In the following passage from Chapter 5, Wilde introduces a somewhat indirect, but nonetheless crucial metaphor to describe Victoria's relationship to her American ancestors:
“Well, I quite admit [that I killed my wife],” said the Ghost petulantly, “but it was a purely family matter, and concerned no one else.” “It is very wrong to kill any one,” said Virginia, who at times had a sweet Puritan gravity, caught from some old New England ancestor.
Virginia's very straightforward ethical code is being compared to that of her Puritan ancestors, who were notably, at times notoriously, conservative when compared to other Christian groups, like the Catholics or the Anglicans. The true metaphorical comparison taking place in this passage, however, is deeper than a simple ancestral parallel, and hinges on one word: "caught." By using this word, the narrator is metaphorically treating Puritan ethical values as a kind of disease. This becomes telling in the context of Wilde's aestheticist style, which holds beauty above morality in the hierarchy of concerns. While the reader cannot be entirely aware of Wilde's own perspective on the matter, it is quite clear from the above passage that the narrator holds American Puritanism and its ethical impact in some degree of contempt.
