TEACHERS’ NOTES
A
Literary and language study
(Text types like anthropomorphic stories and personification); register (formal
and informal); literary devices like onomatopoeia, irony, euphemism, metaphor
etc.)
1 Text types
Recognising and producing
LANGUAGE TASK: literary study, vocabulary extension and writing.
a)Match the following text types and their definitions, and complete the
grid below.
First do the ones you are absolutely sure of, and then look the others up in a
dictionary.
1. A trailer
2. An anthropomorphic story
3.
4.
5.
6.
A ditty
A blurb
An epic
A fairy tale
7. A review
8. A myth
1
2
3
a. a children’s story in which magical things
happen
b. a short quote from a book or film, putting it
in a positive light
c. an ancient story about gods and goddesses
d. a story full of brave action and excitement
e. a tale of animals with human qualities
f. an advert for a film or TV show consisting of
small pieces in it
g. an article that gives a judgement about a
book, film, play etc.
h. a short simple song
4
5
6
7
8
4
b
5
d
6
a
7
g
8
c
[KEY for the teacher]
1
f
2
e
3
h
b) Afterwards sit in groups and come up with a good sentence and/or
paragraph, which puts each word in an appropriate context.
(You may use the dictionary to a certain extent here, but you must avoid copying
and pasting).
c) Think of other examples of anthropomorphic tales.
(Note for the teacher: like Mickey Mouse, Chicken Run, Alice in Wonderland, 101
Dalmatians …)
Discuss if they are truly anthropomorphic tales or a mixture of animals
and real people.
d) LANGUAGE TASK: reading (skimming and scanning), speaking, writing +
language study

Read the review and underline at least 4 reasons why the critic (dis)likes
the production/adaptation. Afterwards, summarise the critic’s point of view
and report it back to the rest of the class.
Ian Brown, making a speedy return as director to the West Yorkshire Playhouse in which he
left just this year after more than a decade at its artistic helm, comes within a mole’s whisker
of achieving that formidable goal.
His Wind in the Willows faithfully evokes a kinder, gentler world – a land of lost content –
where financiers wrote wistful tales of riparian japes as opposed to trading unfathomable
credit derivatives and bankrupting whole continents.
Author Kenneth Grahame continued to work as secretary of the Bank of England for much of
his writing career but an extraordinary shooting incident in which he was gunned down
inside the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street by a “socialist lunatic” prompted him into
publishing these enduring Edwardian fables which he based on the bed time stories he told
his sickly young, partially-sighted son, Mouse.
They are an extraordinary testimony to a father’s love in an age we tend to consider to be
emotionally barren – especially for men - and Alan Bennett’s 1990 adaption for the National
Theatre has become a modern classic, artfully and amusingly exploring Grahame’s hankering
for the disappeared world of his childhood idyll beside the Thames.
There is as much fun here for adults as there is for children. Mr Toad is one of the great comic
creations – lovable and annoying by equal measure – and Paul Kemp is completely squat and
delightful in the role. Jack Lord is top hole as Ratty and while it is impossible to fault any of
the cast I particularly enjoyed Tom Jude’s much put upon Brummie horse Albert. An
imaginative revolving set allows the action to process by a variety of means of transport river, caravan, car and train whilst neatly bringing us back to the cosy warmth of the animals’
burrows.
But it is the music which really glues the various strands together. The players do not miss a
note and the ensemble pieces bringing together honking saxophones, violin, banjo and voice
are particularly enjoyable.
The final confrontation between our furry heroes and the evil, debauched weasels of the Wild
Wood is a frenetic affair that spills from the stage and rages high up into the seats of the
Quarry theatre. Brown made the Christmas show a centrepiece of the Playhouse’s calendar
and this is a fitting swansong to his tenure.

Now write your own review of between 100 and 120 words (ex 9.2 c)
e) Persuasive text LANGUAGE TASK: communicative skills (esp. writing)
+ linguistic skills (vocabulary, grammar, appropriate structures for
persuasion); register
Write an e-mail to a friend to persuade them to buy the DVD for a friend
whose birthday comes up next week. Choose the adaptation that YOU
prefer (either the Monty Python version, or the one with Matt Lucas).
Give a few reasons why the birthday boy or girl will like it. Use as many
arguments as possible.
