The Canterville Ghost characters

Appears from the start

The practical American minister who buys Canterville Chase despite being plainly warned that it is haunted. Confident that modern methods can deal with any household problem, he treats supernatural disturbances as matters requiring products, rules, or common sense.

Also known as Lucretia Otis

Appears from the start

Mr Otis's capable wife, a former New York society figure whose health and composure overturn English expectations about American women. She meets the house's strange events with the same direct practicality as her husband.

Appears from the start

The Otises' eldest son, named for the American capital. Efficient and commercially minded, he immediately removes the ancient bloodstain in the library with a modern cleaning product and is irritated when it returns.

Appears from the start

The Otises' fifteen-year-old daughter, an accomplished rider with a gentler temperament than her brothers. She is troubled by the history attached to the library's bloodstain even while the rest of the family treats it as a cleaning problem.

Also known as The Stars and Stripes

Appears from the start

The Otises' mischievous younger twin sons, known collectively by a patriotic nickname. Energetic and fearless, they respond to warnings about the house with excitement and look for opportunities to turn its disturbances into practical jokes.

Appears from the start

The English nobleman who sells his ancestral house to Mr Otis. Honorable about the property's unusual condition, he warns the buyer that generations of his family have encountered its ghost.

Also known as The Canterville Ghost

Appears from the start

The centuries-old ghost of Canterville Chase, associated with the murder of his wife and a stain that repeatedly appears in the library. Accustomed to terrifying generations of residents through elaborate apparitions, he finds the new American owners disturbingly unimpressed.

First appears in chapter 4

A young English duke who visits Canterville Chase and is fond of Virginia. His presence gives Sir Simon another possible target at a time when the ghost's confidence has been badly shaken by the Otis family.