| 1- Title
The Title of the book is The Canterville Ghost.
It’s a good chosen Title, because the book is going about a Ghost who lives in a castle called: Canterville Chase. He is living there for more then 300 years and is a sort of owner of the castle. He wakes there every night and scares the people.
The Dutch translation of the title is: ‘Het spook van Canterville’
2- Author
The book is written by Oscar Wilde.
Oscar Wilde was born in 1854. He published “The Canterville Ghost” in 1887. He already had a collection of poems and a stage play standing on his name.
He married with Constance Lloyd and got two children with her. After a couple of years he discovered that he was gay. Because of that had to go to prison. When he came out of prison he lived for three years in France and changed his name. He died in 1900.
3- Time
The story plays around 1900, because there were no computers, mobiles, televisions and radio’s yet. The book takes a time of 4 weeks. And I don’t think the story could play around this time, because it’s a science fiction story. And normal people around this time, don’t believe in Ghosts.
4- Place
The most important place in the story is in and around the castle. The castle stays in England. The castle is old and scary; it has a long corridor whit many doors. The living room is very long and has a large window. The bedrooms are all very big. The garden around the castle is very long and Virginia rides there a lot with her horse.
5- Structure
The structure of the book is like I said earlier: science fiction. The reason is because it goes about a ghost and ghosts do not exist. But it’s a funny book too, because the Ghost wants to scare the new people in the castle, but the people are scaring him.
6- Narrator
The story is been told by the author and not by one of the protagonists, because he looks into the story. He sees everybody and if it was told by one of the protagonists that couldn’t be, because than he could not look near on all the people.
7- Characters
Protagonists
Mr. Hiram Otis: an American diplomat who moved to England.
Mrs. Lucretia Otis: Mr. Hiram Otis’ wife.
Washington: The eldest son from Mr. & Mrs. Otis.
Virginia: The daughter from Mr. & Mrs. Otis, she’s fifteen years old.
Other individuals
The twin: The naughty twin from the couple Mr. & Mrs. Otis. Their names don’t stand in the book, but their nickname’s are: ‘The stars ands Stripes’
Mr. and Mrs. Umney: The servants from the Otis family.
Lord and Lady Canterville: They’re the owners about the castle.
The young duke (Cecil): Virginia’s boyfriend.
8- Theme
The theme of the story is love, life and death, because there’s a little romance between Virginia and Cecil. And the ghost is alive in the beginning and at the and he is dead.
The book is not written to learn something from it, but to pleasure the reader.
9- Summary
1 Canterville Chase
In this Unit Mr. Otis bought the castle. Lord Canterville said there was a ghost, but Mr. Otis said he didn’t believe in Ghosts. When Mr. Otis and the remains of the family were drinking tea, Mrs. Umney told them the story about the ghost (Sir Simon). But they were not interested. On the floor in the living room was a blood stain. Mr. Otis took it away and when did that there was a flash of lightning which filled the room with a strong light.
2 The Stain
Every morning the stain came back and every night the family heard weird noises. Then the family realize they were not alone in the castle. In the fourth night Mr. Otis saw the ghost and gave him oil for his chains and he went to bed again. Mrs. Otis throws a pillow to the Ghost his head. The ghost went really fast to his room and thought about what he could do.
3 The Canterville Ghost
The next morning at breakfast the whole family were laughing about the ghost story’s. Except Virginia, she felt sorry for him. At Sunday night the ghost dropped a suit of armour on the stone floor. And when the family came out of bed to look what was happened, the ghost turned out the light and left the family alone in the dark. He run back to his room, and thought about a new plan. When he went back to the corridor he had the biggest shock of his live! He saw an other ghost! But when he came back the other morning to look if the ghost was still there he only saw a broom, a turnip and a sword. It was a joke of the twin!
4 More Jokes From The Twin
The next night, when the ghost want to go frighten of the twin, the twin threw a bucket of water over the ghost. They also put strings across the corridor and oil on the floor, so the ghost fell over. When he wanted to run back to his room he met Washington with a big garden syringe. After this the ghost run away, and the family didn’t saw him any more.
5 Sad ghost
A couple of days later when Virginia came back from horse riding she saw the ghost sitting on a chair staring at the window. She asked him why he was so sad and talked with him. The ghost explained her, that there was verse in the window: ‘When a golden girl can win, words to God from lips of sin, When the lifeless tree fruit bears, And a little girl gives away her tears, Then shall all the house be still, And peace will come to Canterville.’
It means that Virginia had to pray for him, because he didn’t believe in God. That she had to be sad for him, because he had no tears. And when she was nice to him, that the Ghost could rest in peace.
6 Where Is Virginia?
When the family was ready for dinner, they couldn’t find Virginia anywhere. They looked for her in the whole castle, but she wasn’t there. Exactly on 12 o’clock Virginia came out of a room with a box in her hands. She told the family that the ghost was dead and that he gave her this box with jewels.
7 Happy End
They made a grave for the ghost and gave him a beautiful funeral.
In the night when Cecil and Virginia married, they went together to the grave. Cecil asked her what was happened in the room, in the night that the ghost died. She said: “I can’t say that my dear, because when I do that, the ghost will return to earth again.”.
10- Personal Opinion
I like the fourth Unit the most, because the jokes were funny.
And the saddest Unit was the sixth, because the ghost died, and that was pretty sad.
If I may give a mark to this book, it would be a 8½. Because the use of grammar is easy and there are not heavy words in it. It’s also a humorous book, and I like humour.
|
