What is the relationship and significance between Charles and Laurie in the Shirley Jackson short story "Charles"?

In my
opinion, Laurie's parents are in denial about what their son has become. Laurie displays the
characteristics ofat home, and his parents ignore the behavior. Laurie is quite proud of the
tales of Charles's escapades, suggesting he is quite pleased with his own negative behavior. The
invention of Charles garners Laurie the attention he craves.

Remember that
Laurie is not the only child. He has a baby sister, and that has surely taken some of the
attention away from him. He is also a strong-willed child, as evidenced when the narrator says
he "renounced corduroy overalls with bibs." His parents are very mild-mannered and
likely don't have the first clue how to deal with a child like Laurie. They seem to have adopted
a gentle, encouraging approach to discipline when what Laurie needed was a firm hand. Consider
the first exchange with his parents after attending kindergarten:

He came home the same way, the front door slamming open, his cap on the floor, and the
voice suddenly become raucous shouting, "Isnt anybody here?" At lunch he spoke
insolently to his father, spilled his baby sisters milk, and remarked that his teacher said we
were not to take the name of the Lord in vain. "How was school today" I asked,
elaborately casual.

Notice that Laurie is not disciplined
for shouting, speaking insolently, spilling milk, or slamming the door. His mother glosses over
all of that and asks in a deliberately casual way how school was. Could it be that Laurie's
antics are all a grab for attention? When his mother still doesn't react, he comes up with a
story about Charles. It's actually a brilliant invention because he can brag about his bad
behavior without involving his parents in a talk with the teacher. It is not until the end of
the story that both the teacher and Laurie's mother figure out what he's done, because up until
that point they never communicated.

It is interesting to see the progression
of Charles. At school, he always receives a consequence for his bad behavior. Some consequences
seem mild and some are more severe, like having his mouth washed out with soap for saying a bad
word. This is in contrast to Laurie's home behavior in which he insults his father and has no
consequences.

Another possibility for why Laurie invents Charles is that he
may not want to go to school due to the fact that he is held accountable for his actions. He is
smart enough to figure out that he will not be allowed to stay in school if he is bad enough.
Consider this quote:

He kicked the teachers
friend," Laurie said. "The teachers friend told Charles to touch his toes like I just
did and Charles kicked him."

"What are they going to do about
Charles, do you suppose?" Lauries father asked him. Laurie shrugged elaborately.
"Throw him out of school, I guess," he said."

This may have been Laurie's plan all along.