Victimisation is one of the main themes in "I"m the King of the Castle", written by Susan Hill. Here we know that a victim is someone who is being bullied by an individual or groups of individuals, and this can be done either emotionally or physically, or both. A very clear example to show this is in the case of Charles Kingshaw, who is the evident victim of bullying by Edmund Hooper. The novel shows us that an individual could also become a victim of non-physical factors, like the environment and circumstances he is in, and of his societal, family and personal expectations. This would be shown in the case of the other three characters, Edmund Hooper, Mr Joseph Hooper and Mrs Helena Kingshaw. I personally feel that Charles Kingshaw was the most obvious victim in this novel, as we trace all the incidents of victimisation carried out on him in this novel which led to his tragic death in the end. .
However, it is not doing justice to the novel if readers were to only take notice of Charles Kingshaw's victimised situation. Readers should consider how the other characters are exploited under certain circumstances and by different kinds of expectations they faced as well, thus becoming the silent victims themselves.
"I DONT WANT YOU TO COME HERE." This was where the tale of Charles Kingshaw's destruction all began. Right after Kingshaw had arrived at the Warings house, he received a warning note from Edmund Hooper telling him that he was totally unwelcomed there. Hooper's hostile behaviour towards him immediately threatened him and made him feel awful. Kingshaw was constantly victimised by Hooper through psychological warfare. When the two boys met each other for the first time, Kingshaw was lied to by Hooper about the bed he slept in. According to Hooper, that was Hooper's grandfather's death bed. As Kingshaw could not detect this lie, he would be scared all the time and "could not stop thinking about Hooper's grandfather, lying dead.
