I’m the king of the castle by Susan Hill
If you like a horror story and suspense, then you would enjoy Susan Hill’s book ‘I’m the King of Castle’. It reminds me of ‘Lord of the Flies’ as it shows the cruelty of the children and the terror that they can create. It is a really wonderful and educational book for young teenager around 13 to 15 years old pupils and they can learn a lot in this book.
In this story, Susan Hill creates a little poor boy called Charles Kingshaw who is from London. His mother Helena Kingshaw finds a work as a housekeeper for Mr Joseph Hooper and his son Edmund in their large country house which called Warings. We soon learn Edmund is a very strange and deviant boy who wants his house to himself ‘nobody must come here’. When Charles and Helena arrived, Edmund immediately starts to make Charles feel unwelcome and scared. Edmund is greeted with a hostile paper ‘I didn’t want you to come here.” He frightens Charles in many ways such as throwing the rocks into Charles’ room, putting the dead crows on Charles bed to make him feel frightened and letting Charles touch the sample of moth. Also, they usually have lots of argument. Edmund hates and envies Charles has a beautiful and competent mother Helena, so he often says Charles is a baby “my little darling, dear my little baby-boy, Mummy loves her little baby-boy.” We discover Edmund is also a lonely boy; he needs his mother’s love.
But poor Charles cannot stand this afflict, when he knows his mother Helena has been fallen in love with Edmund’s father Joseph, he cannot bear this fact, he feels hopeless. He chooses escaping. Poor Charles drowns himself in the river. The terrible ending is even worth because his mother is kind to Edmund and treats him like her son. Edmund destroys Charles and he wins a new mother. “I don’t want you to look, dear, you mustn’t look and be upset, everything is all right.”
When I finished this book, my first impression is ‘the ending is so sad, how poor Charles is!” Charles is just eleven years old, and he would lose his anima. I like this book very much, it shows the psychology of two boys who have different characters. This story let me bethink when I was twelve years old, I often teased the children who were younger than me, it is wrong. The children are so frail, if we cannot bring them up very well, they will not get a perfect spirit. Although, when the readers have the first approach to this novel, they will be shocked and surprised about Charles decision over his own life. As we cannot find this experience in our life, nobody will kill himself when he is unhappy.
However, as the story has exposed more about Charles’ personal life. We will feel more sympathy for him. His life is an incredible tragedy. Charles loses his father barely, he wants some comfort from Edmund who has the same age as himself, but since Edmund does not have mother, he begins to make Charles feel frighten instead and let Charles admit Edmund is the king of the castle. Charles cannot get any comfort from family or friends but only terrify and laughing. His mood changes a lot. Though he had never been willing to come to the castle, yet he is not in such despair. After he comes through all the horrible things that caused by his ‘companion’ Edmund, and in the end, his discover that even his mother has fallen in love with Joseph Hooper. Their parents Joseph Hooper and Helena Kingshaw purpose to get married, but they have not imagined Charles cannot endure it. They do not know how much grievance does Charles has been sustained. They do not know how much sadness and trepidation Charles has. For an eleven-year-old boy like him, Charles cannot bear these terrible things. They have not tried to understand their sons really and truly, it induces a tragedy in the end without the comfort of human being. He has lost all his fondness to the world. And then, it seems to be reasonable for his decision Edmund, he wins, he wins a mother and loses a person who he hates very much. Edmund has not had any compunction and he realizes ‘I’m the king of the castle.’ But he cannot get any happiness because he does not have humanity, he loses a good friend and partner.
Susan creates a really dramatic and attractive story between two boys in an isolated and mysterious setting. Edmund like a devil, he occupy Charles’ life, let him feel frightened and mortuary. In this dark and void castle, the combat and argument between Charles and Edmund make this castle become more horrific rather than more alive. This castle like a hell, make Charles cannot breathe and have a lot of pressure.
This book is very contradictory. It is also a good ending for Charles, he can shake off Edmund’s afflict, he wants to get free when he chooses kill himself. Another, Edmund, Joseph and Helena can live together happily. I do not like this ending because for Charles it is not fair. He bears a lot of agony but has got nothing good in return.
Overall, this book shows us we need to know the children’s psychology. It may not the principle that Susan Hill wants to express, but this story tell me mostly that children’s felling may be more susceptive than adult. We need to protect them very careful, or they will hurt themselves. This is a really wonderful story, I propose you do read it.
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