Most people are very confident that they will immediately recognize a ghost when they see one. The portrayal of ghosts in films and ghost stories set early expectations about the appearance and behavior of ghosts. However, people do not have the ability to readily recognize ghosts when they encounter them. After all, as Michael Cox and RA Gilbert mentioned, ghosts are just dead people who remain in our memory and for whom we have no choice but to learn to live with their continued presence (1). If people think that they can immediately recognize ghosts, they will miss important opportunities to learn important values ​​in the long term through the presence of ghosts. Since ghosts are dead people, they lived in the past; they know the history and what the most important values ​​are. Therefore, in "Afterward", Edith Warton deliberately describes the ghost as something one does not recognize until much later, to demonstrate that dishonesty between family members causes the death of the family relationship. In the story, the ghost is something you don't recognize until much later. At the beginning of the story, when Edward Boyne asks Alida Stairs whether or not there is a ghost in Lyng, Alida's response is "Oh, there is one, of course, but you'll never know." (41) Edith Warton tries to prove that the ghost is something unrecognizable through a conversation between Edward and Alida; Edward's question is "That there's a ghost, but no one knows it's a ghost?" (41) and the answer to his question is "Well, at least not until then" (41). As for Mary, in her home in Lyng, she is aware that "when you saw a ghost in Lyng, you didn't know it." (44) When Mary speaks...... middle of paper ......in a family – Ned disappeared and Mary had to adjust to living alone. In this way, Warton urges his readers to be transparent towards family members because a stable family is built on an important foundation, which is trust. And with a stable family, they will be able to live together happily, knowing that their family members support them. Works Cited Bell, Vaughan. "Ghost Stories: Visits of the Dead." Scientific American Global RSS. Np, December 2, 2008. Web. April 12, 2014..Cox, Michael, and RA Gilbert. "Introduction." The Oxford Book of Ghost Stories. Ed.Michael Cox and RA Gilbert. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2008. ix-xvii.Wharton, Edith. "After." The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton. Ed. David Stuart Davies. London: Worth Editions, 2009. 40-67.