I'm the king of the castle door Susan Hill

Summary

The story starts with the death of Edmund's grandfather, they visit him and later he dies. Mr. Hooper and Edmund went to live in the house of Edmund's grandfather. It was a big ugly house made of dark-red brick, it was called Warings, there were no other houses near it. The next day Mr. Hooper told Edmund that someone will come to look after the house because Mr. Hooper has to go to London very often. He also told him that the one who comes here to look after the house has a boy the same age as himself, he doesn't like this, he doesn't want a friend.
When the Kingshaws arrive Edmund throws a piece of paper out of the window that says: "I DID NOT WANT YOU TO COME HERE". Charles picks up the paper and he reads it, he is afraid. When the two boys first meet they have a fight because Edmund says he owns everything in the house. Charles has been at Warings now for over a week, he wants to go away from there so he decided to go to Hang wood for a walk. During the walk he sees a very big crow, the crow flies right over his head and he runs into the corn field. Charles runs a fast as he can towards the house and then suddenly he falls. The crow lands on Charles' back and he begins to scream. Edmund is standing at the window of his bedroom, watching him. Edmund teases Charles because he had been afraid of a crow. Charles finds a room on top of the corridor, and he finds dozens of dolls. He wants this room to be his. Charles hates Edmund. Mr. Hooper had told Edmund that he had to be friendly to Charles. Mrs. Kingshaw tells Charles that he had to be very polite to Mr. Hooper. When Charles meets Mr. Hooper in the main staircase Mr. Hooper told Charles that they could play a game of draughts together. After playing and after lunch Charles goes to his room, the one that can be locked. When he walks to the door he sees Edmund sitting on the floor. He asks about the room, Charles is afraid of him and he gives him the key and they enter the room. Mr. Hooper and Mrs. Kingshaw go to London for a day and Mrs. Boland will be at Warings to look after the boys. Charles makes an escape plan: he would leave very early and take some food out of the kitchen. At four o'clock he wakes up and at twenty to five he walks away. Charles was thirsty but he didn't bring any drinks with him. When he walked he heard a sound in the bushes, Edmund came out. After walking around for a while they find out they are lost. Charles hears a stream and they walk towards it. They walk next to the river and then the river changes into a pool, they went for a swim. Kingshaw had a piece of string and he used so he wouldn't get lost when he was trying to find a way out of the forest. It was getting dark and they both were sitting near the fire, Charles caught a fish but it didn't taste well. Next morning they were found. Charles hears some dogs and he hears people yelling, but he didn't want to be found. Edmund blamed Kingshaw for everything that had happened and he also told Mr. Hooper and Mrs. Kingshaw believed that Charles pushed him in the water. They believed all of this was Charles fault and Edmund just followed him. Charles says he wishes Edmund to be dead. Mrs. Kingshaw told Charles that he would go to the same school as Edmund, which wasn't St. Vincent. They went to the same school together now. Charles wanted to run away again, he ran to a shed. When he was inside the door slammed shut, and he heard the click of the padlock. Edmund closed the door, there was no light in the shed. He fell asleep. He woke up when he heard a voice call his name it was Edmund, he said he had the key and Charles started to yell at him. Later they all went on a sort of family-trip. They went to Leydell castle. It was a castle ruin and beside it was a lake. While Joseph and Helena went to the lake Edmund and Charles went to the ruin, only Charles climbed on the ruin and when he was on top of it he said:" I'M THE KING OF THE CASTLE. Charles knew he was the King, now he could easily kill Edmund because Edmund also climbed but he stuck, but he decided to help him. When Charles reached out his hand Edmund took a step backwards and fell. A lot of people came and an ambulance arrived, nobody took notice of Charles, who was still high up the ruin. Charles thought Edmund was dead, he once wished this to happen. Helena and Joseph told Charles that Edmund wasn't dead. Helena said she wanted to go to the hospital and she wanted Charles to come with her. Charles said he didn't want to visit Edmund. Charles hated the voice Helena put on talking about Joseph. Charles said to Helena he wished Edmund to be dead. Charles walked to a church and went in, he knelt down and said to God he was sorry. Suddenly someone said he wasn't supposed to pray there. It was a boy named Anthony Fielding, he knew that Charles lived with the Hoopers. Edmund was at home in his bed, he had a broken leg, two of his ribs were cracked and he had a concussion. Edmund said it was all Charles' fault. Charles was afraid of Edmund's friends when they would go to school. He had only been beaten up once in his life. Charles and Joseph go to London to buy a new school-uniform. When they came home Charles saw that Edmund was playing with his model. He was very angry to Joseph and Helena, Joseph struck him across the cheek. Helena said to Charles "You should be very ashamed of yourself". Joseph was very angry because he didn't know anything about Helena's past. Edmund told Charles that their parents were going to marry. Helena had met Mrs. Fielding, Charles didn't like this, he didn't want Anthony to come to Warings, but he did. Edmund showed Anthony the moths, Anthony wasn't afraid of them. Edmund teases Charles in front of Anthony. Anthony and Edmund walked to the farm to see a new tractor. Charles went to Edmund's room and he burned his battle chart, he was very afraid now. When Edmund came back from the Fielding's farm he didn't say anything about the disappearance of the battle chart. It was the night before the wedding and night before the 1st school day. Charles woke up, he found a piece of paper which said "Something will happen to you, Kingshaw". He had nightmares, when he woke up early in the morning he walked away into the woods. He lay down in the stream, he took deep breath and it was his last. When everyone went to look for him they all followed Edmund, he knew exactly where to look. When he saw Charles he thought: this is because of me, and he felt good about it.

Theme

- The evil that is an aspect of all people, also of children, will come to the surface under certain circumstances, and as a result a lot of harm is done.
- The lack of communication between parents and their children.

Main characters

- Edmund Hooper: 11 years old, lives at Warings together with his father Joseph. Edmund terrorizes to get him out of HIS house.
- Charles Kingshaw: 11 years old, red hair, only son of Helena Kingshaw. He is beeing terrorized by Edmund Hooper, this finally stops because Charles commits suicide.
- Mr. Joseph Hooper: 51 years old, widow, he knows he failed as a father to Edmund. He used to be an ambitious banker. He marries Edmund's mother Helena Kingshaw.
- Mrs.Helena Kingshaw: 37 years old, widow, She never realizes that Charles is beeing terrorized by Edmund, She has failed as a mother.