The rattrap summary

In this page you can find The Rattrap Extra Questions and Answers Class 12 English Flamingo, The Rattrap Extra Questions and Answers Class 12 English Flamingo The Rattrap Extra Questions and Answers Short Answer Type Question 1. “Edla sat and hung her head even more dejectedly than usual.” Which two reasons forced her to behave in that manner? Answer: Edla was sad and upset as she had heard that a crofter of ironworks had been robbed. This led her to think that the peddler to whom she gave shelter was responsible for this misdeed. Her father also added to her doubts by saying that he had heard the peddler was a thief. Question 2. Why was the peddler surprised when he knocked at the door of the cottage? Answer: The peddler was surprised as he was not only welcomed at the night time but was also provided food and shelter. He was treated like a guest and not as a beggar. The crofter was a lonely man, he also needed company. Question 3. What made the peddler finally change his ways? Answer: The peddler changed his way of living because of the love and hospitality shown by Edla, daughter of the ironmaster. He lived a pathetic life, but when he was respected and cared, he changed his way of life. He began to live with dignity and respect. Question 4. Why did the peddler keep to the woods after leaving the crofter’s cottage? How did he feel? Answer: The peddler kept to the woods after leaving the crofter’s cottage because he wanted to avoid police. He was afraid as he had stolen ...

“The Rattrap” is a short, almost fairy-tale story that centers around the transforming power of human kindness. An unnamed peddler of rattraps goes from seeing the world as “one big rattrap” and engaging in robbery to returning his stolen money and proclaiming himself free—all as a result of experiencing true kindness and generosity from Edla Willmansson on Christmas Eve. By showing the peddler’s potential for positive change, Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf expresses a belief that there is a core of goodness in all people, and that this goodness can be unlocked through compassion and kindness. When the story opens, the homeless peddler lives a hard and opportunistic life in rural Sweden—he has never known kindness, and so he himself is unkind. As he wanders the road begging and peddling his rattraps, the only pleasure he can find is in thinking “ill” of the world by imagining it as one big rattrap, and by ruminating on other people he knows who have been “trapped.” He finds joy in other people’s misfortunes, having only known misfortune himself. The clearest example of the peddler’s initial lack of kindness comes when he takes the decidedly immoral action of stealing the crofter’s money. The crofter, an old man who lives alone, welcomes the peddler in to stay with him for the night, generously offering him food, shelter, and companionship. Over the course of the evening, the crofter boasts about having earned thirty kronor by selling his cow’s milk, and he pointedly shows t...

The Rattrap Summary In English Once there was a man who went around selling small rattraps of wire. He made them himself but his business was not profitable. So, he had to beg and steal a bit to keep himself alive. His clothes were in rags, his cheeks were sunken and hunger could be noticed in his eyes. His life was sad and monotonous. He had no company. One day, he was struck by an idea that the whole world was nothing but a big rattrap. It set baits for people by offering riches and joys, shelter and food, heat and clothing exactly as the rattrap offered cheese and pork. As soon as anyone let himself be tempted to touch the bait, the rattrap closed in on him, and then everything came to an end. One dark evening he was walking slowly with heavy steps when he saw a little gray cottage by the roadside. He knocked at the door to ask shelter for the night. The owner was an old man. He had no wife or child. He was happy to get someone to talk to in his loneliness. He served him porridge for supper and gave him tobacco for his pipe. Then he got out an old pack of cards and played “mjölis” with his guest till bed time. The host had been a crofter at Ramsjö Ironworks in his days of prosperity. He had worked on the land. Now he was unable to do day labour. It was his cow that supported him. This extraordinary cow could give milk for the creamery everyday. He informed the stranger that last month he had received all of thirty kronor in payment. The crofter showed his guest three wr...

Give a Character Sketch of Peddler, Ironmaster and Edla from Class 12 English Chapter 4 The Rattrap • • • • • • • • • Character Sketch of Peddler The peddler was a beggar who led a nomadic way of life. He was quite imaginative. He wore rags, had sunken cheeks, and his eyes gleamed from hunger. He roamed around the town selling wire rattraps that he made himself. He obtained this wire either through begging or by stealing. He possessed certain human flaws, such as the need to steal and beg to meet his basic necessities. He spent his evenings wherever he could find shelter because he had nowhere to stay during the day. He believes that the entire universe resembles a giant rat trap. It merely exists in order to attract others with bait. He believes that all wealth, happiness, food, clothing, and shelter are merely traps. The rattrap shuts on the person who touches the bait if and when he does. The Rattrap Overview - The potential of kindness and human connection to change even the most hardened and distrustful people is the central topic in Selma Lagerlof’s “The Rattrap.” The narrative chronicles the travels of an elderly vagrant who sells little rattraps. The tramp encounters several individuals along the way who, in spite of their own challenging situations, are kind and generous to him. The tramp reflects on his own life and actions as a result of this encounter, which finally inspires him to make amends and improve himself. The underlying message is that everyone is capa...

