answer 1

The Canterville Ghost mirrors the mind set of a middle-class family is an apt comment. The Canterville Ghost kills his wife for a petty reason which shows a middle-class mentality of a man who accepts his wife should be beautiful, must be a nice cook, an excellent homemaker, so on and so forth. 

On the other hand, the Ottis family reveals the American middle-class beliefs and thinking. It's due to this only that they challenge the convention followed by the Centerville family until later when they experience what the truth was.

Answer 2

The Canterville Ghost is the spirit of Sir Simon who portrays the traits of the head of a typical head of a middle class family. This can be shown by the way he always criticizes his wife. Sir Simon is an egoistic character who firmly clings on to traditional values and refuses to deviate from them at any point of time. He believes in male domination. To him, the husband can always be demanding and it is a wife’s duty to always do things the way her husband wanted. He felt that the husband did not have to understand his wife’s feelings.   

The best way that this is illustrated is he is always complaining about the fact that his wife was not beautiful, could never cook him a good meal properly or be a good housekeeper. One instance is that according to him she once failed to cook a bird that he hunted the way he wanted it. Another example is that she never starched his clothes properly.