This theme is immediately touched upon when Hiram Otis and Lord Canterville discuss the ghost in the opening chapter, and it comes up frequently throughout the text. Hiram and his family represent New World beliefs, while Lord Canterville, Sir Simon, and to an extent the Duke of Cheshire represent Old World beliefs.

Materialism is a sub-theme here, brought up in a number of ways. One example occurs after Lucretia offers Sir Simon’s ghost the tincture for indigestion. He finds her materialistic beliefs to be annoying. Another example is that when Hiram tries to convince Lord Canterville to accept the jewels, he says they would be worth a lot of money.

After Sir Simon killed his wife in the 1600s, her brothers starved him to death in an effort to seek justice. However, their desire for justice turned into vengeance, which then poisoned his passing so that Sir Simon’s ghost sought vengeance by scaring people to death—quite literally, as each time he appeared, a member of the Canterville family would soon pass away. However, he gives up that quest for vengeance when he asks for Virginia’s help to find the beauty of death and the rest it promises.