As “The Rattrap” begins, the homeless peddler is defined by his “ rattrap” philosophy of life: that the world is nothing but a big rattrap that offers “bait” in the form of luxuries and pleasures, and then ensnares and ruins anyone who reaches for this bait. This is a fundamentally cynical worldview, and one that the story ultimately undercuts by showing its limitations and offering an alternate philosophy. Though life can be harsh and cruel at times, Selma Lagerlöf suggests that being wholly cynical only leads one to isolation, immorality, and unhappiness. Instead, the story advocates for a more trusting worldview, one that takes human kindness into account and can build community between people. At the story’s beginning, the peddler is cynical and opportunistic, assuming that the world is out to get him and that he can’t trust anyone. He has lived a difficult life, and so has learned this cynicism through hard experience. The old man who lets him stay the night, however, is exceedingly trusting, welcoming the peddler into his home (whereas the peddler is used to seeing “sour faces” when he asks for shelter) and even showing him where he keeps his savings of thirty kronor. The peddler then steals the money, and feels no remorse for what he’s done—in fact, he feels “pleased with his smartness.” He assumes that the old man was foolish, and never even considers why he might have trusted the peddler, whose company the old man clearly enjoyed. Edla Willmansson is the second pe...

The Rattrap Summary in English by Selma Lagerlof The Rattrap by Selma Lagerlof About the Author Selma Lagerlof (20 November 1858 – 16 March 1940), a Swedish writer, was the first female to win a Nobel Prize in literature in 1909. Her most remembered book is ‘The Wonderful Adventures of Nils’. Initially a teacher, in 1895, she devoted herself completely to writing. She wrote several books, including novels and collection of stories such as Gosta Berling’s Saga, Invisible Links and The Miracles of the Antichrist. Author Name Selma Lagerlof Born 20 November 1858, Marbacka, Sweden Died 16 March 1940, Marbacka, Sweden Profession Writer, Teacher Movies The Enchanted Boy, The Saga of Gosta Berling The Rattrap Summary by Selma Lagerlof The Rattrap Introduction to the Chapter ‘The Rattrap’ is a story that gives us a psychological insight into human nature. The author highlights how greed for material things entraps human beings. The story upholds the belief that the essential goodness of a human being can be awakened through love and understanding. It brings into focus the idea that the world is a rattrap. Riches, joys, shelter and food are all lucrative baits to trap mankind. The Rattrap Theme The chapter, ‘The Rattrap’ covers the theme of the basic human need for companionship, and shows the negative effects of loneliness. The story stresses on the fact that most human beings are prone to fall into the trap of material benefit. The author targets the materialistic approach of the...

Buy Study Guide Thought to be one of Gösta Berling's Saga were published in a Swedish weekly publication. The story focuses on a vagabond who makes his meager living by building rat traps with bits of material he manages to beg from shopkeepers and farmers. He sells them in the towns he passes through. The rat trapper, who goes unnamed until the very end of the story (where he adopts the name of Captain von Ståhle), wears his rat traps like pendants around his neck. "The Rat Trap" was published in the original Swedish as "Råttfällan" in Lagerlöf's 1933 collection of stories, Host. The collection was then translated to English and published as Harvest two years later. The story centers around an allegory that the protagonist thinks of in the course of his travels—that the whole world is a rat trap, and that life, with all of its temptations and moments of hope, is laden with bits of "cheese" and "meat" that seduce the living onto the course of their downfall. Though its themes may not necessarily align with most children's tales, "The Rat Trap" clearly proposes a moral lesson. Lagerlöf begins the tale by depicting the protagonist's deeply cynical view that the whole world is a rat trap, but she then demonstrates how his perception is shaped largely by how he's treated by other people. In the course of the story, the protagonist encounters other lonely people in various levels of comfort and economic stability. He is the recipient of the kindness of strangers and is treated ...

Buy Study Guide Summary The story begins with Lagerlöf describing the general circumstances of the vagabond. He is a man who wanders from farm to farm, through towns and along country roads, begging, stealing, and bartering to meet his basic needs. When he is able to scrounge the materials, he makes rat traps out of wire and attempts to sell them. He wears the rat traps that haven't been sold on a string around his neck, and they hang off of him like pendants. In the course of his lonely travels, and after making many a rat trap, the vagabond has a realization about life: that life, itself, is like the rat traps he fashions. Little bits of hope and temptation here and there are like the bits of cheese that lure rats to their demise. Lagerlöf explains that the vagabond espouses this pessimistic outlook because he's lived a difficult life. After introducing the vagabond and his grim outlook on life, Lagerlöf narrows the scope of the story to a specific winter night—right before Christmas, in fact—when the vagabond comes across a crofter's cottage and knocks on the door to see if the crofter will grant him shelter. The crofter happily invites him in, and Lagerlöf explains his eagerness by telling the reader that the crofter is a widower and childless. For him, the vagabond is a chance at company and conversation, both of which he's been deprived of for a long time. The crofter makes them both a hot plate of food and cuts off a healthy chunk of tobacco from his tobacco roll, e...