List of Haunted Mansion Characters - Bride

Bride

The Bride, one of the Mansion's most enigmatic characters, haunts the Attic. Inspiration for the character can be traced back to legends such as the Brown Lady of Raynham Hall. The Bride has been altered several times over the years, appearing now at Disneyland and Walt Disney World as Constance Hatchaway—the "Black Widow Bride," using a digital projection effect.

The original incarnation of the Bride was a skeletal corpse with glowing eyes, clutching a candle in one hand and a bouquet in the other. The sound of her thumping heart filled the attic, and it could be seen glowing red within her chest. Her groom (according to the Story and Song from the Haunted Mansion album), the Hatbox Ghost, was removed shortly after the attraction opened, as his "disappearing head" effect was unconvincing under the scene's lighting conditions. Several "blast-up" and "pop-up" ghosts also originally appeared in the Attic.

At one point a story circulated that the Bride's ring was embedded in the exterior exit path of Walt Disney World's Mansion. The object was actually what remained of a crowd-control stanchion that had been cut down. It was removed during 2007's Re-Haunting. In 2011, when the new interactive queue was added, an "official" Bride's ring was embedded in the path to honor the popular legend.

In the 2003 film, the Bride character is a woman of mixed race named Elizabeth Henshaw (played by Marsha Thomason) who is Edward Gracey's lover. She is poisoned by the villainous butler Ramsley, who disapproves of the relationship. After Gracey hangs himself in despair, his ghost remains, awaiting Elizabeth's return.

A candle-holding bride appears in the 2003 video game, though she is not the character from the movie.

In the comics, the bride character is named Emily De Claire. She was engaged to William Gracey, who was secretly the pirate Captain Blood. She died shortly after the ghost of Randall Pace (the Hatbox Ghost in the comics) revealed Gracey's secrets to her. This was inspired by Ken Anderson's early concepts for the attraction involving characters Captain Gore and Priscilla.

In the book Enter if you Dare!: Scary Tales from the Haunted Mansion, Sally Little was believed to have died of a broken heart after her father forbade her from marrying her lover Caleb. Years later, Sally, now a skeletal corpse, and Caleb, now an old man, finally have their wedding.

The storyline of Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris revolves around a bride named Melanie Ravenswood who is tormented by the sinister Phantom.