Traditionally, people view ghosts as spirits of the dead who linger either to resolve unfinished business or to haunt and persecute those who harmed them.

However, Ghosts employs the idea of spectral visitations not as spooky phantasms but instead as metaphorical representations of unresolved pasts, lingering emotions, and unfulfilled desires. The first mention of ghosts comes when Lola explains to Nina that she has been “ghosted” by a boyfriend. Lola says:

It is thought to have come from the idea that you are haunted by someone who vanishes, you don’t get any closure. Others have said it derives from the three gray dots that appear and then disappear when someone is writing you an iMessage and then doesn’t send it. Because it looks ghostly (100).

In the context of modern dating, the term refers to when a person ceases all communication with a significant other without providing any explanation, leaving the other person confused, abandoned, and unable to get closure. Nina later experiences this phenomenon when Max disappears, leading her to wonder if he was just a figment of her imagination or a ghostly visitation.

Even before Max vanishes, the “ghosts” of his past relationships prevent Nina from being fully present with him when they are intimate.