The Hoopers keep their moth collection in a room called the Red Room. This is one of the most overt allusions to the English Gothic tradition: in many Gothic novels, there’s a mysterious room that only a few characters are allowed to enter (Jane Eyre is the classic example—and in fact, there’s a Red Room in Jane Eyre, too). Although Edmund finds the Red Room fairly ordinary, Charles is intimidated by it. Therefore, from Charles’s perspective, the Red Room symbolizes the austerity, mystery, and eeriness of Warings itself.
The Red Room Quotes in I’m the King of the Castle
He stretched out his hand, put his finger under the head of the pin and slid it up, out of the thick, striped body. At once, the whole moth, already years dead, disintegrated, collapsing into a soft, formless heap of dark dust.
He imagined the furry body of the moth against the pads of Hooper's fingers. He was ashamed of being so afraid, and could not help it, he only wanted to get out, to stop having to see the terrible moths. Hooper watched him. There was a moment when they both stood, quite still, waiting. Then, Hooper whipped around and pushed past Kingshaw without warning he was out of the door, turning the key sharply in the lock. After a moment, his footsteps went away down the hall. A door closed somewhere.
The Red Room Symbol Timeline in I’m the King of the Castle
