# Old trope about ghosts being a long white bedsheet **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 24, 2016, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-trope-about-ghosts-being-a-long-white-bedsheet/758201 "2016-06-24T03:02:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-trope-about-ghosts-being-a-long-white-bedsheet/758201/21 "2016-06-24T20:21:37Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > Then suddenly it occurred to me – how did the trope ever start of a ghost being depicted as a figure in a long white sheet (with or without eye-holes) **and going “Whoooooooooooo”**? Seems easy to speculate about the “going ‘Whoooooooooooo’” part. Owls hooting in the night. ---
**Author:** ![Unpronounceable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de0a6/32.png) [@Unpronounceable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unpronounceable)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2016, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-trope-about-ghosts-being-a-long-white-bedsheet/758201/22 "2016-06-24T20:42:15Z")
> [@Mister\_Rik](#): > > If the ghost is supposed to be the soul of the departed, not the body, why is it wearing anything at all? Do you _really_ want to see your grandpa naked? ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-trope-about-ghosts-being-a-long-white-bedsheet/758201/23 "2016-06-25T00:01:00Z")
> [@Unpronounceable](#): > > Do you _really_ want to see your grandpa naked? …and probably in some unflattering stage of decomposition? ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-trope-about-ghosts-being-a-long-white-bedsheet/758201/24 "2016-06-25T00:13:53Z")
> [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](#): > > [99er thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=7291) on the subject. (I just wanted to point out that user #1972 posted a link to thread #7291. I’m amused by that, for some reason.) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-trope-about-ghosts-being-a-long-white-bedsheet/758201/25 "2016-06-25T00:27:02Z")
> [@ekedolphin](#): > > Don’t know where it originated, but in addition to those examples already named, I love the dead couple pulling it on Lydia in _Beetlejuice,_ and Mort’s appearance in the webcomic _Questionable Content._ In both cases, the person they’re trying to scare completely no-sells it. [the Beetlejuice scene](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OeEa3gTsVDo). ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2016, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-trope-about-ghosts-being-a-long-white-bedsheet/758201/26 "2016-06-25T20:06:04Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > No, way way earlier than that. **Satua** nailed it, the ghost wears a winding sheet, a shroud. There are illustrations in Elizabethan books showing the ghost in a shroud. John Dee, the famous Elizabethan conjurer has a well-known picture in one of his books showing him in a cemetery at night invoking a spirit from the grave. The ghost is attired in the usual white shroud from head to foot. Yup. Shakespeare, _Hamlet_ (circa 1600), Act I, Scene 1: > [@](#): > > **Horatio:** In the most high and palmy state of Rome, > A little ere the mightiest Julius fell, > **The graves stood tenantless and the sheeted dead > Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets** > As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood, > Disasters in the sun, and the moist star > Upon whose influence Neptune’s empire stands > Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse. > And even the like precurse of feared events, > As harbingers preceding still the fates > And prologue to the omen coming on, > Have heaven and earth together demonstrated > Unto our climatures and countrymen. (Emphasis added.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-trope-about-ghosts-being-a-long-white-bedsheet/758201.md?page=1)