The mournful wail of Jacob Marley’s ghost in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol or the faux-ghosts in Shirley Jackson’s Hill House are enough to curdle one’s blood. Though, their meaning and symbolism is much deeper than their ghostly skin. There many ghosts in literature and as many famous phantoms that appear between the pages of classic and modern literature. In fact, the appearance of ghosts transcend even horror stories, sometimes appearing in tragedies and dramas (Macbeth). By analyzing famous ghosts in literature and defining what they represent to each story, our own understanding of their significance grows; which, along with our own appreciation, we can learn to perfect the ghost story itself.