Who was responsinble for the Death of Kingshaw?

By,

Allan Saud

There was no way out for the poor, downtrodden, insecure boy Kingshaw. Trapped inside that damned house, surrounded by pain and ignorance. On the one hand he had Hooper, systematically bullying him into suicide and on the other, his insensitive mother, dismissing Kingshaw’s every word, committed only to pleasing Mr. Hooper.

Edmund Hooper was in my opinion the main cause of Kingshaw’s death. Hooper had bullied him from the very beginning when Kingshaw had just moved into his house. Hooper felt in charge of his house, he felt he was King there and he” did not want any other boy in the ugly, isolated Victorian house” as written in the publisher’s blurb. To emphasize on the point that Charles was not welcome in Hooper’s house, Edmund also showed Kingshaw the message “I didn’t want you to come here”. Kingshaw was an intruder in Hooper’s eyes, and had to be in a way punished for moving into Hooper’s house. Very early in the book, Hooper had already learned Kingshaw’s weaknesses and fears, such as Hooper realized that Kingshaw was very easily manipulated by people and so he used that against him, Hooper also taunted Kingshaw about Kingshaw’s fear of crows. For example, Charles was shown to be afraid of a big crow which kept on coming back to him, so Hooper put a big crow which he had found at the attic beforehand, onto Kingshaw’s bed in order to scare him. Hooper was able to turn the most ordinary object into a source of terror for Kingshaw. Kingshaw could not retaliate in any way, shape or form, instead he let Hooper get to him, and he was truly scared. “No Kingshaw thought, no. Oh, Jesus, I am scared of him, I am”, this quote shows Kingshaw forced to admit to himself and to the reader his fear of Hooper for the second time in the book. Hooper often scared Kingshaw by simply reminding him of previous fears, such as the crows, and often even threatened him, but most importantly, it is not what Hooper did to Kingshaw that scared him, it is what he could have done, as shown by the quote “But he knew, and Hooper knew, that it was not really a question of doing. Hooper had only to remind Kingshaw, by the expression on his face, that was enough. It was the terror he suffered from remembering, from dreaming his own fear”. The roles are reversed a couple of times in the book, but then Hooper always regains power over Kingshaw as for example shown in the scene after the storm in Hang Wood, “Kingshaw let it drop. He thought that the storm had changed things, given him a hold over Hooper. He had only to look at him, now”, implies that Hooper reasserts his control over Kingshaw; he has already forgotten how scared he was in the storm. Hooper then tries to look for the stream while saying, “Right, I can hear it, it’s over there. I’ll go first because I’m the leader”, completely reasserting his control over Kingshaw. Kingshaw submits. On several occasions in the book, Kingshaw repeats the short phrase “this is alright”, which shows his insecurity, in trying to reassure himself that everything is ‘alright’, nothing is wrong. Hooper had gained such power over Kingshaw that he no longer even had to say anything to show his triumph over Kingshaw, for example when Kingshaw was scared of the wound in the rabbit, Hooper mocked him, but he didn’t even have to say a single word to show his triumph, “When he looked up again, Hooper’s eyes were on his, narrowed and mocking”. Except for the very end that is, when Hooper is shown to achieve his ultimate goal, the death of Charles Kingshaw. He says the line which answers the question in relation to this essay, “When he saw Kingshaw’s body, upside down in the water, Hooper thought suddenly, it was because of me, I did that, it was because of me, and a spurt of triumph went through him”, showing that Hooper does feel responsible about the death of Kingshaw. Hooper feels “triumph” at forcing Kingshaw to end his life. This shows his evil. Hooper feels that he did the right thing in killing Kingshaw and not only does he feel that he did it, but he is also very proud and happy of forcing Kingshaw to end his life in agony and pain.

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Another reason for Kingshaw’s almost predictable suicide, was the neglect coming from his mother. Mrs. Kingshaw was almost obsessed about trying to keep Mr. Hooper happy. She never actually listened to Kingshaw, only heard what he said, dismissing the meaning of his words shown for example in this quotation, “Kingshaw said passionately, ‘I hate him, I’ve told you. I hate Hooper.’ ‘Oh, that is a wicked way to talk, whatever can you be thinking about? Whatever can poor Edmund have done to you?’”. Mrs. Kingshaw simply assumed that Edmund can have done nothing to her son, emphasizing ‘poor Edmund’ and relating evil to her own son in calling his words ‘wicked’. Kingshaw didn’t even want to tell her. The way she speaks to her son is as if she is speaking down to him, always putting words into his mouth and making vague assumptions for example, “You would tell Mummy wouldn’t you? It is probably such a tiny thing bothering you, we could clear it up at once, and everything would be quite all right again”, ‘tiny’ being the key word there, Mrs. Kingshaw is directly implying that anything that her son could say or is concerned with cannot possibly be of any importance! Her conversations with Charles are always very patronizing. Whenever something actually happened, Mrs. Kingshaw would be the first to blame her own son, only to please Mr. Hooper. Kingshaw himself was left with no support, and all the blame for a crime, which he was the victim of! This is seen when Edmund fell into the water and then blamed Kingshaw for pushing him, (Mrs. Kingshaw speaking) “Charles, I will not have you speaking in that way. Now please apologize to Mr. Hooper. And to Edmund. That is so silly, when he is your special friend”. This is another example of how Mrs. Kingshaw doesn’t understand how her son feels. Kingshaw feels ashamed of his mother trying to please Mr. Hooper.

Kingshaw himself is also in part to blame of his own suicide. After all he must have had a weakness in his character to let Hooper really get to him. Kingshaw gave in to Hooper far too easily, this is shown when he felt that he had lost his friend Fielding “He could not hold Fielding, nobody could, he would try and try, and Fielding would slip away, and make friends anywhere (i.e. with Hooper, at Hooper’s house, which is what Kingshaw is scared of), share anything. Kingshaw didn’t even have the will power to fight for his best friend against his worst enemy. This showed Kingshaw’s insecurity and fear of dislike from Fielding. He shouldn’t have let Hooper know about his fears. He should have been stronger. He gave in.

In conclusion, I believe that Edmund Hooper was still the main reason for the death of Charles Kingshaw. After all, his mother’s ignorance or even his weak character could not have possibly gotten him killed.