The e-mail should be between 100 and 120 words and may be informal,
but you must use full words and cannot use the language of texting or
twitter.
f) Interview (clip from Monty Python’s Special features)
Before watching the interview, think of at least three questions you
would like to ask the actors in the film.
2. Literary devices
2.1 Onomatopoeia
a) Complete the definition:
Onomatopoeia is the use of words that ………………………….….like the things that
they are describing, e.g. ‘hiss’ or ‘boom’.
b) Look at the following list of verbs and underline the ones that are
onomatopoeic.
Twittering – jump – sweep – chuckle – growl – knock – taste - Poop Poop! –
shrieking – insure – muffled – staring – sighs – rattle – smell – gulp – banging –
snoring – whinge – look – burp – croak – see – wait – mutter – boink
c) Now try to imitate those that are onomatopoeic.
d) Watch another scene from the Matt Lucas version of the film, and have a good
look at the subtitles. Write down 4 or 5 more examples.
2.2 Register
a) Again complete the definition
Register is the language sty……………….……that is used in a particular
situation and by people of a particular backgr………………………………..
b) Put the following words in the correct category of register. Some will belong
to more than one of these categories
Colloquial
/slang
Nincompoop
Transgressions
Myopic
Habiliments
Ditties
Contrition
Bigotry/Bigoted
Ta ta
Putrid
Oh blow!
Formal
Educated
Archaic/Oldfashioned
LANGUAGE TASK Communicative skills (speaking) and linguistic skills
(vocabulary)

Look at the picture and describe the scene in detail.
Who is in it?
What are they doing?
Make a list of all the objects you see here.
Use as much of the newly acquired vocabulary as possible.

Recreate some of the dialogue which you heard on the CD and watched
in the film to go with this picture.
B
Some more suggestions
1 ADJECTIVES, ADJECTIVAL PHRASES AND ADVERBS
From reproduction and transfer to language task
1.1
Check the grammar section of your course book and explain the
difference between an ADJECTIVE and an ADVERB.
How would you normally recognise an adverb?
1.2 Read the following extract and say if the highlighted words are
adjectives or adverbs
As he sat on the grass and looked across the river, a dark hole in the bank
opposite, just above the water's edge, caught his eye, and dreamily he fell to
considering what a nice snug dwelling-place it would make for an animal with
few wants and fond of a bijou riverside residence, above flood level and remote
from noise and dust. As he gazed, something bright and small seemed to
twinkle down in the heart of it, vanished, then twinkled once more like a tiny
star. But it could hardly be a star in such an unlikely situation; and it was too
glittering and small for a glow-worm. Then, as he looked, it winked at him, and
so declared itself to be an eye; and a small face began gradually to grow up
round it, like a frame round a picture. A brown little face, with whiskers. A
grave round face, with the same twinkle in its eye that had first attracted his
notice. Small neat ears and thick silky hair. It was the Water Rat! Then the
two animals stood and regarded each other cautiously.
ADJECTIVES:
ADVERBS:
NOTE: one of them is an exception to the rule. Which one?
[Answer: ‘unlikely’ ends in –ly, but is an adjective.]
1.3 Pick out all the adjectives and adverbs you can find and list them
on the sheet below:
'Hullo, Mole!' said the Water Rat.
'Hullo, Rat!' said the Mole
'Would you like to come over?' inquired the Rat presently.
'O, it's all very well to talk,' said the Mole, rather pettishly, he being new
to a river and river-side life and its ways.
The Rat said nothing, but stooped and unfastened a rope and hauled on it; then
lightly stepped into a little boat which the Mole had not observed. It was painted
blue outside and white within, and was just the size for two animals; and the
Mole's whole heart went out to it at once, even though he did not yet fully
understand its uses.
The Rat sculled smartly across and made fast. Then he held up his forepaw as
the Mole stepped gingerly down. `Lean on that!' he said. `Now then, step lively!'
and the Mole to his surprise and rapture found himself actually seated in the
stern of a real boat.
`This has been a wonderful day!' said he, as the Rat shoved off and took to the
sculls again. `Do you know, I've never been in a boat before in all my life.'
`What?' cried the Rat, open-mouthed: `Never been in a -- you never -- well I - what have you been doing, then?'
`Is it so nice as all that?' asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite prepared
to believe it as he leant back in his seat and surveyed the cushions, the oars, the
rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings, and felt the boat sway lightly under
him.
