Analyse af Shirley Jacksons novelle 'Charles'

Some people like to seek attention by doing all sorts of things like singing, dancing etc. That is especially the case for children. They try to seek as much attention as possible. The kids may do all sorts of things to get your attention like creating trouble by screaming or hitting other people. This is exactly what the story "Charles" by Shirley Jackson from 1948 is about. It is about a kindergartener named Laurie who tells his parents about his daily life with his classmate, Charles, who is causing trouble for other students.

The story is mainly about three characters: The mother, the dad and Laurie/Charles. Laurie is a boy who goes to a kindergarten, which probably means he is about 6-7 years old. Laurie is a troublemaker that causes trouble for other students in his kindergarten while hiding his identity as Charles. It is heavily implied that Charles is Laurie in the ending when Laurie's kindergarten teacher says to the parents: "Charles? she said. We don't have any Charles in the kindergarten." There are also other hints that imply that Laurie is in fact Charles. When you look at the similarities between Laurie’s rude behavior at home and Charles behavior at school it makes them very similar. Laurie creates trouble for other people to get his parents attention by for example: hitting the teacher or kicking the teacher's friend. When it was almost time for the PTA meeting, he went through a reformation since it was likely that he would be exposed as Charles. He did not last long before he decided to cause trouble for other people. After 2 weeks he decided to create trouble for other people, which means he likes causing trouble for other people. But that means that his behavior changed a little because he creates less trouble for other people in the end of the story. His overall behavior is terrible since he is rude and disrespectful at home towards his parents like for example when he decided to play tricks on his dad and laughing at him. He also acts very dominant towards other people because he causes trouble for other people while knowing what will happen if he causes trouble. He has already experienced getting punished once for his actions, thus making him aware of his actions and his bad behavior. Laurie is a static character even though it may have looked like he changed a little in the end, but he decided to cause trouble for other people, therefore he remains the same as he was in the start of the story. The mother and father are bad parents since they do not care that much about Laurie since they do not comment or correct his rude behavior towards them, which may have led him to become a troublemaker to get their attention. They also give more attention to Charles than their own child, hence making him motivated to continue causing trouble for others acting as Charles to get more of their attention. Even though Laurie acts rude and disrespectful towards his parents, the parents do not care that much. This does not mean that they hate Laurie. The mother knew Charles would be a bad influence on Laurie, so she talked to her husband about what they should do, therefore giving the readers the impression that the parents does not hate completely Laurie.