Canterville Ghost Summary Essay

The next sunup, when the genus genus Otis family met at breakfast, they discussed the refinement at nearly length. The join States attend was naturally a little annoyed to find t get into his usher in had not been accepted. I confound no wish, he s help oneself, to do the specter any personal injury, and I must say that, considering the length of date he has been in the house, I dont think it is at all polite to throw pillows at him,a very but remark, at which, I am sorry to say, the twins burst into shouts of laughter. Upon the another(prenominal) hand, he continued, if he truly declines to use the Rising Sun Lubricator, we shall bear to take his chains from him. It would be quite impossible to sleep, with such a noise going on outside the bed dwells.For the rest of the week, however, they were undisturbed, the only occasion that excited any attention being the continual renewal of the blood-stain on the library floor. This certainly was very strange, as the portal wa s always locked at night by Mr. Otis, and the swanows kept besottedly barred. The chameleon-like colour, also, of the stain excited a good deal of comment. Some mornings it was a dull (almost Indian) red, and so it would be vermilion, then a rich purple, and once when they came down for family prayers, according to the straightforward rites of the Free American Reformed Episcopalian Church, they found it a b practiced as a new penny(predicate) emerald-green. These kaleidoscopic changes naturally amused the party very much, and bets on the undecided were freely do every evening. The only person who did not present into the joke was little Virginia, who, for slightly unexplained reason, was always a good deal distressed at the sight of the blood-stain, and very n spikely cried the morning it was emerald-green.The second appearance of the ghost was on Sunday night. Shortly later they had g unmatched to bed they were suddenly alarmed by a frightful crash in the hall. Rushin g down-stairs, they found that a large face of old armour had become detached from its stand, and had locomote on the mark floor, while seated in a high-backed chair was the Canterville ghost, rubbing his knees with an expression of acute agony on his face. The twins, having brought their pea-shooters with them, at once action two pellets on him, with that accuracy of aim which can only be attained by long and careful practice on a writing-master, while the United States savour coered him with his revolver, and called upon him, in accordance with Californian etiquette, to hold up his hands The ghost started up with a red-faced shriek of rage, and swept through them like a mist, extinguishing working capital Otiss candle as he passed, and so go forth them all in total darkness.On arriver the top of the staircase he recovered himself, and determined to set apart his celebrated peal of insane laughter. This he had on more than one occasion found extremely useful. It was said to have turned Lord Rakers wig color in in a single night, and had certainly made three of doll Cantervilles French governesses give warning before their month was up. He accordingly laughed his most horrible laugh, work on the old vaulted jacket crown rang and rang again, but hardly had the fearful echo died away when a door opened, and Mrs. Otis came out in a light blue dressing-gown. I am afraid you are far from well, she said, and have brought you a bottleful of Doctor Dobells tincture.If it is indigestion, you will find it a most fine remedy. The ghost glared at her in fury, and began at once to withdraw preparations for move himself into a large black dog, an accomplishment for which he was besidesly renowned, and to which the family get always attributed the per cosmosent idiocy of Lord Cantervilles uncle, the Hon. Thomas Horton. The sound of approaching footsteps, however, made him hesitate in his vicious purpose, so he contented himself with becoming faintly phosphorescent, and vanished with a deep churchyard groan, just as the twins had come up to him.On reaching his room he entirely broke down, and became a prey to the most violent agitation. The vulgarity of the twins, and the gross materialism of Mrs. Otis, were naturally extremely annoying, but what really distressed him most was that he had been unable to wear the suit of mail. He had hoped that even modern Americans would be thrilled by the sight of a Spectre in armour, if for no more sensible reason, at to the lowest degree out of respect for their natural poet Longfellow, over whose graceful and attractive poetry he himself had whiled away many a weary hour when the Cantervilles were up in town. Besides it was his own suit. He had worn it with great success at the Kenilworth tournament, and had been highly complimented on it by no less a person than the Virgin Queen herself. Yet when he had put it on, he had been completely overpowered by the weight of the huge breastplate a nd steel casque, and had fallen heavily on the stone pavement, barking both his knees severely, and bruising the knuckles of his right hand.For some days after this he was extremely ill, and hardly stirred up out of his room at all, except to keep the blood-stain in seemly repair. However, by taking great care of himself, he recovered, and resolved to make a third attempt to frighten the United States parson and his family. He selected Friday, August 17th, for his appearance, and spent most of that day in looking over his wardrobe, ultimately deciding in favour of a large slouched hat with a red feather, a winding-sheet frilled at the wrists and neck, and a rusty dagger. Towards evening a violent storm of rain came on, and the wind was so high that all the windows and doors in the old house shake and rattled. In fact, it was just such weather as he loved. His externalize of action was this. He was to make his way quietly to upper-case letter Otiss room, gibber at him from the f oot of the bed, and stab himself three measure in the throat to the sound of low music.He bore Washington a special grudge, being quite aware that it was he who was in the habit of removing the storied Canterville blood-stain by means of Pinkertons Paragon Detergent. Having decrease the reckless and foolhardy youth to a condition of abject terror, he was then to proceed to the room occupied by the United States Minister and his wife, and there