Haunted Houses Summary

The speaker says that all houses are frequented by ghosts of those who were born there, lived
there and died there. They enter through open doors and do their work while they move
around lightly, without making any noise. The speaker comes across them at various places in
the house – the stairs, the passage way and at the doors. They cannot be seen or heard but
their impressions are there in the air. Even at dinner parties, there are more attendants than
the people invited by the host. These are the ghosts that are present at the dinner table.
Perhaps the speaker is a ghost because he can see other ghosts while the stranger sitting
beside him, next to the fireplace can only see the present living world. The speaker is one of the
ghosts and he says that the ghosts do not own the houses where they visit but they owned
them when they were alive. Now they are buried and forgotten by their offsprings. So they
stretch their hands to grab their houses back and they do not want to give them away to their
descendents. The world of ghosts is like an atmosphere which is wrapped around the world of
the living. The human life is full of desire to enjoy and achieve, this predicament gives a balance
between input and output. The moonlight is like a bridge which connects the two worlds. At
night time, the moonlight gives us dreams and imaginations which guide us to do the desired
actions during the day.

With the Photographer Summary

The author, Stephen is forty years old at the time of this incidence. He wants to get a
photograph of his, to be given to his friends, as a memory to remember him after his death.
With this aim, he visits a photographer. The dull, stooping man asks the author to wait and he is
kept waiting for an hour. He reads various magazines in the meantime.
On being called, he is asked to sit on a stool. The photographer pulls a huge camera and gets
inside it. He is not satisfied with what he sees and so he comes out and removes all the curtains
with a rod, perhaps to get more light and air inside the room.
He goes back into the machine and stays for sometime and the author thinks that perhaps he is
praying to God to get a good photo.
He exits the machine with a serious expression and comments that the author’s face is wrong
and it would be better if it were more chubby. The author gets hurt by such words, agrees with
the man and adds that even the photographer’s face would look better if it were more chubby.
He adds that many faces are such that they will look better if they are wider, larger and huge.
The photographer goes on to hold the author’s face in his hands, as if to kiss him, he then twists
it as far he can and says that the head is not appreciable. He goes inside the machine, asks the
author to open the mouth and then to close it. Then he comments that the ears are bad too. He
makes the author droop the ears, roll the eyes, bend the neck, squeeze the stomach, etc. to
make the face fuller but is not satisfied. As the narrator is about to rise from the stool, a photo
is clicked and the photographer says that he has barely managed to capture the right
expressions on the author’s face. However, the author revolts by saying that it is his face as God
has made and he is aware of its appearance not being attractive. However, he accepts it as it is.
Now, as the man has clicked a photo, the author wants to have a look but is asked to return on
Saturday because the photographer has to develop the negative and make a proof. On the
designated day, the photographer shows him a proof of his photograph which does not
resemble the author. On being asked, the photographer reveals that he has used his drawing
calibre and a few techniques to improve the photo so that it looks better. The author is
disheartened because all he wanted was a photo which looked like him. He says that the
photograph was a masterpiece of the photographer’s skills and he must keep it to show to his
family and friends. As for the author, it is a worthless thing. With this he leaves the studio, teary
eyed.