Friday, December 17, 2010

The Canterville ghost, The happy prince and other stories: by Oscar Wilde.

“The Canterville ghost is one of the most delightful stories for all its subject's seriousness - for, like it or not, believe it or not, England is reputed to be riddled with ghosts, and whether the living are scared or amused or intrigued or bored or oblivious, it cannot be anything but torture for a departed soul to linger on in agony of the horrors suffered in life - or for that matter the punishment for misdeeds one did that preclude the progress of the soul.

So there is the very sensitive and loving young daughter of the visiting family who brings solace to the ghost, and the parents who simply refuse to believe there is anything of the sort anywhere at all, and the family servants who are taking care of the estate and the new tenants while keeping mum on the topic mostly. But then there is the pair of young twin boys who will be boys and this time in a good way, who not only see and believe what they see plainly and hear but fight back with all their arsenal - and the old ghost is no match for the tween pair. They set traps and the ghost is caught, they throw water and the ghost catches cold, and so forth, with increasing delight for the boys and despair for the ghost. Then there is the practical mother of the children who gets the bloodstains washed and wiped clean as a matter of fact every day, and they are all amused to notice that the colour of the blood stains begins to change to various shades of red - and then one day it is green, to the total perplexed attention of four out of five. The sensitive young girl is in tears meanwhile due to the stains, since the production of the stains by the ghost has been depleting her precious paints and she knows she will only be blamed if she were to inform them why the latest one is green. The parents are so rock firm in their lack of belief in ghosts!