Nearly all ghost mysteries start with a murder. Many famous ghosts have a gory or puzzling death, adding to the mystery and fright of them then returning as a ghost, seeking one thing only.
Revenge.
Anne Boleyn's story is a great example of this. After her public death in 1536, her ghost has been seen in the famous Bloody Tower where she was imprisoned and beheaded. When she was alive she was accused of witchcraft. Having a sixth finger and living in a time where the belief in witchcraft was extremely high and punished by death all of this led to her being beheaded in 1536. This proved she was not a liked person when she was alive and scared people as she was thought of as being a witch so since her death there have been many conspiracies about where her ghost supposedly haunts and what she does to people who have seen her.
Many witness accounts include violent happenings and the stereotypes of a typical haunting ghost you see in films and books. One report in 1817 stated that a sentry, a guard, mostly likely a soldier, who watched an area to prevent people from passing, suffered a heart attack that killed him when seeing her in the stairway of the Tower. The in 1864 another sentry was court-martialled when he was meant to be guarding his spot and was found asleep on the floor. The soldier claimed to have seen the ghost of Anne Boleyn "wearing a queer-looking bonnet with no head in it." The soldier had supposedly gotten out his bayonet and aimed for the ghostly figure when a flash of light shot up the rifle and gave the man a severe shock. Several people backed up the soldier's story, all claiming to have seen her headless figure that night in the tower. This report states the typical characteristics that ghosts are given, including willingness to harm the living and haunting a historical building.
I've realised that many ghosts are associated with something that had happened to them when they were alive or how they had died. In this case it's Anne Boleyn's death as she was beheaded and has been seen without a head, sometimes carrying it under her arm. This is another basic stereotype so it looks as though they are back for revenge and reminding people of how they had been hurt or killed. I believe this is used to create a scary image of ghosts, emphasising how they had died, in most cases being murders or fatal accidents such as disease or a flood. It quickly associates them with bad happenings so people feel weary and scared around them. I believe this is just being used to portray ghosts as vengeful creatures who haunt the living, giving them a dark image that is then used to write articles in the newspaper (below), influencing readers that all ghosts haunt and scare the living.
Revenge.
Anne Boleyn's story is a great example of this. After her public death in 1536, her ghost has been seen in the famous Bloody Tower where she was imprisoned and beheaded. When she was alive she was accused of witchcraft. Having a sixth finger and living in a time where the belief in witchcraft was extremely high and punished by death all of this led to her being beheaded in 1536. This proved she was not a liked person when she was alive and scared people as she was thought of as being a witch so since her death there have been many conspiracies about where her ghost supposedly haunts and what she does to people who have seen her.
Many witness accounts include violent happenings and the stereotypes of a typical haunting ghost you see in films and books. One report in 1817 stated that a sentry, a guard, mostly likely a soldier, who watched an area to prevent people from passing, suffered a heart attack that killed him when seeing her in the stairway of the Tower. The in 1864 another sentry was court-martialled when he was meant to be guarding his spot and was found asleep on the floor. The soldier claimed to have seen the ghost of Anne Boleyn "wearing a queer-looking bonnet with no head in it." The soldier had supposedly gotten out his bayonet and aimed for the ghostly figure when a flash of light shot up the rifle and gave the man a severe shock. Several people backed up the soldier's story, all claiming to have seen her headless figure that night in the tower. This report states the typical characteristics that ghosts are given, including willingness to harm the living and haunting a historical building.
I've realised that many ghosts are associated with something that had happened to them when they were alive or how they had died. In this case it's Anne Boleyn's death as she was beheaded and has been seen without a head, sometimes carrying it under her arm. This is another basic stereotype so it looks as though they are back for revenge and reminding people of how they had been hurt or killed. I believe this is used to create a scary image of ghosts, emphasising how they had died, in most cases being murders or fatal accidents such as disease or a flood. It quickly associates them with bad happenings so people feel weary and scared around them. I believe this is just being used to portray ghosts as vengeful creatures who haunt the living, giving them a dark image that is then used to write articles in the newspaper (below), influencing readers that all ghosts haunt and scare the living.
Michael Jackson is the modern day version of this. Ever since his death in 2009 there have been many sightings of his ghost, the stories heavily covered in the media. His ghost has been seen running across his house in front of the mantelpiece during a live show being filmed in his house (picture on the left) as well as supposedly haunting his family, his sister La Toya Jackson being one of them.
His ghost has the basic stereotypes, controlling objects such as playing his own songs and singing along to them as well as creating noises in his bedroom to spook La Toya. His sister claimed she could hear Michael tap dance in the Jackson's family home as well as the dog barking at his old bedroom door. There have not been many negative stereotypes to his ghost apart from the occasional haunting of his house with him making strange noises, but his death has been covered a lot in the last three years since he died.
An article came out on 25th April 2012 saying that La Toya could hear Michael rehearsing in his old bedroom (article below), just before her new series was about to be aired that weekend called "Life With La Toya", the episode including a clip of La Toya visiting a psychic. This could possibly be to promote her TV programme, the article coincidentally being published the week her programme was aired. I believe this to be exploitation, using the image of his ghost for her own benefit. The media is known to exaggerate to attract people's attentions to a person or place, in this case being a TV programme. I find this wrong as portraying ghosts with the typical spooky creatures to promote something is giving ghosts a poor image that they may not have. Using this stereotypical image for your own benefits emphasises on the already negative views many people have on ghosts and the media very easily convince more people who read their articles and take an interest in their stories that ghosts are bad.
In both articles about Anne Boleyn and Michael Jackson they include the typical words to describe ghosts such as "spooky", "phantom", "unnerving", "mysterious". The stories have the stereotypes that help build ghosts' typical images, portraying ghosts as mainly negative creatures who scare and haunt the living. There have been conspiracies about both people after their deaths, their ghosts haunting the places they lived in or died in. This proves that the same typical characteristics of ghosts are still used today and have been used in the past in the media. They show ghosts as disruptive, spooky and can harm the living, something that has no proof of being true.
His ghost has the basic stereotypes, controlling objects such as playing his own songs and singing along to them as well as creating noises in his bedroom to spook La Toya. His sister claimed she could hear Michael tap dance in the Jackson's family home as well as the dog barking at his old bedroom door. There have not been many negative stereotypes to his ghost apart from the occasional haunting of his house with him making strange noises, but his death has been covered a lot in the last three years since he died.
An article came out on 25th April 2012 saying that La Toya could hear Michael rehearsing in his old bedroom (article below), just before her new series was about to be aired that weekend called "Life With La Toya", the episode including a clip of La Toya visiting a psychic. This could possibly be to promote her TV programme, the article coincidentally being published the week her programme was aired. I believe this to be exploitation, using the image of his ghost for her own benefit. The media is known to exaggerate to attract people's attentions to a person or place, in this case being a TV programme. I find this wrong as portraying ghosts with the typical spooky creatures to promote something is giving ghosts a poor image that they may not have. Using this stereotypical image for your own benefits emphasises on the already negative views many people have on ghosts and the media very easily convince more people who read their articles and take an interest in their stories that ghosts are bad.
In both articles about Anne Boleyn and Michael Jackson they include the typical words to describe ghosts such as "spooky", "phantom", "unnerving", "mysterious". The stories have the stereotypes that help build ghosts' typical images, portraying ghosts as mainly negative creatures who scare and haunt the living. There have been conspiracies about both people after their deaths, their ghosts haunting the places they lived in or died in. This proves that the same typical characteristics of ghosts are still used today and have been used in the past in the media. They show ghosts as disruptive, spooky and can harm the living, something that has no proof of being true.