"The Canterville Ghost" is a satire of the Gothic fiction genre, whose prominent works include Dracula, Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and the collected works of Edgar Allan Poe, to name a few. Wilde's satire draws on certain distinguishing characteristics of the genre, including the personification of animals and natural phenomena, both of which are used to foreshadow supernatural events. In Gothic fiction, humans and supernatural beings take on certain roles within these genre tropes. Wilde generates a satirical commentary on the overwrought and overdramatic nature of the Gothic by subverting, or switching out, the roles of supernatural and human characters, having the American Otis family "haunt" the Canterville Ghost (as opposed to the other way around). The primary tool Wilde uses for this subversion is humor—he makes the genre farcical, drawing attention to the mechanisms whereby it operates.
This satire does not exist purely to critique Gothic tropes—on the contrary, Wilde uses his satire of the Gothic to provide commentary on the rapid changes occurring in his society. At the time of this short story's publication, it had only been a little over a century since the American Revolution and the splitting off of British and American culture. In that (comparatively) short period of time, American culture appears to have split off quite significantly from its European roots. The Gothic, in Wilde's story, represents older European traditions and superstitions from which American society has divorced itself. It is for this reason that the Otis family is so unaffected by the Canterville Ghost, not behaving as they "should" according to European Gothic tropes. They, as Americans, have lost the cultural script.
