I’m the King of the Castle

Joseph Hooper announces to Edmund that people are coming to Warings, meaning that Edmund may finally have a friend to play with. The friend, Charles Kingshaw, is eleven years old, just like Edmund. Charles’s mother, Helena Kingshaw, has come to Warings, supposedly, to serve as Joseph’s “informal housekeeper.” She is thirty-seven, and she, too, is widowed.

As Edmund prepares to meet Charles and Helena, he realizes that he remembers nothing about his own mother. He also decides, “nobody should come here,” since Warings belongs to him. That afternoon, when the Kingshaws arrive, Edmund locks his door and refuses to meet them. He molds a strip of dark red plasticine (i.e., clay), which he’s using to make a model.

When Helena Kingshaw arrives at Warings with her son Charles, her first impression of Joseph is that he’s been alone for too long. Joseph calls for Edmund. Edmund, who can see the Kingshaws from his window, writes something on a piece of paper, attaches it to a piece of plasticine, and drops it from the window. Charles picks it up and sees that it says, “I didn’t want you to come here.” Frightened, Charles stuffs the message into his pocket without showing anyone.

A short while later, Edmund stands alone with Charles in Charles’s new room. He asks Charles, “Why have you come here?” Charles blushes. Edmund starts to realize the importance of owning a house, telling Charles, “We live here, it is ours … Kingshaw has nowhere.” He claims, falsely, that Charles’s room is the room where Edmund’s grandfather died recently. Edmund also boasts that one day, the house will belong to him, and asks Charles where he used to live. Charles explains that he used to live in a flat (i.e., apartment) in London. When Edmund asks Charles why his father didn’t buy a real house, Charles becomes hurt and says, “My father’s dead.”

Edmund asks Charles about his father, and Charles explains that his father was a pilot who fought in the Battle of Britain. Edmund is skeptical. Charles shows him an old photograph of his father, a “bald, cadaverous man.” Somehow, Charles senses that he has “won” his conversation with Edmund, and yet he doesn’t feel like the winner.

Edmund asks Charles where he went to school, and Charles tells him about his school in Wales. Then, abruptly, Charles says, “You needn’t think I wanted to come, anyway.” He then orders Edmund to shut the window, adding, “it’s my window now.” Edmund raises his fists, and a “brief and wordless” fight breaks out. A moment later, Charles is nursing a bloody nose.

A moment later, the fight ends. Edmund orders Charles, who now has a bloody nose, to leave him alone. Charles insists that Edmund’s father told him to spend time with Edmund. Edmund continues to ask Charles about his school, insisting that Charles’s mother could never have afforded to pay for a good boarding school if she couldn’t afford a house. Edmund looks at Charles coldly, sensing that he has won.

Charles, his heart beating fast, is unsettled: he has never encountered anything like Edmund’s hostility or self-possession before. He wants to communicate to Edmund that he’ll do anything Edmund wants, but he doesn't know how to put this into words.

Edmund, who has a large bruise on his cheekbone, looks coldly at Charles. He says, “You still needn’t think you’re wanted here” and then walks out. Alone, Charles feels ashamed. He is also frightened by the idea that Edmund’s grandfather died in this room. It never occurs to him that Edmund was lying. Nevertheless, he goes to the window and thinks, “It is my window, now.”

A few days later, Joseph notices that Edmund is sitting alone in his room. Joseph suggests that Edmund go play with Charles instead. Edmund doesn’t reply. He’s busy making a color-coded diagram of the Battle of Waterloo on a large sheet of paper.

Joseph orders Edmund to go play with Charles. Edmund stares at his father and thinks that he looks very old and thin. Joseph privately thinks that he’d have an easier time reasoning with Edmund if Edmund were a few years older. He tells Edmund that he’s being rude to Charles by ignoring him. Joseph also considers striking Edmund for his rudeness, but relents when he realizes that he’s already considered it for a split-second too long. Joseph realizes that his wife was much better at raising a child than he is. He blames his wife for not leaving “a set of rules for him to follow” when she died. He leaves, and Edmund continues working on his map.

A short while later, Edmund comes downstairs and orders Charles to follow him. Charles refuses, but then his mother walks in and encourages him to follow Edmund. Edmund leads Charles through the house, showing him different rooms and leading him up the old stone staircase. Charles follows, thinking that he’d prefer to be alone by a stream or in a wood. Suddenly, he stops and sits down on the staircase. Edmund orders him to follow, but Charles ignores him. Frustrated, Edmund begins walking down the staircase, very carefully. It occurs to Charles that it would be very easy for him to push Edmund off the staircase, but this thought terrifies him. He continues sitting on the staircase, alone.