Wednesday 16 September 2020

'THE CANTERVILLE GHOST', A CRITICISM OF A WAY OF LIFE

Old memories of Sant Boi
Today, The Stones and The Grandma have continued with their English classes.

Firstly, they have learnt how to create question tags using Present Simple and where and how to use the Adverbs of Frequency. They have also reviewed modal verbs with Should and Shouldn't.

Next, they have started to read The Canterville Ghost, an amazing short story written by Oscar Wilde that represents a great criticism of the American way of life during the last decades of the 19th C. Ghost stories are anything but a contemporary phenomenon. They have been passed down from generation to generation for centuries, either orally or through the written word.

Later
, The Grandma has been talking about the importance of trade and commerce in Sant Boi along the history and its connections with Occitan merchants, especially when Sant Boi was opened to the sea and the Llobregat River was navigable. Nowadays, the influence of these cultural ties is seen in the names of the streets (Alou, Raurich...) in the architecture and with the recognition of great figures in the history of the city. Names like the Santboian Baldiri Aleu, the founder of U.E. Santboiana, the local rugby team, or Frederic Mistral, the Occitan poet and a great admirer of the city, are two good examples.

Finally, with the arrival of the last of the members of the family, they have returned to their normal life, then travelling, enjoying and learning more English. They have decided to prepare a new travel, a long travel with different stops: Manchester-Hawaii-Buenos Aires and Tierra del Fuego to start.

Prepare your baggage Stones. We are going to enjoy together of this new experience. Next stop: Manchester.



More information: Writeexpress

A ghost story may be any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them.

The ghost may appear of its own accord or be summoned by magic. Linked to the ghost is the idea of hauntings, where a supernatural entity is tied to a place, object or person. Ghost stories are commonly examples of ghostlore.

Colloquially, the term ghost story can refer to any kind of scary story. In a narrower sense, the ghost story has been developed as a short story format, within genre fiction. It is a form of supernatural fiction and specifically of weird fiction, and is often a horror story.

While ghost stories are often explicitly meant to be scary, they have been written to serve all sorts of purposes, from comedy to morality tales. Ghosts often appear in the narrative as sentinels or prophets of things to come. Belief in ghosts is found in all cultures around the world, and thus ghost stories may be passed down orally or in written form.


The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
What we understand as a ghost today has its roots in the myths and beliefs of ancient cultures.

Ghosts were and sometimes still are believed to be the spirit of a person that exists after the body has died.

It is because of these beliefs that funeral rituals initially took place and were practised as a passage of rights to the next world, a way to say goodbye, and to prevent the spirit from remaining on Earth and haunting the living.

Further to this, the existence of ghosts is believed because of the human experience of feeling haunted or being in the presence of a spirit. This can range from hearing, seeing or other unexplainable spooky happenings.


More information: Arapahoe Libraries

The Canterville Ghost is a humorous short story by Oscar Wilde. It was the first of Wilde's stories to be published, appearing in two parts in The Court and Society Review, 23 February and 2 March 1887.

The story is about an American family who move to a castle haunted by the ghost of a dead English nobleman, who killed his wife and was then walled in and starved to death by his wife's brothers. It has been adapted for the stage and screen several times.

The home of the Canterville Ghost was the ancient Canterville Chase, which has all the accoutrements of a traditional haunted house. Descriptions of the wainscoting, the library panelled in black oak, and the armour in the hallway characterise the setting.


Wilde mixes the macabre with comedy, juxtaposing devices from traditional English ghost stories such as creaking floorboards, clanking chains, and ancient prophecies.

More information: BBC & The New York Times


We have really everything in common with America nowadays,
except, of course, language.

Oscar Wilde, The Canterville Ghost

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