In the book "The White Mountains", the Tripods control the behavior of humans by using devices that the humans call "Caps". They are metal plates which are fitted over the humans' heads and "somehow welded" (page 168) to the human's heads. I think these Caps are bigger and more powerful versions of the tracking device that is implanted in Will. So the Caps should have thousands of "tiny wires just below the surface" (page 173") which probably send out signals to the humans' brains and also to the Tripods. This lets the Tripods know what the humans are thinking and doing and also allows the Tripods to control the humans' behavior. I think when the Tripods first invaded Earth, they forced humans into wearing the Caps. Probably after many years, the Tripods made the humans create a custom that all children turning fourteen must go through a ceremony where they would be Capped. I think this was to make it easier for the Tripods to continue to Cap all humans without always having to force them because by having a human custom, the humans would not question Capping.
When Will is at the Red Castle, you can tell that he is feeling very comfortable living there but he is frustrated that the Comte, Comtesse and Eloise are Capped. In page 111, Will said "The bitter thing was that all the spirit, all the gallantry, was wasted. For even more than their inferiors, they accepted and looked forward to being Capped. It was a part of becoming a knight, or of hunting from girl to lady. Thinking of this, I saw how good things could be meaningless in isolation. What value did courage have, without a free and challenging mind to direct it?" In page 116, Will also said " And I had despised them for it-despised even, for all their kindness to me and their goodness, the Comte and Comtesse." I think that Will feels that even though the Comte, Comtesse and Eloise are kind and good hearted, they are still Capped and brainwashed, and obey the Tripods' commands no matter what. He is shocked and frustrated that the Comte and Comtesse would allow Eloise, their only daughter, to go away to serve the Tripods. "They had, as I knew, deeply missed their sons, sent away for a few years only to learn knighthood in another household. And this was their daughter, whom they loved perhaps more dearly still, and she was to go to the Tripods and never return ... and all day long I had seen them happy and rejoicing. It was monstrous." (page 135-136) Will is also shocked that Eloise is so happy to leave hr family and him to go to the Tripods. "Her words shocked me, but the look on her face was more shocking still. It was a kind of rapt devotion, the expression of someone who hugs in secret her heart's desire." (page 135). In page 136, Will says "She had forgotten me already, in any sense that truly mattered. All her mind was concentrated on the Tripods. Her masters had called, and she was going to them gladly." He is so shocked and frustrated that the Comte, Comtesse and Eloise don't even want to disobey the Tripods that he finally decides to leave the Castle even though he is so comfortable there.
It seems that Will's feelings about being Capped change a few times in the book. At first he doesn't seem to care about being Capped. "One did not think much about things connected with the Cappings" (page 10). He thinks it is normal for everyone to be Capped once they turn 14 years old so he doesn't have any feelings about it. But he starts to have doubts after seeing the changes in Jack after he has been Capped. "Why should the Tripods take people away, and Cap them? What right have they? ... But I don't see why it has to happen. I'd sooner stay as I am." (page 18) After learning about being Capped from Ozymandias, Will started hating being Capped. In page 39, Will says "And I knew that I would rather die than wear a Cap." This makes him decide to run away from Wherton.But later, when Will is living comfortably at the Castle of the Red Tower and is asked to stay by the Comtesse, he changes his mind about being Capped. He sees that you can be Capped and still be happy. "And the better I knew them, the harder it was to make a sweeping condemnation. They were Capped, they accepted the Tripods and all they stood for, but that did not prevent them from being, as I had seen in the Comte and Comtesse and Eloise and now in others, warmhearted, generous and brave. And happy." (page 122) Will tries to find reasons to accept being Capped. He asks himself, what was so bad about being Capped? "Before Capping there might be doubts and uncertainties and revulsion; perhaps these people had known them, too. When the Cap was put on, the doubts vanished. How great a loss was that? Was it a loss at all? The Tripods, apart from the act of Capping itself, did not seem to interfere much with men." (page 123) In page 125, Will thinks "If our ancestors, with all their strength, had failed, how pitiful was the defiance of a few men clinging to the slopes of barren mountains. And if there was no hope of defeating them, what were the true alternatives? To live wretchedly, like a hunted animal, suffering hardship and despair-or this life, with its fullness and security and happiness." This shows the doubts in Will about whether it's worth fighting the Tripods. But Will's feelings change again when Eloise tells him that she will go away forever to serve the Tripods. He is shocked that she and her parents can happily allow such a terrible thing to happen.
I think deep down, Will really doesn't want to be Capped at all. Will said in page 111, "Thinking of this, I saw how good things could be meaningless in isolation. What value did courage have, without a free and challenging mind to direct it?" That proves that he really wants to have freedom and that he wants to think freely and also live a good and free life.
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