The ghost of William Ager, the late guardian of the crown, is real in the story—that is, it’s truly present—but it also functions as a symbolic representation of Paxton’s guilty conscience about stealing the crown. The crown’s importance to the community is made obvious to Paxton, and he clearly feels shame about taking the crown, but this shame only surfaces in tangible ways after he has already dug up the cultural artifact. He tries to absolve his guilt by narrating the account as though he had less agency in the matter than he really did, attributing his discovery of the crown to “fate” and “luck.” In reality, of course, Paxton does know that he is to blame, but his obsession with the crown clouds his mind, and his culpability is too difficult for him to confront. In this way, his guilty conscience is embodied by Ager’s ghost, which Paxton can only see in his peripheral vision at first. The ghost disappears when Paxton tries to look straight at it, in the same way that Paxton can’t yet fully face his guilt. As his quest for the crown proceeds and Paxton’s guilt intensifies, the ghost’s presence also gets stronger until Paxton can physically feel it scraping him. But this doesn’t stop him, and it’s only when he’s past the point of no return that he expresses remorse about taking the crown. From that point forward, the guilt never leaves him, as the damage done by the theft is irreversible. In keeping with this, William Ager’s ghost haunts Paxton until it kills him. William Ager’s persistent and murderous ghost thus symbolizes Paxton’s remorse and suggests that the guilt following a serious wrongdoing can be permanently disruptive and defeating.
The Ghost of William Ager Quotes in A Warning to the Curious
“You see,” he said, “anybody would call it the greatest bit of luck. I did, but I don’t know. Of course I asked the shopman about William Ager, and of course he happened to remember that he lodged in a cottage in the North Field and died there.”
We looked out of the window: there was a brilliant full moon—the Paschal moon.
Well, we were pretty regular customers of the hotel, and did not give much trouble, and were considered by the servants to be not under the mark in the way of tips; and so the boots was propitiated, and let us out on to the sea-front, and remained, as we heard later, looking after us.
But under observation we felt we were, as I have never felt it at another time. Specially was it so when we passed out of the churchyard into a narrow path with close high hedges, through which we hurried as Christian did through that Valley; and so got out into open fields.
Yet, in all this quiet, an acute, an acrid consciousness of a restrained hostility very near us, like a dog on a leash that might be let go at any moment.
You'll wonder why we didn't insist on accompanying him to his home and seeing him safe into the care of brothers or someone. The fact was he had nobody. He had had a flat in town, but lately he had made up his mind to settle for a time in Sweden[...]
His tracks showed that he had run along the side of the battery, had turned sharp round the corner of it, and, small doubt of it, must have dashed straight into the open arms of someone who was waiting there. His mouth was full of sand and stones, and his teeth and jaws were broken to bits.
The Ghost of William Ager Symbol Timeline in A Warning to the Curious
