The Canterville Ghost (story)

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Illustration by Frederick Henry Townsend in The Court and Society Review , 1887

The short story Das Gespenst von Canterville ( English The Canterville Ghost ) by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde first appeared in the London magazine The Court and Society Review in 1887 - it was the author's first narrative work. Starting as a social satire, the author continues the story in the style of a burlesque to let it end in a romantic and sentimental way. Wilde himself described the story as a "hylo-idealistic romantic story".

content

The American ambassador Hiram B. Otis moves with his family into Canterville Castle, which he bought despite warnings about a ghost. The ghost is an ancestor of the Cantervilles who killed his wife about 300 years ago. This family ghost is believed to be responsible for numerous nervous breakdowns or deaths of previous owners.

Shortly after moving in, there are signs of a poltergeist, but the pragmatic American family is not intimidated and is completely unfazed by the strange occurrences. Even a constantly renewed blood stain on the floor and thunderbolts at the worst times cannot scare the family. Instead, she fights against any attempts at ghosting by the haunted "Sir Simon" with modern aids. The ghost's first encounter with the family ends with the ambassador asking it to grease its annoying rattling chains with aurora lubricating oil, and the twins throw pillows at it. Even later, the ghost fails to frighten the family. Instead, it injures itself when trying to put on its own armor, after which Mrs. Otis offers the ghost a medicine. Later it stumbles over threads stretched by the twins, slips on their butter traps, is frightened by a ghost fake and when it pushes open the door to the twins' bedroom, a jug of water is poured over it.

One day, daughter Virginia comes back from a ride in which her dress is torn. She enters the castle through the back entrance and sees someone in the tapestry room who she takes to be one of her mother's maids. In the hope that she could mend her dress, she enters the room, but recognizes the ghost sadly looking at the falling leaves. She decides to comfort it and speaks to it. The ghost is amazed at the girl's courage, but begins a conversation with Virginia. In the course of this, she now understands the old poem “When a golden maiden accomplishes it, forcing the sinful mouth to pray, when the dead almond sprouts, the child's tears of pity flow: at last it will be quiet in the house, peace lives in Canterville.” After which an innocent child's prayer is required to redeem the ghost and let it find its final rest. She fearlessly accompanies the spirit to help it.

When Virginia doesn't show up for dinner, an excited search for the girl begins. The suspicion that some gypsies kidnapped it is not confirmed. Mr. Otis and Duke Cecil, who adores Virginia, search the area, the rest of the family search the castle. In the late evening the family gives up the search. At midnight sharp, Virginia comes back with a clap of thunder with a box of valuable jewelry that the ghost gave her out of gratitude.

The bones of the ghost are buried, Virginia is allowed to keep the jewelry and marries her admirer, Duke Cecil.

interpretation

The story written by Oscar Wilde contains an ambivalent criticism of society. On the one hand, the American zeitgeist of the " New World " of the time , to achieve the domestication of everything supernatural, of the ghost, through unconditional materialism , is satirically represented. On the other hand, the romantic belief in the supernatural that prevailed in England in the 19th century is satirized by the fact that the English of the “Old World” display a parodic fear of the ghost. (Wilde's reversal ensures the paradoxical effect of the story is that not the people afraid of the said ghost have, but that before the new inhabitants.) Oscar Wilde attacks in his narrative the awakening 1890 philosophical experiments on, materialistic ontology and idealistic epistemology together connect to. The ghost is both a material expression of one's own sense of reality and the target of idealistic epistemology. It remains unclear to what extent this “hylo-idealistic” position is part of satire.

