41 pages • 1 hour read
The Ickabog
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Themes
A Study in Bad Government
By the end of the novel, the citizens of Cornucopia depose their king. They are soured on the concept of monarchy for good reason because they have been ruled by a vain fool who thinks more of his wardrobe than he does of the wellbeing of his subjects:
King Fred the Fearless came to the throne on a huge wave of popularity. He had lovely yellow curls, a fine sweeping moustache, and looked magnificent in the tight breeches, velvet doublets, and ruffled shirts that rich men wore at the time. Fred was said to be generous, smiled and waved whenever anyone caught sight of him, and looked awfully handsome in the portraits that were distributed throughout the kingdom, to be hung in town halls (9).
Superficially, King Fred looks the part of a king, which seems to carry great weight with his people. Because Cornucopia is a prosperous region, no test of leadership is required until a national crisis occurs. It is Fred’s desire to be seen as a great ruler that sends him to the Marshlands to confront the monster in the first place. The tragedy that ensues might be a good test of character for an able monarch, but Fred fails at every turn. When confronted with the opportunity to do the right thing, the king falters:
King Fred fingered the heavy gold medal. Though he said nothing, he was undergoing a silent struggle. Fred’s honesty had piped up […]. But Fred’s cowardice blustered louder than his honesty […]. And Fred’s vanity spoke loudest of all (87-88).
The author’s depiction of this particular king might also serve as an indictment of the institution of kingship itself. Placing absolute power in the hands of a single man is an invitation to catastrophe. Any personal weakness can be easily exploited to benefit craftier men, and Lord Spittleworth steps into the role of shadow monarch with Fred none the wiser. Both Fred and Spittleworth share an appalling lack of concern for anybody but themselves. In depicting their failings so clearly, the author is teaching an important lesson about the role of government in people’s lives. Governments are meant to exist for the benefit of the people. A king ought to consider himself the servant of his subjects. Cornucopia only averts complete disaster by learning this lesson in the nick of time. Fred eventually does become the servant of the angry Ickaboggle, and the people discover the advantages of ruling themselves.
The Lifecycle of Greed and Duplicity
While the book emphasizes the theme of bad government in the person of King Fred, it also examines the tactics of the underlings who exploit his weakness for their gain. Spittleworth and Flapoon use greed and duplicity to feather their own nests at the kingdom’s expense. At the novel’s beginning, the two lords have already installed themselves as the king’s confidantes. They work in tandem to corroborate one another’s views so that the king has no reason to suspect everything in his kingdom isn’t as it should be. Their lies encircle and isolate Fred from reality, but initially, none of their stories are damaging enough to cause actual harm. That situation changes after Flapoon accidentally shoots Beamish. Spittleworth spins his first major lie by scapegoating the Ickabog for the attack.
To make his story stick, his lordship needs to enlist additional helpers. The only way to ensure the underlings’ loyalty is to threaten them with punishment or offer them a reward. Spittleworth wisely realizes how to appeal to a bully like Roach: “Spittleworth pressed the sword into Roach’s large hands. The newly promoted major looked down at its jeweled hilt, and a cruel and crafty smile to match Spittleworth’s own spread over his face” (59). Roach becomes the enabler for most of the terror tactics that Spittleworth will use later in the book. The major is interested in gaining prestige and wealth and knows that aligning himself with Spittleworth will make that possible.
Ma Grunter makes much the same decision. She takes in orphans for a price, no questions asked. As the country grows poorer and parents die of starvation, more orphans come to her. She isn’t concerned about the plight of the children. Like the two lords and Roach, she is only concerned with feathering her own nest:
The gold she received for each child had now made Ma Grunter’s private rooms in the orphanage some of the most luxurious in Cornucopia, with a blazing fire and deep velvet armchairs, thick silk rugs, and a bed with soft woolen blankets. Her table was always provided with the finest food and wine (197).
All the greedy individuals in the book fail to see that their schemes will eventually fail because they can’t control the whole world. Spittleworth tries murder, abduction, and censorship to contain the situation he has created but finds himself in a losing battle with the truth. “Lies upon lies upon lies. Once you started lying, you had to continue, and then it was like being captain of a leaky ship, always plugging holes in the side to stop yourself sinking” (233). Spittleworth’s ship of lies will sink along with everyone who joined his nefarious crew. The downside of being motivated by greed is that one trades a short-term gain for long-term pain.
Asserting Hope Over Fear
All the characters in the novel are given a choice to assert hope over fear. This same option is presented repeatedly, but many characters fail to understand the benefit of choosing love over hate. The people of Cornucopia have feared the Ickabog for generations. They don’t even try to make sense of their superstitions but immediately think that the only solution is to kill the beast. This general atmosphere of paranoia allows Spittleworth to exploit the citizens’ fear to his own advantage. He is able to levy more taxes and pocket most of the money because people will pay anything to have soldiers protect them from their unseen enemy. He uses this same tactic against King Fred before the latter becomes too inquisitive about the state of his country. Spittleworth himself operates on the level of fear all the time. He is afraid that he can never accumulate enough wealth. He is afraid that his web of lies will be discovered and that someone will discover the fate of those he has murdered or abducted
Daisy is the one character who most clearly embodies the opposite principle of hope. When she is shut up in the orphanage and Ma Gunter declares that her father is dead, Daisy refuses to believe it: “She had to believe her father was still there. She couldn’t let herself doubt it, because if her father was dead, then all light would disappear from the world, forever” (123). The girl struggles for years to keep the flame of hope alive. Eventually, she transmits this same desire for hope to the Ickabog, too: “If I die sad and hopeless […], my babies won’t survive. I’ve watched my fellow Ickabogs die in despair, one by one, and their babies survived them only by seconds. An Ickabog can’t live without hope” (221). Daisy points out that humans can’t live without hope either. She convinces the Ickabog to embrace hope about humanity instead of fear. This transformation ultimately rekindles a spark of hope in all the people of Cornucopia. The author says:
Whether people were really Bornded from Ickabogs, I cannot tell you. Perhaps we go through a kind of Bornding when we change, for better or for worse. All I know is that countries, like Ickabogs, can be made gentle by kindness, which is why the kingdom of Cornucopia lived happily ever after (272).
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