`Nice? It's the only thing,' said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for
his stroke. `Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing -- absolute nothing -half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,' he
went on dreamily: `messing -- about -- in -- boats; messing -- -- '
`Look ahead, Rat!' cried the Mole suddenly.
It was too late. The boat struck the bank full tilt. The dreamer, the joyous
oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his heels in the air.
` -- about in boats -- or with boats,' the Rat went on composedly, picking
himself up with a pleasant laugh. `In or out of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing
seems really to matter, that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether
you don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach
somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy,
and you never do anything in particular; and when you've done it there's always
something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you'd much better not.
Look here! If you've really nothing else on hand this morning, supposing we drop
down the river together, and have a long day of it?'
The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with a sigh
of full contentment, and leaned back blissfully into the soft cushions. `What a
day I'm having!' he said. `Let us start at once!'
ADJECTIVES
ADVERBS
1.4 Summarise the scene in your own words and pay special attention
to the use of adjectives and adverbs. You may use some that appear in
the text, but try to use at least three or four which are new to you.
The summary should be between 120 and 140 words.
[NOTE: In testing, e.g. at the exam, choose a different passage from the book,
and use a similar instruction].
2
PUNCTUATION EXERCISE
Punctuate the following extract from The Wind in the Willows.
Remember the following important rules:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Indent for new paragraphs and new speakers.
New lines for new speakers and new paragraphs.
Inverted commas for new speakers at the beginning and end of speech
Capital letters for proper nouns (People and Places)
when toad heard them talk in so kind and sympathetic a way and knew that he
was not recognised, his courage began to revive, and he cautiously opened first
one eye and then the other look said one of the gentlemen she is better already
the fresh air is doing her good how do you feel now maam thank you kindly sir
said toad in a feeble voice im feeling a great deal better that's right said the
gentleman now keep quite still and above all dont try to talk i wont said toad i
was only thinking if i might sit on the front seat there beside the driver where i
could get the fresh air full in my face i should soon be all right again what a very
sensible woman said the gentleman of course you shall so they carefully helped
toad into the front seat beside the driver and on they went again
toad was almost himself again by now he sat up looked about him and tried to
beat down the tremors the yearnings the old cravings that rose up and beset him
and took possession of him entirely it is fate he said to himself why strive why
struggle and he turned to the driver at his side please sir he said i wish you
would kindly let me try and drive the car for a little ive been watching you
carefully and it looks so easy and so interesting and i should like to be able to tell
my friends that once i had driven a motor-car the driver laughed at the proposal
so heartily that the gentleman inquired what the matter was when he heard he
said, to toads delight bravo maam i like your spirit let her have a try and look
after her she wont do any harm
From The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
Chapter 10 The Further Adventures of Toad
[For the teacher ]:
PUNCTUATION EXERCISE CRIB
When Toad heard them talk in so kind and sympathetic a way, and knew that
he was not recognised, his courage began to revive, and he cautiously opened
first one eye and then the other.
`Look!' said one of the gentlemen, `she is better already. The fresh air is
doing her good. How do you feel now, ma'am?'
`Thank you kindly, Sir,' said Toad in a feeble voice, `I'm feeling a great deal
better!'
`That's right,' said the gentleman. `Now keep quite still, and, above all, don't
try to talk.'
`I won't,' said Toad. `I was only thinking, if I might sit on the front seat
there, beside the driver, where I could get the fresh air full in my face, I should
soon be all right again.'
`What a very sensible woman!' said the gentleman. `Of course you shall.' So
they carefully helped Toad into the front seat beside the driver, and on they went
again.
Toad was almost himself again by now. He sat up, looked about him, and
tried to beat down the tremors, the yearnings, the old cravings that rose up and
beset him and took possession of him entirely.
`It is fate!' he said to himself. `Why strive? why struggle?' and he turned to
the driver at his side.
`Please, Sir,' he said, `I wish you would kindly let me try and drive the car
for a little. I've been watching you carefully, and it looks so easy and so
interesting, and I should like to be able to tell my friends that once I had driven
a motor-car!'
The driver laughed at the proposal, so heartily that the gentleman inquired what
the matter was. When he heard, he said, to Toad's delight, `Bravo, ma'am! I like
your spirit. Let her have a try, and look after her. She won't do any harm.'
