《坎特维尔幽灵》是奥斯卡·王尔德写的一部哥特式小说。一座鬼魂萦绕的古旧的房子时常作为哥特小说的背景。然而，与传统的哥特式小说不同的是，这个故事未能引起读者的恐惧心理。相反，本该令人恐惧的幽灵反而被从美国新迁进来的奥蒂斯家庭调戏捉弄。小说采用独特的叙述视角，使得人和鬼之间的关系被颠倒，同时消解了读者心中的恐怖感。

《坎特维尔幽灵》由七个章节组成。通过深入的文本分析，本文发现，小说在总体上采用了第三人称全知视角。然而，从第二章开始到第四章，选择性全知视角和人物限知视角被广泛采用。选择性全知叙述视角有利于故事情节的发展，使读者可以从外在观察鬼魂的行为，从内在观察鬼魂的思想，使故事耐人寻味。而人物限知视角叙述则让读者直接进入鬼魂的内心世界，真实自然地体验到鬼魂的所见所闻和感受。这两种有限的叙述使读者能够更深入地了解鬼魂的心理活动，并省略其他不必要的描述。读者因为没有被放在“受害者”的位置上，而是可以通过有限的叙述视角走进“施害者”的内心世界，所以不会感到恐怖。

总之，作者摒弃了第一人称的受害者视角，将叙事重点转移到了犯罪者身上，使用两种限制性视角，使得读者能够将注意力集中在鬼魂身上，从而瓦解了哥特小说的恐怖感。

The Canterville Ghost is a gothic novel written by Oscar Wilde. The story takes place in an archaic house accompanied by a ghost, which is characteristic of gothic fiction. However, unlike traditional gothic novels, the story is distinctive in its failure to arouse readers’ terror. On the contrary, readers may find it hilarious as the ghost was even teased and toyed with by the new settled American family. With appropriate use of narrative point of view, the relationship between human beings and ghost is reversed and sense of horror is deconstructed.

The Canterville Ghost consists of seven chapters. Through intensive text analysis, this paper finds that the novel adopts the third-person omniscient point of view in general terms. However, from the second chapter to the fourth chapter, both selective omniscient narrative point of view and character’s limited point of view are widely employed. The selective omniscient narrative point of view facilitates the development of the storyline and allows readers to observe the ghost’s behavior outwardly and thoughts inwardly, making the story intriguing. While the character’s limited narratives give readers direct access to the ghost’s inner world and a real, natural experience of what the ghost is seeing, hearing and sensing. These two limited narratives allow readers to gain more insight into the inner activities of the ghost and omit other unnecessary descriptions. Readers do not feel a sense of terror as they are not put in the shoes of the “victim” but can walk into the inner world of the “perpetrator” through a limited narrative point of view.

In a nutshell, the author eschews the first-person victim’s point of view and shifts the narrative focus onto the perpetrator. While using two limited point of views, readers are able to focus their attention on the ghost and feel less terrific.