to place a clammy hand on Mrs. Otiss fore oral sex, while he hissed into her trembling husbands ear the awful secrets of the charnel-house. With regard to little Virginia, he had not quite made up his mind. She had never insulted him in any way, and was pretty and gentle. A fewer hollow groans from the wardrobe, he thought, would be more than sufficient, or, if that failed to wake her, he competency grabble at the counterpane with palsy-twitching fingers.As for the twins, he was quite determined to initiate them a lesson. The first thing to be done was, of course, to sit upon their chests, so as to produce the stifling sensation of nightmare. Then, as their beds were quite close to each other, to stand between them in the form of a green, icy-cold corpse, till they became paralyzed with fear, and finally, to throw off the winding-sheet, and crawl round the room, with white, bleached hit the books and one rolling eyeball, in the character of Dumb Daniel, or the self-destructions Skeleton, a _rle_ in which he had on more than one occasion produced a great effect, and which he considered quite equal to his famous part of Martin the Maniac, or the Masked Mystery.At half-past ten he comprehend the family going to bed. For some meter he was disturbed by nutty shrieks of laughter from the twins, who, with the light-hearted gaiety of schoolboys, were evidently amusing themselves before they retired to rest, but at a quarter-past eleven all was still, and, as midnight sounded, he sallied forth. The owl lave against the window-panes, the raven croaked from the old yew-tree, and the wind wandered moaning round the house like a lost soul but the Otis family slept unconscious of their doom, and high preceding(prenominal) the rain and storm he could hear the steady snoring of the Minister for the United States. He stepped stealthily out of the wainscoting, with an evil smile on his cruel, wrinkled mouth, and the moon hid her face in a cloud as he stole past the great oriel window, where his own ordnance store and those of his murdered wife were blazoned in azure and gold. On and on he glided, like an evil shadow, the very darkness seeming to l swearworde him as he passed.Once he thought he heard something call, and halt but it was only the baying of a dog from the Red Farm, and he went on, murmuration strange sixteenth-century curses, and ever and anon brandishing the rusty dagger in the midnight air. in conclusion he reached the corner of the passage that led to luckless Washingtons room. For a moment he paused there, the wind blowing his long grey locks just about his head, and twisting into grotesque and fantastic folds the nameless horror of the dead mans shroud. Then the clock struck the quarter, and he felt the time was come. He chuckled to himself, and turned the corner but no sooner had he done so than, with a piteous wail of terror, he fell back, and hid his blanched face in his long, bony hands. Right in front end of him was standing a horrible spectre, motionless as a etched image, and monstrous as a madmans dream Its head was bald and burnished its face round, and fat, and white and hideous laughter seemed to have writhed its features into an eternal grin.From the eyes streamed rays of scarlet light, the mouth was a long well of fire, and a hideous garment, like to his own, swathed with its silent snows the Titan form. On its breast was a placard with strange writing in old geezer characters, some scroll of shame it seemed, some record of wild sins, some aw ful calendar of crime, and, with its right hand, it bore aloft a falchion of glisten steel. Never having seen a ghost before, he naturally was terribly frightened, and, after a second hasty glance at the awful phantom, he fled back to his room, tripping up in his long winding-sheet as he sped down the corridor, and finally dropping the rusty dagger into the Ministers jack-boots, where it was found in the morning by the butler. Once in the privacy of his own apartment, he flung himself down on a pocket-size pallet-bed, and hid his face under the clothes. After a time, however, the brave old Canterville feeling asserted itself, and he determined to go and speak to the other ghost as soon as it was daylight.Accordingly, just as the dawn was jot the hills with silver, he returned towards the spot where he had first laid eyes on the grisly phantom, feeling that, after all, two ghosts were better than one, and that, by the aid of his new friend, he might safely grapple with the twins. On reaching the spot, however, a terrible sight met his gaze. Something had evidently happened to the spectre, for the light had entirely timid from its hollow eyes, the gleaming falchion had fallen from its hand, and it was leaning up against the wall in a strained and uncomfortable attitude. He rushed forward and seized it in his arms, when, to his horror, the head slipped off and rolled on the floor, the body assumed a recumbent posture, and he found himself clasping a white dimity bed-curtain, with a sweeping-brush, a kitchen cleaver, and a hollow turnip lying at his feet Unable to figure this curiousThe whole thing flashed across him. He had been tricked, foiled, and out-witted The old Canterville look came into his eyes he ground his toothless gums together and, raising his fall hands high above his head, swore according to the picturesque phraseology of the passe school, that, when Chanticleer had sounded twice his merry horn, deeds of blood would be wrought, and murder go abroad with silent feet. Hardly had he finished this awful curse when, from the red-tiled roof of a distant homestead, a cock crew. He laughed a long, low, bitter laugh, and waited. Hour after hour he waited, but the cock, for some strange reason, did not crow again.Finally, at half-past seven, the arrival of the housemaids made him give up his fearful vigil, and he stalked back to his room, thinking of his trivial oath and baffled purpose. There he consulted several books of ancient chivalry, of which he was exceedingly fond, and found that, on every occasion on which this oath had been used, Chanticleer had always crowed a second time. Perdition seize the naughty fowl, he muttered, I have seen the day when, with my stout spear, I would have melt him through the gorge, and made him crow for me an twere in death He then retired to a comfortable lead coffin, and stayed there till evening.