From The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame
Chapter 10, The Further Adventures of Toad
1.5
READING and VOCABULARY (Homework)
NAME:
Look the highlighted words up in your dictionary and write down their
definition and the specific meaning here in this particular context.
The Rat got hold of a scull and shoved it under the Mole's arm; then he did the
same by the other side of him and, swimming behind, propelled the helpless
animal to shore, hauled him out, and set him down on the bank, a squashy,
pulpy lump of misery. When the Rat had rubbed him down a bit, and wrung
some of the wet out of him, he said, `Now, then, old fellow! Trot up and down
the towing-path as hard as you can, till you're warm and dry again, while I dive
for the luncheon-basket.' So the dismal Mole, wet without and ashamed within,
trotted about till he was fairly dry, while the Rat plunged into the water again,
recovered the boat, righted her and made her fast, fetched his floating property
to shore by degrees, and finally dived successfully for the luncheon-basket and
struggled to land with it. When all was ready for a start once more, the Mole,
limp and dejected, took his seat in the stern of the boat; and as they set off, he
said in a low voice, broken with emotion, `Ratty, my generous friend! I am very
sorry indeed for my foolish and ungrateful conduct. My heart quite fails me when
I think how I might have lost that beautiful luncheon-basket. Indeed, I have
been a complete ass, and I know it. Will you overlook it this once and forgive
me, and let things go on as before?'
That's all right, bless you!' responded the Rat cheerily. `What's a little wet to a
Water Rat? I'm more in the water than out of it most days. Don't you think any
more about it; and, look here! I really think you had better come and stop with
me for a little time. It's very plain and rough, you know -- not like Toad's house
at all -- but you haven't seen that yet; still, I can make you comfortable. And I'll
teach you to row, and to swim, and you'll soon be as handy on the water as any
of
us.
The Mole was so touched by his kind manner of speaking that he
could find no voice to answer him; and he had to brush away a tear or two with
the back of his paw. But the Rat kindly looked in another direction, and presently
the Mole's spirits revived again, and he was even able to give some straight
back-talk to a couple of moorhens who were sniggering to each other about his
bedraggled appearance.
When
they got home, the Rat made a bright fire in the parlour, and planted the Mole in
an arm-chair in front of it, having fetched down a dressing-gown and slippers for
him, and told him river stories till supper-time. Very thrilling stories they were,
too, to an earth-dwelling animal like Mole. Stories about weirs, and sudden
floods, and leaping pike, and steamers that flung hard bottles -- at least bottles
were certainly flung, and from steamers, so presumably by them; and about
herons, and how particular they were whom they spoke to; and about
adventures down drains, and night-fishings with Otter, or excursions far a-field
with Badger. Supper was a most cheerful meal; but very shortly afterwards a
terribly sleepy Mole had to be escorted upstairs by his considerate host, to the
best bedroom, where he soon laid his head on his pillow in great peace and
contentment, knowing that his new-found friend the River was lapping the sill of
his window. This day was only the first of many similar ones. He learnt to swim
and to row, and entered into the joy of running water; and with his ear to the
reed-stems he caught, at intervals, something of what the wind went whispering
so constantly among them.
1.6
SPEAKING and VOCABULARY
LANGUAGE TASK
Suppose you were on a day out in the country.
Tell the rest of the class how you would like to spend your time (e.g.
having a picnic on the river bank). What would you take with you, and
describe your day. This should be between 150 and 200 words.
You may rely on vocabulary you have learnt from the homework.
1.7 A few suggestions for Comprehension Questions for Written work
or Discussion
1. In "The River Bank" what was it that enticed Mole into the open air? Why was
he so enchanted by the outdoors?
2. What kind of person is Water Rat? What things are especially important to
him?
3. How does Grahame make the reader visualise what the Wild Wood is like?
Why would he pick these particular details to set the scene? What effect did he
attempt to create by including them?
4. Toad does not seem to be someone who is content with his life. Why is he not
content to stick with one hobby? What is it about the yellow gypsy cart, and then
the automobile, that attracts him?
5. Discuss the symbolism of food in the book. What symbolizes home to you?
6. Do you believe Toad's change of attitude at the end of the book will last?
Why or why not?
