The Canterville Ghost

In the library of Canterville Chase, Lucretia sees a blood stain that she demands be cleaned. Mrs. Umney tells her it can’t be cleaned, and then Washington cleans it. While on the surface of the text, the stain symbolizes the violence that filled the home three hundred years before, beneath that it symbolizes the fear and superstition that grip Mrs. Umney, Lord Canterville’s family, and even tourists. The fact that Washington cleans it symbolizes that he’s trying to free the house from what he considers to be antiquated beliefs, much as George Washington freed the American colonies from England during the American Revolution.

There are several mentioned throughout the story, such as the Rising Sun Lubricator, which Hiram Otis asks Sir Simon to use to oil his chains. These tinctures represent invention, novelty, and Americanness. The fact that Sir Simon initially opposes them, only to come to appreciate the Rising Sun Lubricator in Chapter Four, shows the traditionalist view of these new inventions and their impact, and how it must change and adapt.

Sir Simon’s ghost’s chains and gyves have both a literal and a figurative importance. Literally, they are the chains that were used to keep him restrained in the last days of his life.