Characterisation of Eddie

The most important characters in the short story “Monster under the Bed” by Lezanne Clannachan are Eddie and Angie. Other characters are symbolic (the homeless man), or absent from the actual action (Lucy, Eddie’s mother, Eddie’s friends).

Eddie is the main character in the short story, whose point of view the narrator uses to illustrate the story’s themes.

According to his outer characterisation, he is fifteen years old, goes to school, and takes care of his mother because his father left them when the woman got ill. He used to have a girlfriend and a dog and used to go to football practice, but he had to give it all up because of his mother’s sickness.

Inner characterisation

Eddie’s inner characterisation is mostly constructed in relation to his mother but also through his attitude towards other characters.

Eddie’s attitude towards his mother is ambivalent. On the one hand, it is clear that he loves her, cares for her well-being, and feels responsible for her. He goes to London to buy the woman her favourite pastries for her birthday, and is worried about leaving her alone: “His mum will have finished the flask of coffee and tuna sandwiches ages ago. Worse still, she’ll be peeking through the gaps in the curtains, wondering where he is.” (ll. 80-82)

On the other hand, he is angered by the whole situation; that he has to worry about her, to give up things he loves for her, and to take care of everything for her:

It’s anger and it catches him off guard. He makes himself remember the grateful look on his mum’s face when he fetches her rug, brushes her hair, rubs her feet. What would I do without you, my boy? His anger shames him. (ll. 62-65)

Eddie is willing to make sacrifices for his mother, although these sacrifices hurt him, and isolate him from others: “ ‘Last Saturday my mum asked me to take my dog to Blackdown – this massive forest close to where we live.’ (…) ’She’s scared of anything I might love more than her.’” (ll. 110-118)

Eddie’s attitude towards the homeless man’s dog illustrates how much he misses his own dog which he had to abandon for his mother’s sake.

He feels that he owes it to his mother to help her and that nobody can truly understand his situation; not his friends, his ex-girlfriend Lucy, or Angie: “That’s what they all say. Mac and the rest of the...