Do you use he/she or it to refer to ghost?

Question

If I have a sentence:

There are many stories which have been told about a ghost that haunted this castle. Strangely, ... (the ghost) has never appeared in front of my face for 10 years.

I notice that when it comes to "spirit, dark force", many people use "it" instead of making it personalized by using "she/he" as the subject pronoun.

Should I use the subject pronoun "he/she" or "it" to refer to the ghost?

Answer 1

If there are any gender cues (e.g. man in The Headless Horseman) then you should certainly use he or she.

If you don't consider the ghost as being like a person, use it.

If you think of the ghost as being like a person but you don't know the gender, follow the rules for people of unknown gender: use he, he/she, they or the ghost.

Answer 2

Even with gender cues, it depends on what you are trying to portray. If you want to convey that the character [or narrator] sees the ghost as a non-human entity, or something too unreal, you should still say 'it'. This could imply that the character is not going along with the ruse, whereas using he/she implies strongly that the character is in agreement that the encounter with a 'ghost' is authentic.