Adaptations

Film adaptations

Radio plays

theatre

  • 1997: Play version by Thomas Birkmeir for children from 6 to 10 years for the Theater der Jugend (Vienna) at www.kaiserverlag.at
  • 2008: A play version for an actor (viewers aged ten and over) by Stefan Karthaus and Joachim Berger at the FWT Cologne
  • 2009: Two versions (family play and musical) "Ghost (er) of Canterville" at the Bautzen theater summer.
  • 2010: the director Sascha Krohn dramatized and staged Das Gespenst von Canterville for the Annaberg goes Wilde festival - The Canterville Ghost Project . The premiere took place on September 3, 2010 in Annaberg-Buchholz in a former monastery garden.
  • 2014: Children's and family play by director Susanne Lietzow at the Dresden State Theater, premiere on October 31, 2014

Opera

  • 2013: Family opera by Marius Felix Lange . World premiere at Zurich Opera House November 23, 2013, new version November 2, 2014 Komische Oper Berlin
  • 2014: "The Castle Ghost and the Spirit of Canterville": Children's opera by Danyal Dhondy (music), Kerstin Weiß and Enke Eisenberg (libretto). World premiere as part of the Marburg Castle Festival on July 19, 2014.
  • 2015: The Canterville Ghost: Opera by Gordon Getty . World premiere at Leipzig Opera , May 9, 2015.

Picture book

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hylo-idealism is a "conception according to which reality is the appearance of the spirit". Hyle is a term from the philosophy of Aristotle and stands for "substance" or " matter ". Idealism is a philosophical position that - unlike materialism - grants the mind priority over matter. See Oscar Wilde: The Canterville Ghost. (Reclam foreign language texts). Reclam, 1984, p. 3.
  2. ↑ Oscar Wilde: The Canterville Ghost. Reclam-Verlag, Stuttgart 2008, p. 3.
  3. ↑ Hans Christian Oeser: Afterword. on the Canterville Ghost, Reclam-Verlag, 2008.
  4. ↑ theater-bautzen.de
Works by Oscar Wilde


novel

The Picture of Dorian Gray ( The Picture of Dorian Gray , 1890)

Collections
  • Lord Arthur Saviles Crime and Other Stories  (1887)
Lord Arthur Savile crimes ( Lord Arthur Savile's Crime ) | The Canterville Ghost ( The Canterville Ghost ) | The Sphinx without a Secret ( The Sphinx without a Secret ) | The Model Millionaire ( The Model Millionaire )
The Happy Prince ( The Happy Prince ) | The Nightingale and the Rose ( The Nightingale and the Rose ) | The Selfish Giant ( The Selfish Giant ) | The devoted friend ( The Devoted Friend ) | The remarkable rocket ( The Remarkable Rocket )
The boy king ( The Young King ) | The Birthday of the Infanta ( The Birthday of the Infanta ) | The fisherman and his soul ( The Fisherman and his Soul ) | The Star Child ( The Star-Child )
Short stories

The portrait of Mr. WH ( The Portrait of Mr. W. H. , 1889) |

Poems

Ravenna (1878) | Poems (1881) | The Sphinx (1894) | Poems in Prose (1894) | The Ballad of Reading Gaol (1898)

Stage works

Vera, or the Nihilists ( Vera, or the Nihilists , 1880) | Lady Windermeres Fan ( Lady Windermere's Fan , 1892) | The Duchess of Padua ( The Duchess of Padua , 1893) | A Woman of No Importance ( A Woman of No Importance , 1893) | An Ideal Husband ( An Ideal Husband , 1894) | Salomé (1891) | Bunbury or the importance of being serious / being serious is everything ( The Importance of Being Earnest , circa 1895) | The pious courtesan ( La Sainte Courtisane , fragment) | A Florentine Tragedy ( A Florentine Tragedy , fragment)

Essays

The beginnings of historical criticism ( The Rise of Historical Criticism , 1878/79) | The Truth of Masks ( The Truth of Masks , 1885) | The Decay of Lying ( The Decay of Lying , 1889) | Pen, Brush and Poison ( Pen, Pencil and Poison , 1889) | The Critic As Artist ( The Critic as Artist , 1890) | The soul of man under socialism ( The Soul of Man under Socialism , 1891) | De Profundis (1897)