Characters
Sir Simon de Canterville (the Canterville Ghost)
A ghost past his best
The ghost of a sixteenth-century nobleman who murdered his wife, Lady Eleanore, in 1575 and was then starved to death by her brothers. For three centuries he has frightened the Cantervilles with celebrated impersonations and a bloodstain he keeps 'in proper repair'. Vain, theatrical and easily wounded, he is broken by the Otis family's indifference. Lonely and unable to sleep, he finds peace only through Virginia's tears and prayers.
Virginia E. Otis
Pity and courage
The Minister's fifteen-year-old daughter, a fearless rider with 'a fine freedom in her large blue eyes'. She alone is distressed by the bloodstain and never torments the ghost, though she scolds him for stealing her paints. Her pity leads her to weep and pray for him and to follow him through the wall. She returns with his jewels, later marries the Duke of Cheshire, and keeps her secret even from him.
Hiram B. Otis
The republican Minister
The American Minister who buys Canterville Chase and takes 'the furniture and the ghost at a valuation'. Calm and practical, he meets the ghost with a bottle of lubricator and later a revolver, and treats the haunting as a question of manners and sound sleep. He believes in 'republican simplicity', tries to hand the jewels back, and objects to titles, yet no man in England is prouder at his daughter's wedding.
Mrs. Otis
The robust American mother
Born Lucretia R. Tappan, of West 53rd Street, a celebrated New York belle with 'a magnificent constitution'. She wants the bloodstain out of her sitting-room at once, offers the laughing ghost a tincture for indigestion, and talks of joining the Psychical Society. Her calm gives way only when Virginia disappears, and she is found almost out of her mind on the library sofa.
Washington Otis
The stain remover
The Otises' eldest son, a fair-haired young man and excellent dancer whose only weaknesses are gardenias and the peerage. He scrubs out the bloodstain with Pinkerton's Champion Stain Remover and Paragon Detergent, earning the ghost's special grudge, and later waits for him with the big garden-syringe. He joins the search for Virginia and carries the candle into the secret room.
The twins
The ghost's tormentors
Virginia's younger brothers, known as 'The Stars and Stripes' because they are always getting swished. Schoolboys at Eton, they throw pillows, fire pea-shooters, stretch strings across the corridor, build a butter-slide and balance a jug of water over their door, then leap out at the ghost shouting 'Boo!'. Their sister's disappearance subdues them, and one of them first sees the almond tree in blossom.
Mrs. Umney
The old housekeeper
The Cantervilles' housekeeper, kept on by Mrs. Otis, who welcomes the family in a 'quaint, old-fashioned manner' and tells them the story of the bloodstain. She faints at the first thunderclap and warns of trouble to come. Having been frightened by the ghost for more than fifty years, she is thought to have a right to see the last of him, and rides in the last carriage at his funeral.
Lord Canterville
The obliging seller
The present head of the family, 'a man of the most punctilious honour', who feels bound to warn Mr. Otis about the ghost before the sale. He comes up from Wales to be chief mourner at Sir Simon's funeral and refuses to take back the jewels, arguing that the Minister bought the ghost's property along with the house. He listens to Mr. Otis's speech on republican simplicity while hiding a smile.
Cecil, Duke of Cheshire
Virginia's boy-lover
A young duke who proposes to Virginia on the spot after watching her win a pony race, and is sent back to Eton in tears by his guardians. He spends part of his holidays at Canterville Chase, gallops after Mr. Otis hatless to join the search for Virginia, and marries her when he comes of age. He asks what happened with the ghost and accepts her secret, as long as he has her heart.