ABSTRACT
Spirits from the afterlife can take on almost any number of qualities; they can be evil, scary, vengeful, witty, funny, happy. In Ghost the most dramatic quality of this ghost is a deep longing love for another, which is constantly trying to make contact with that loved one. This, then, is not Richard Dreyfuss in Always, who takes his flippant carefree attitude into the afterlife and has to be instructed, by Audrey Hepburn (the metaphoric representation of God) that being a spirit or ghost entails responsibilities. Patrick Swayze in ghost form is the embodiment of such eternal love, and his efforts to touch Demi Moore are nothing but grace experiences, worldly hints of a love that never dies. For example, Sam discovers that Molly’s cat can sense his presence as a ghost and he startles the cat, making it jump to scare off a killer who threatens Molly.
