The texts 20th Century Ghost by Joe Hill and The Lawyer and the Ghost by Charles Dickens do not seem to have much more in common than the "ghost" in the names of the titles. Both tell a compelling ghost story in which the characters are vastly affected by their surreal encounters with a supernatural being. Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghost describes the story of a man who saw a ghost in the movie theatre one day and the way it changed his life and his tales of the others who had seen her. Dickens's The Lawyer and the Ghost tells the seemingly opposite tale of a lawyer who changes the habits of the ghost. In Hill's story, the ghost affects the people around her and changes them, but in Dickens's story, the person in the room changes the ghost's habits through the use of persuasion. How are the characters in the two stories similar? What makes the ghosts appear to these certain people? By analyzing the characters, settings, and time periods in the two stories, it can be seen that the characters' lives are attached to the ghosts' previous lives.

Hill's and Dickens's short stories are similar in numerous aspects that allow for the two to be compared. Both stories contain the appearances of the supernatural in the form of ghosts and this affects the characters in both stories greatly. Both stories also contain the relation of the former lives of the ghosts to the characters they encounter. In 20th Century Ghost, the ghost is first introduced to "Alec Sheldon, who was one of the first to see Imogene Gilchrist, owns the Rosebud, and at seventy-three still operates the projector most nights" (Hill 312). In The Lawyer and the Ghost, the ghost is introduced to a lawyer that is living in the old hotel room in which the ghost used to live. In both stories, the ghost appears in the place in which they passed away. In Hill's story, the ghost appears in the theatre in which she passed away, and in Dickens's story, the ghost appears in the hotel room in which he "had died of grief, and long-deferred hope, and two wily harpies divided the wealth for which he had contested, and not one farthing was left for his unhappy descendants" (Dickens 308). He died from the grief caused by that of a lawyer from his past, and now the man staying in his room also happens to be both a poor man with few possessions like himself, and a lawyer. Imogene Gilchrist loved movies and watched them all the time and so did Alec. All of the people who encountered Imogene had something to do with film work and enjoyed film. Alec owns the Rosebud Theatre, "Lois Weisel teaches documentary filmmaking to graduate students, just as it's no accident that Steven Greenberg became what he became... A drama professor, the manager of a video rental store, a retired financier who in his youth wrote angry, comical film reviews, and others" (Hill 324). In both stories, the characters are connected in their former lives and interests. Through these connections, it can be observed that the ghosts in both stories represent a part of the characters' lives, therefore showing the significance of the appearance of the ghost to the characters. Also in both stories, the beginning is connected to the end, a sort of foreshadowing played out by the beginning of the ghosts' deaths. Hill's 20th Century Ghost begins with the story of Alec meeting Imogene Gilchrist and hearing of her death during the Wizard of Oz. Then, when Steven Greenberg takes over the Rosebud, there is to be a reshowing of the Wizard of Oz, and during this reshowing Alec is spotted with Imogene and then passes away during the movie. In Dickens's The Lawyer and the Ghost, the penniless lawyer encounters a ghost that died of grief in the same room that he is currently in. The man convinces the ghost to go somewhere nicer because space is nothing to him, and the ghost agrees. Although no more is explained, the poverty-stricken ghost died of grief with nothing left to give his family, and the penniless lawyer can be assumed to do the same due to his lack of money. In the 1830's, "a period of social flux and transformation", "clothing, personal and household possessions were important ways of communicating one's position in society" (Hudson). There were social classes that bound the poor from communication with those of a higher society and people with less money are generally grief stricken.

There is a large difference in the stories between the time periods in which they take place. The Lawyer and the Ghost, "published serially from 1836 to 1837" (Department of English), takes place in the mid 1800's, in which "the industrial and social unrest of the 19th century, created struggles between the growing force of industrial employers and the working classes over their working and living conditions" (Hudson). During this time, the poor working and living conditions could lead to the deaths of those under a lot of pressure due to illness. 20th Century Ghost has a title in which the time period is clearly explained, but with a closer look, it can be noticed that the story of Alec's story begins in the 1940's as "his older brother had been killed in the South Pacific" when he was fifteen. In the third person narrative, as Alec approaches his death, he is stated to be seventy-three so it is safe to assume that it was in the late nineties or early two thousands. In the 1940's, nearly everyone was affected by the war, but "even during "Hard Times" and wartime, people need to be entertained" (Art and Entertainment 1940's). "With the addition of sound, movies became increasingly popular" (Art and Entertainment 1940's) and that is obviously seen in Joe Hill's story. The naming of the title and introduction of this 20th century ghost allows for the reader to become more connected to the story and want to have a similar experience themselves. 

Through the comparison of the two stories, there are numerous things being accomplished. Although the ghosts appear in both, one is challenged and pushed away from his place of death, and the other is accepted and wants to stay in her place of death. This illustrates that although the ghosts are representative of the characters in both stories, one is a negative representation of the lawyer, and the other is a positive representation of Alec and the other people that Imogene Gilchrist has encountered. The differences in the nature of the ghost allow for two separate outcomes in the character development of those surrounding the ghosts. The lawyer has the opportunity to see that he is staying in an awful place and putting himself in more debt and he can change his ways and grow from his experience with the ghost. The ghost tells the lawyer of the grief he experienced in such a terrible place, giving the lawyer the opportunity to see that his life is headed downward. Imogene Gilchrist however, inspires those she has encountered to contact Alec and improve his theatre when he was coming close to becoming a failure. The ghost gave them all an opportunity to reconnect and come together in a positive way. It also allows for Alec to live his childhood dream of "being kissed that way sometime" (Hill 320). Although the ghosts are similar to the characters in both stories, they provide different possible outcomes for the characters in very different settings. The gloomy, old hotel room that is not a happy place for either the ghost or the main character is the opposite of the Rosebud Theatre that Alec and Imogene both love so much. This contrast in the setting allows for the representation of both the differences in the time periods, and the differences in the possible feelings and outcomes of the characters.

Joe Hill's 20th Century Ghost and Charles Dickens's The Lawyer and the Ghost are similar enough for comparison, but also have contrasts that change the effects of the story. The most critical difference being the time periods and the effects that has on the settings in which the stories take place and how monetary binds can hold back those in society and in what ways. Both of the stories have an overall similar representation of the ghost in the story in that the ghost in both stories represents some part of the person that the character has become. Although the eventual outcome of the lawyer is left untold, the encounter with the ghost had some effect on him. Imogene Gilchrist obviously had effects on those around her and therefore it can be seen that the ghosts affect the lives of the people in different ways, but the overall stories are very similar. These ghosts being representative of the people allows for a better understanding of how people can be affected by images of themselves.
