The famed Shakespearean actor and Star Trek star Patrick Stewart has passed away. Since this weekend is Halloween, I want to pay tribute to Stewart in one of his lesser-known roles, a role that included a bit of Shakespearean theater: The Canterville Ghost.
The movie is based on a humorous ghost story by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde. In the original, Sir Simon de Canterville, having murdered his wife, has been haunting his ancestral home for centuries and horrifying all the local aristocrats when the American Otis family arrives to take up residence while Mr. Otis is a diplomat in England. Mr. and Mrs. Otis, their eldest son Washington, and their young twins make the ghost’s life miserable by trying to jump-scare him, giving him infallible cures for his clanking chains, and rubbing out the famous bloodstain of his wife. Eventually, little Virginia Otis lectures Sir Simon sternly, but discovers she can help him pass on by praying for him and pleading with the angel of death to have mercy on him. Virginia helps Sir Simon receive forgiveness for his sins, allowing him to pass to the next life, and she stays in England to marry a duke (read the story here).Stewart’s movie changes the original story a good deal. The biggest change is that the movie is a drama rather than a satire. Then, instead of being a diplomat, Mr. Otis is a scientist who refuses to believe in the ghost because there is no scientific explanation for such a phenomenon. There are only two Otis sons in the movie, and while the original story mentions just one poet the ghost reads, the American Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, the movie portrays Sir Simon (Patrick Stewart) as a devotee of Shakespeare and the real inspiration for Hamlet's ghost.
Instead of being a sweet little girl, Virginia, or Ginny, is a disgruntled young woman who didn’t want to move to England. After meeting the Duke of Cheshire, who happens to be about her age, and making friends with Sir Simon, she, however, gradually begins to take a great interest in her new home and in helping the ghost. Sir Simon even helps the Duke and Ginny to form a relationship by warning Ginny not to make the same mistakes he made in his marriage. He mistakenly believed his wife was unfaithful to him, driving her mad with his accusations. After her suicide, he realized she was innocent, and her family killed him for his cruelty to her. He has been trapped in the castle by a curse, regretting his own jealousy and its terrible consequences for hundreds of years.
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Determined to convince Mr. Otis, the young people arrange to stage the scene in Hamlet where the prince meets his father's ghost, with Ginny as Hamlet and Sir Simon as the ghost. This still fails to convince Mr. Otis of the supernatural element, although he is able at last to see Sir Simon. The Hamlet scene overwhelms Sir Simon with memories of his tragic past, and he asks Ginny for her prayers and her help so that the curse will break. She survives her visit to the realm of darkness, and the Otis family buries the bones of Sir Simon beside his wife in their garden. The Otis family decides to stay in England, and the Canterville garden blooms as a sign that Sir Simon and his wife at last are in peace. The movie closes with Sir Simon reading his wife a sonnet from beyond the grave. The prophecy is fulfilled:
When a gentle girl can win
Prayer from out the lips of sin,
When a child gives up tears,
And the barren almond bears,
When the silent chapel bell
Sounds the ghostly sinner's knell,
Then shall all the house be still
And peace shall come to Canterville.
Stewart’s performance is certainly the best part of the movie. Speaking frankly, most of the actors in the film are not particularly good, and the script could probably have benefited from a little more of Wilde’s writing instead of trying to “improve upon” and modernize the story so much. But both as Sir Simon and as Hamlet’s father in his one scene, Stewart delivers a memorable and artistic performance. Whether terrifying or tender, every scene of his captures a new facet to the ghost’s personality and story.
Wilde's ghost is a complex spirit, somehow both villain and victim, and it took an actor of Stewart's caliber to bring him to life and through death.
So, if you're looking for a way to remember Stewart this holiday, take a few minutes to watch his portrayal of Wilde's iconic ghost.
