Her feelings are highly important in contributing to events in the rest of the book. Her need for companionship is revealed by her thoughts. “I have missed a man … the reassurance and feeling of strength through physical contact.” She is concerned about how Mr Hooper feels about her. She also feels attracted to having a highly social life, as can be seen, from her planning of the cocktail, of which she was “as excited as a girl”. She apparently enjoys meeting important people, of which she specifically mentions in this novel. Also, she places much importance on family security, as she repeatedly mentions the “four of them” being like one family, and obviously wishing this to be true.
This need for companionship, social life and family security makes her desperate to succeed in her life with the Hoopers. This leads to her pampering Edmund Hooper, her eagerness, resulting in the neglecting Kingshaw. She enthusiastically supports Mr Hooper’s ideas and plans could very well have fuelled Mr Hooper’s planning them, as he did not seem to bother with such trivial things before Mrs Kingshaw came. It can also be said that Mrs Kingshaw could have manipulated Mr Hooper to do such things, as she tells him to do things indirectly. For example, towards the end of the novel, Mrs Kingshaw, in a telephone call to her friend, said loud enough for Mr Hooper to hear, that “I am not sure whether I will continue to stay at Warings”. She is actually pushing Mr Hooper to propose to her quickly. Hence, this feeling and probably a resulting character of hers have contributed to such similar events.
We can also tell from the novel that Mrs Kingshaw feels indifference towards Kingshaw. She is willing to sacrifice Kingshaw for her own selfish means, namely getting a place in the Hooper family. She often commands him indirectly and adds to this further by practically giving him over to the Hoopers – He has to ‘befriend’ Hooper and to obey Mr Hooper. Kingshaw is mistreated by her in an attempt to make her look as though she is treating him and Hooper equally. Her disguised attempt to let Hooper make friends with Kingshaw’s last hope, Fielding, though opposed by Kingshaw, was carried out, with no regard for Kingshaw at all.
Mrs Kingshaw’s indifference or lack of feeling, for Kingshaw seems to make him feel as though there is no one there for him. He feels isolated and alone, and this leads to his lone battle of wills against Hooper and ultimately, to his suicide. Kingshaw learns to hate Mrs Kingshaw, his own mother and these feelings of hate change his nature, hardening him and frightening him at the same time. The time that Kingshaw is forced to spend with Hooper gives rise to deepening hatred between them, and intensifies the psychological warfare between them, which is apparent by the greater degrees of torment Hooper inflicts on Kingshaw. Mrs Kingshaw’s apathy when it comes to Kingshaw’s torture is taken advantage of by Hooper, who is able to get away scot-free. Mrs Kingshaw causes much jealousy of Kingshaw in Hooper, again, creating more hate in Kingshaw for the both of them. There are events in the book where Hooper uses Mrs Kingshaw’s presents and attention as a weapon to inflict internal pain on Kingshaw. Mrs Kingshaw’s lack of feeling for Kingshaw has contributed much to the events as listed above.
Mrs Kingshaw feels a lot of anxiety about her future with the Hoopers. This is displayed through her eagerness to please, and also through her hopefulness. She, throws Hooper and Kingshaw together as many times as possible, so as to “cement friendship” between them. She pampers Hooper excessively to show her “care” for him. She spends a lot of time with Mr Hooper, constantly complimenting him, and planning things for their sons. Her over-involvement with the Hoopers shows her sheer anxiety and hope.
These feelings cause her to neglect Kingshaw again and again, resulting in the further events. Mrs Kingshaw’s compromising of Kingshaw’s feelings by giving his helter-shelter model to Hooper, shows that she is more than willing to throw away Kingshaw’s trust for acceptance ad favor gain from pampering Hooper, which is a branch off her anxiety to please the Hoopers. When she feels anxiety when talking to her friend, Enid (anxiety for Mr Hooper to “know that she had retained her pride” ), she carefully words her phone conversation to instill anxiety in Mr Hooper himself, enough to speed up his proposing to her. In this case, her anxiety resulted in the quickly arranged marriage. At Leydell Castle, her absorption in Mr Hooper, and pleasing him, prevented her from watching over the boys, and thus, indirectly caused Hooper’s fall, though the contribution here is not as great. In a way, Charles Kingshaw’s meeting Fielding and relying on him so heavily was because of Mrs Kingshaw’s anxiety to spend time with Hooper and neglecting him.
This anxiety also led to her being overly conscious about her own appearance. She starts to take great care in her looks, shortening her skirts, wearing jewelry, such as bracelets in her arms and her green bead necklaces. This affects the events as it makes her look cheap and shameful in Kingshaw’s eyes, creating greater resentment and hate, and lengthening the distance between Kingshaw and Mrs Kingshaw. These actions and priming also jars Mr Hooper into action and attracts his attention, and so, contribute to their marriage.
Her thoughts have contributed to events to a smaller extent, and are connected to her feelings. Her lack of feeling for Charles results in her thinking that his hatred for Hooper is “silliness” and “shock”. These thoughts lead to her ignorance of everything that befalls Kingshaw, and her disregarding of Kingshaw’s feelings, gradually widening the rift between mother and son, so Kingshaw starts to hate her and feel alienated.
Her thoughts about her being “like a mother to Edmund” , and making “ no difference between two of them” has led to her pampering of Edmund and her mistreatment of Kingshaw. This is linked to her feelings of anxiety to prove that she is a good mother for Hooper. Again, this adds to Kingshaw’s and her distance.
Mrs Kingshaw also believes that motherhood consists of “saying the right things and looking sufficiently at ease” in Kingshaw’s presence. Because of this thought, everything she does is merely for show, making it very superficial, and she thus only ‘mothers’ and ‘loves’ Kingshaw when they are in front of Hooper, when her actions are taken note of, or when it is in the house. This dishonesty and hypocrisy disgusts Kingshaw, and at the same time, attracts Mr Hooper, and is possibly another reason for their marriage.
Mrs Kingshaw’s thinking that Kingshaw and Hooper can be friends drives her to make them spend time together, giving Kingshaw the impression of no escape and disheartening him, and at the same time, giving Hooper the opportunity to torment Kingshaw. As in the incidents where Kingshaw was locked in the Red Room and in the shed, Mrs Kingshaw’s assumption that they were just playing together allows Hooper to remain “innocent” and allows Hooper to torment Kingshaw another time, again and again until Kingshaw finally commits suicide.
As it can be seen from above, all of Mrs Kingshaw’s feelings, thoughts and experiences are inter-linked and closely related. Altogether, they have contributed greatly to the marriage, Hooper’s psychological bullying and Kingshaw’s helpless and hopeless plight, the key events in the novel.