Summary
Virginia goes out riding with the young Duke and tears her clothes. Embarrassed, she returns to the house and sneaks up the back staircase in order to avoid being seen. As a result, she passes by a rarely used room and sees the ghost sitting inside. She goes in and tries to console the ghost by telling him that the twins will soon be leaving for boarding school. The ghost is defensive, trying to justify both his role in haunting the house and his action of killing his wife. Virginia gets frustrated, and accuses him of having used her paints to fill in the bloodstain, which explains why it has been appearing in different colors.
The two argue, but the ghost eventually confides that he is exhausted, and longs to rest peacefully. He tells her about the Garden of Death, a peaceful afterlife, and explains that if she is willing to help him, he might still be able to be forgiven and redeemed. An ancient prophecy predicts that if a young child will help him, peace may still come to the Canterville house. Even though Virginia is afraid, she agrees to help the ghost. The two of them pass through an opening that appears in the wall and vanish.
A short time later, the family notices that Virginia is missing. At first, they assume she might be out gathering flowers or walking the grounds, but they become more alarmed as time passes and she is nowhere to be found. Mr. Otis recalls that some gypsies have been in the area recently, and he wonders if they might have taken Virginia, so he sets out for their camp. He quickly realizes that the gypsies have moved on, and with the help of the Duke, they ask for word of Virginia in nearby towns. With no news, Mr. Otis returns to the house late that night, tired and worried. Unexpectedly, at the stroke of midnight, Virginia suddenly appears at the top of the stairs, holding a small box in her hands.
Virginia explains that she has been with the ghost and that he has given her the box of jewels as a gift. Virginia then leads her family into a hidden chamber that contains a skeleton. The skeleton is chained to the wall and has died as a result of being starved to death: presumably, these are the bones of Sir Simon, who was imprisoned and starved by his wife’s brothers in punishment for her murder. Virginia kneels down to pray next to the skeleton, and when she does, the old almond tree outside spontaneously bursts into bloom. Virginia explains that this is a sign that God has forgiven the Canterville ghost.
Analysis
Up until this point Virginia has been largely a marginal character, but she now becomes central to the plot. There was a brief mention of the Duke of Cheshire being attracted to her at the start of the story, and he now returns with the more purposeful role of suitor. One of the most prominent forms of cultural and commercial exchange happening between Europe and America at this time was taking place through marriages: more and more European aristocrats were marrying American heiresses in exchange for large dowries. This arrangement, like the sale of houses and art, tended to trade sophistication and social prestige for the pragmatic necessity of available cash. There were many jokes and cultural references about brash American mothers striving to see their daughters married to a Duke or an Earl, and the possibility of Virginia being introduced into English society once the family was settled at Canterville Chase might explain part of the family's motivation for the purchase.
The lead-up to Virginia's encounter with the ghost contains some subtle contextual cues about why this moment is transformational for her. It would have been somewhat unusual for Virginia to have been out unsupervised, in an isolated area, with a young man who was clearly attracted to her. While the torn dress is attributed to an incident while riding, it contains the potential for a sexualized double meaning: torn or damaged clothing might symbolically indicate that Virginia's purity or innocence have also been breached in some way, even if only by a gentle kiss. She comes back to the house with a sense of secrecy and shame about whatever has happened while she was out with the Duke, and the reason she ends up alone with the ghost is that she is trying to avoid the rest of the household.
In her conversation with the ghost, Virginia wavers between sympathy and moral justice. She knows he is being mistreated by her brothers, but she also calls attention to the fact that he is guilty of a crime. This is one of the only moments where the ghost's act of murdering his wife is taken seriously, and it is interesting that Virginia, as a young woman who is probably approaching marriage herself, is the one to think of Lady Eleonore as a real person deserving of sympathy. The ghost is unrepentant; he seems to think he is the one who has been wronged because of the way he was punished for the murder. The narrative of the story also seems to side with this perspective; the topic of the murder is quickly dropped, and the tone becomes much more serious as the ghost pleads for peace and rest.
It is unclear to what extent the ghost's recent persecution has led him to realize that he is fed up with haunting, and would prefer to simply sleep quietly in the Garden of Death. It seems to be the case that he has finally accepted that he has no purpose in the modern world, and now without a sense of value, he would rather fade out of the world altogether. Moreover, there seems to be recognition that authenticity is preferable to constantly acting, posing and pretending: "Although Wilde might praise artificiality and the wearing of masks elsewhere, the ghost's experience reveals that this mode of existence is the lonely refuge of an anguished sinner, who gladly forsakes it to gain the peace that forgiveness brings" (Cohen 59).
However, because of his crimes, the ghost cannot pass into the afterlife quietly; he needs the intercession of Virginia because of her purity and innocence. The discussion of the prophecy, the warnings Virginia receives, and the mysterious passage through the wall all shift the story from parody into serious engagement with the Gothic genre. Wilde goes from mocking these tropes to using them to make the audience curious and eager to see what will happen next.
However, Wilde also knows how to use mystery to heighten the drama and impact of the story. When Virginia reappears at the stroke of midnight, she doesn't give any real details about what has happened or what she has seen. The Gothic mode of this section of the story continues with the discovery of the skeleton, and the mystical blossoming of the almond tree. Virginia remains partially a child-figure, but also seems to have passed into a more adult role of the young woman who is now capable of offering spiritual redemption through her love. The Duke refers to her as an angel, echoing the popular Victorian idea of "the angel of the house," where a wife and mother was seen as the spiritual and moral compass of the family. The gift of jewels from the ghost also suggests a sort of dowry—or even a gift from a lover.
