Kingshaw’s 2nd Nightmare
Significance of the Punch and Judy Show [Pg174]
The significance of this nightmare is very great. Here, it can be seen that Kingshaw is like the puppet, he is controlled by Hooper, the puppeteer. He has no control over what he may do next as he is constantly guarding himself against Hooper, to protect himself from Hooper’s actions and threats, similar to the puppet’s actions as one tries his best to protect himself from the other violent one. On the other hand, Hooper always wants to control Kingshaw’s life, to dare and to taunt him to make him feel inferior and constantly weak.
Also, Kingshaw is known to be claustrophobic and thus this nightmare proved to be very traumatizing towards him. It can be seen from these quotes “beach was very small” and “crowds of them, thousands of boys, as far as he could see, and more kept arriving, sitting down and pushing in, tighter and tighter” which gives an impression of the area surrounding him was becoming smaller and smaller, thereby enclosing him into a tight spot. He can never escape from Hooper and particularly he is imagining how the boys at Hooper’s school will outnumber and trap him. The boys surround him, bringing out his claustrophobia, trapping him on the beach and forcing him to watch the horrible Punch and Judy Show. This shows how trapped he is and how hopeless he will be in his new schools with Hooper getting all the boys to outnumber him. As a result, I think this nightmare actually shows the fears he has for the future. “The sand of the beach was very white, cold and grainy, like sagos like the dust on the surface of the moon as it was night, too, it was dead and cold and dark. Only the puppets were lit up, so that you had to look at him” from this last sentence, we can see that Kingshaw is forced to do things against his will, as he had always been going through ever since young.
