Category: GCSE

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I’m The King of the Castle Fielding Section

Yet again in chapter 13 Kingshaw is ignored. What is the author’s purpose in leaving Kingshaw in the dark about Hooper’s fate? What is the significance of Kingshaw’s dwelling on the details of the film on TV? P 204-205 K wakes from his dream – how does he let down his defences here. P 208 in retrospect what does K think of himself?

P208-210 What is it about Fenwick that Kingshaw admires?

P 211 – 212 How do we see that what the adults are expecting of and thinking about their relationship is different? Kingshaw has made two things – how does he feel about each?

P213 Kingshaw meets Fielding. This is the final section of the story. How is Fielding different from Hooper? Howe is Fielding’s environment different? What is it about Fielding’s mother that K prefers or admires? Why is it significant that K has gone to the church? How K and Fielding more like ordinary boys together and what are is the author’s purpose in showing us this contrast? Why do you suppose Kingshaw meets this boy so late in the story?

Chapter 14 What is Fielding’s response to Kingshaw’s telling him about Hooper? How does it make Kingshaw feel? For what things does Kingshaw admire Fielding? Why does Fielding admire Kingshaw? What else might he think of him?

Look at the end of chapter 14 and the beginning of chapter 15 – how does the author make the contrast so evident?

How does Hooper so thoroughly frighten Kingshaw between pages 229 and 232?

What significance does Fielding’s place take on in Kingshaw’s mind? How does his mother make the situation worse? What is the final straw in ch 15? Why does he feel this way about the model?

In chapter 16 we suddenly realise that others have been trapped in this environment too. Why does Mrs K suddenly grasp at this straw of contact from the outside world? Why do we now learn of some of the opther places the Kingshaws have stayed? What phrase that keeps being repeated in this chapter has a much greater significance than its original meaning? Why?

P 256 – Another family outing, this time to the circus, and yet another time when Kingshaw is not told; he hates surprises – no wonder! What things is he afraid of here? What physical reaction does he have after? How does this contrast with Mr Hooper’s response?

P 258 – 268 What blow to his illusions does Kingshaw receive? Why is he so upset? How does Fielding attempt to mediate between the two boys? What does Kingshaw finally realise? What revenge does Kingshaw take? Why does he do it but how does he feel afterwards? Note the weather at the end here.

Ch 17 What treatment does Hooper give him and why does it work so well? What is the final straw? What do you think Kingshaw is going to do now? Why?

Look at the different reactions of the four characters to the events of the day to come. Why suddenly does it all become so obvious? Note Hooper’s reaction. How does Mrs Kingshaw finally demonstrate her total lack of understanding.

 

Things to think about:

Is Hooper truly evil?            

Is Mrs Kingshaw emotionally shallow?

How can parents be that blind?         

Is the ending foregone conclusion?

What is Fielding’s purpose in the narrative?

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ITKOTC Chapters 1-3 summary

Chapter 1

We meet Mr Joseph Hooper and his son Edmund. Mr Hooper’s father has recently died and he has come into his inheritance – the house Warings.

As a child he hated it here but now he has come to accept the responsibility and status it can give him.

He knows himself to be a man who has failed but not as one who falls from a great height. His wife died some six years ago leaving him to bring up his son alone – for which he obscurely blames her.

He didn’t get on with his father and doesn’t get on with his own son – he doesn’t understand him because he is too like his wife (he is secretive) and his father (he likes dead things and isn’t afraid.)

Edmund sneaks into the Red Room at night and inadvertently destroys a fine specimen of a Death’s Head Hawk Moth.

Comment:

Warings the house is very important – it is dark, gloomy, an unhappy place, hemmed in by ancient trees.

There are plenty of images of death – the grandfather dying, the moths.

We learn almost nothing of Edmund except for the comments of others; his father’s life we learn about in flashback.

 

Chapter 2

The Kingshaws arrive – she is to be an informal housekeeper and her son Charles is to be a playmate for Edmund.

Edmund refuses to greet the new arrivals; he drops a note to Kingshaw; he taunts him about his father, his school and about where he has lived. They have a brief scrap but we learn that Kingshaw is always afraid, he prefers to get on with people and that he never will go to his mother for help.

Charles rejects his first temptation to push Hooper down the stairs – he is alarmed by the very thought.

Comment:

Hooper’s attention to detail on hi battle map show a lack of human consideration which his father finds disturbing; we get more insight into the gulf between the Hoopers and between Kingshaw and his mother.

Themes:

isolation and loneliness.

 

Chapter 3

Kingshaw goes for a walk to escape the oppressive atmosphere at Warings; he is attacked by a crow and on his flight back is made aware that Edmund has seen everything.

That night Hooper puts an old stuffed crow on his bed. Hoopers’ excitement at the thought of it and how it will torment Kingshaw, give us an insight into his character. He also dares Kingshaw to go into the copse. We learn that any time someone has dared him to do something he has done it because he is afraid not to, but he has never felt any better after doing the dare.

Because Kingshaw makes no reference to the event the parents begin to think the boys are getting on with each other.

Hooper seizes the opportunity to lock Kingshaw into the Red Room. Charles is petrified but unable to cry out. Upon release by the adults he says nothing but is sick in the loo.

Kingshaw begins to explain why school is such a place of security for him.

Comment:

The image of the crow is an enduring one because we realise how much its mindless attack on Kingshaw is like Hooper’s systematic persecution of him.

Themes:

hostility, isolation, loneliness.