Ellen Hooper is the deceased wife of Joseph Hooper. She dies some six years before the novel begins, and Hill says very little about her. The absence of detail about Helen makes for an interesting contrast with the abundance of detail about Charles Kingshaw’s deceased father, whose influence is still strongly felt at Warings, his old home.
Ellen Hooper Quotes in I’m the King of the Castle
The I’m the King of the Castle quotes below are all either spoken by Ellen Hooper or refer to Ellen Hooper. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Note: all page numbers and citation info for the quotes below refer to the Penguin Books edition of I’m the King of the Castle published in 1977.
Chapter 16
Quotes
Now, Mr Hooper sat and thought about Mrs Helena Kingshaw, in this house, in the room upstairs, thought of the pleasure of her company, the pride and satisfaction it gave him to see how relieved she was to be here. And there was the way that she looked at him, he recognized something of his own need, there was something . . . He undressed. He thought with excitement that a physical marriage to Mrs Kingshaw would not be like what he had had with Ellen, for Mrs Kingshaw would answer to him, without the niceties and the restraints, she would bridge the gap between fantasy and life.
Related Characters:
Joseph Hooper, Helena Kingshaw, Ellen Hooper
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Ellen Hooper Character Timeline in I’m the King of the Castle
The timeline below shows where the character Ellen Hooper appears in I’m the King of the Castle. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
Joseph thinks that Edmund is a lot like Ellen Hooper , Joseph’s wife, who died six years ago. Their marriage was unhappy.
(full context)