Edmunds character
- Created by: Heather
- Created on: 19-03-14 18:40
View mindmap
- Edmund's character
- Background
- He is an only child or Mr Joseph Hooper,
- He is ten years old,
- He has lived with his father since his mother's death and now live in Warings,
- He goes to a boarding school called Drummonds,
- We first experience Hooper when he is about to look at his dead grandfather,
- Edmund's personality,
- He is cold and sullen and is odd for a ten year old as he makes military maps as his main hobby
- This is why he has a poor relationship with his father and is disobedient and disrespectful towards him.
- It is shown when he tells his father that 'nobody must come to Warings' and he doesn't drop it until it is too late and Kingshaw comes so it show he can't accept the word 'no' and is self-absorbed,
- Edmund is isolated and prefers to be solitary,
- This is why he has no friends and is happy with his own company,
- He makes it clear to Kingshaw that he wants to be left alone,
- Due to his isolation, he doesn't know how to be civil to others so his relationship with others is dominating and controlling.
- He seeks pleasure from making Kingshaw so unhappy and goes out of his way to torment him,
- 'As soon as the idea had come into his head, it had filled him with excitement.'
- He is a cruel and twisted individual who take pleasure in manipulating the adults into believing he is a sweet child and he has been kind to Kingshaw,
- He is unemotional and isn't afraid. He is unmoved by his grandfather's death and feels now guilt in tormenting Kingshaw to suicide. He feels 'a spurt of triumph.'
- He is not a practised bully and tormenting Kingshaw was an experiment,
- He is a coward and has his own fears but Kingshaw doesn't use them against him,
- Susan Hill describes Hooper as a misfit,
- He is cold and sullen and is odd for a ten year old as he makes military maps as his main hobby
- The reader's feelings toward Edmund Hooper
- We feel repulsed when Hooper feels a 'spurt of triumph' when he 'forced Kingshaw to suicide,
- He feels no remorse, shock or even bewilderment and we find it hard to find this, especially when the boy is 10 years old,
- Hooper has no conscience and enjoys bullying and his lack of remorse raises the possibility that evil does exist in Children like Hooper,
- Snapshots in the book remind us that he is just a child like when he is reading a monster book on the train to London which makes the taunting of Kingshaw worse,
- Novel is set in 1960s and the murder of James Bulger in Liverpool in 1994 by 2 10 year olds shows that evil does exist in children,
- it makes the reader think what will happen to society when the world falls into the hands of this generation,
- We may feel sympathy towards him as he has been shown little warmth and love in his dysfunctional family but readers and other believe children aren't born in such a way, but from the book they are,
- We never really understood Hooper's motives for the bullying of Kingshaw,
- We feel repulsed when Hooper feels a 'spurt of triumph' when he 'forced Kingshaw to suicide,
- Symbolism
- In the red room, there was the 'Death's Head Hawk Moth. As Hooper 'stretched out his hand' and touched the moth, it 'disintegrated
- The name suggests that it symbolises death
- As the moth was 'flattened and pinned' it shows Kingsahws feelings that he feels trapped and confinement by Hooper in Warings,
- It could show Kingshaw being crushed by Hooper's malice and oppression which was referred to in Chapter three by pathetic fallacy as the weather was 'very hot'.
- it creates a sense of tension and unease in the Novel and describes Hooper's situation at Warings, that he is oppressed, bounded and isolated,
- In Chapter three, there is the crow incident with Kingshaw, It is described as 'enormous, ragged black wings,.. shining black feathers' and a 'scarlet mouth.'
- The blackness of the crow show Hooper's traits that is empty and consumes all fears like a void so his morbidity,
- It shows Hooper's non-existent capacity to feel sympathy and remorse
- Hooper's blood lust is shown through the 'scarlet' insides of the crow's mouth,
- The surroundings are a juxtaposition of the 'crow's' malice and the 'butter-coloured cornstalks' gentleness which shows calm surrounded by evil,
- In the red room, there was the 'Death's Head Hawk Moth. As Hooper 'stretched out his hand' and touched the moth, it 'disintegrated
- Background
Comments
No comments have yet been made