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Comment on the contrast between American and British culture in "The Canterville Ghost."

In "The Canterville Ghost," the Cantervilles, who are British lords, believe in the ghost that haunts their estate as part of their storied history. Lord Canterville tells the American Minister Hiram B. Otis, who buys the estate:



"The ghost has been seen by several living members of my family, as well as by the rector of the parish, the Rev. Augustus Dampier, who is a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge."



The ghost has a fine pedigree, as it has been seen by such well-respected people, and the Lord does not doubt its existence. In fact, Lord Canterville seems to delight in the legend of the ghost that accompanies his house.


Mr. Otis, on the other hand, is dubious about the ghost from the moment he buys the estate. Showing the American tendency toward the practical, he says that if ghosts really existed, there would be some ghosts in American museums. Mr. Otis makes it clear that Americans can buy anything in Britain that they want, so just as he is buying the British estate, Americans could have bought ghosts and brought them back to America if they had been interested in doing so. 


As an American, Otis and his family are practical and commonsensical and have little use for the legends about the ghost. For example, when they see a blood stain, they don't care about its storied history but instead apply stain remover. They attack problems using science or play tricks on the ghost and do not accept the past as predictive of the future (as the British characters do).

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