7. What is it about the Badger's nature that makes him dislike Society?
8. Discuss the author's point of view on adventure. What is its purpose? What
type of adventure does he find most suitable?
9. What moral lessons do you think the author was trying to teach his son
through these characters? Which, do you believe, is the most valuable?
10. Do you think Mole did the right thing by preventing Rat from leaving home
to travel with the Sea Rat? At what point does helping a friend cross the line
into controlling a friend's actions?
11. Why would Grahame use creatures like weasels and stoats to be the ones
who take over Toad Hall?
12. Why did Toad's father tell Badger not to tell his son about the secret tunnel
under Toad Hall? When did he say that it would be all right to tell Toad about
the passage?
13. How does the seafaring rat differ from Ratty?
14.What does Mole learn about the history of the Wild Wood from Mr. Badger?
15. Grahame discusses a particular seasonal event in the chapter "Wayfarers
All." What is it and how does he feel about it?
C
SOME FURTHER TEACHERS’ DOCUMENTS
Many of the following documents will come in handy if you choose to
develop this more and use it for Research Competence
(ONDERZOEKSCOMPETENTIE).
1
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kenneth Grahame was born March 8, 1859, in Edinburgh, Scotland, to
Cunningham and Bessie Ingles Grahame. When he was four, the Grahame
family moved to a new home in the country. Grahame's happiness in his new
surroundings was short-lived; the following year his mother died of scarlet
fever several weeks after giving birth to his brother, Harold. The four
Grahame children went to live with their maternal grandmother at her home
on the banks of the Thames River near the village of Cookham Dene.
Kenneth was deeply affected by the loss of his mother and the absence of his
father, who frequently left the children for long periods of time. By the time
he was seven, his father went to France and abandoned his family for good.
Although Grahame, who had always been a good student, had high hopes of
studying at Oxford, his tight-fisted uncles took him out of school when he
was sixteen. He became a clerk in the Bank of England that same year. He
also became involved with several important literary groups in London and,
over the next fifteen years, shared the company of influential intellectuals
and writers such as Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, John Ruskin, and
William Morris.
He became friends with Frederick James Furnivall, who organized many
literary groups, among them the New Shakespeare Society, of which
Grahame was the secretary from 1880-1891.
Furnival encouraged Grahame to concentrate on his essays rather than on
his poetry. William E. Henley, the editor of the National Review and later of
the New Review, regularly published Grahame's work and later helped him to
get his essays published in the collections Pagan Papers (1893) and The
Golden Age (1895). In 1894, Grahame was one of the writers who helped
establish the famous magazine, the Yellow Book, which had Aubrey
Beardsley as its most notable illustrator. In 1898 Grahame published his final
collection of essays, Dream Days. Most important to those interested in The
Wind in the Willows are Grahame's essay/sketches about a nine-year-old
boy, Harold, and his brothers and sisters, pieces that reflect Grahame's
fascination with childhood: its imaginative freedom and power, its joy, and
the power of a child to create fantasy worlds unrestrained by the rationality
of the adult world.
In 1899 when Grahame was forty, he married Elspeth Thomson. Their only
child, Alistair (nicknamed Mouse), was born the following year. The little boy
suffered from seriously impaired vision his entire life. In 1906, the family
moved from London to Cookham Dene, where Grahame had lived between
the ages of five and seven. On his son's fourth birthday, Grahame began
telling him the bedtime stories that would later become The Wind in the
Willows.
At the age of six, Alistair had created his own magazine, to which Grahame
contributed "Berties' Escapade," the first rendition of the "Dulce Domum"
chapter in The Wind in the Willows. The main animal characters in this short
story were all pets of the Grahame family; the Stones were their neighbours,
and the mole was an animal that held particular fascination for Mouse.
Alistair died tragically at the age of nineteen, just after passing his entrance
examinations for Oxford University.
Grahame retired from the Bank of England in 1907 at the age of forty-eight,
and, although he lived until 1932, The Wind in the Willows remained his only
novel.
Kenneth Grahame (March 8, 1859 – July 6, 1932) was a Scottish novelist.
Grahame was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He is most famous for writing The
Wind in the Willows (1908), one of the classics of children's literature and
originally written for his son Alastair who shared the waywardness of Toad of
Toad Hall (a principal character). Grahame also wrote the children's story
"The Reluctant Dragon," which is included in the collection Dream Days.
Grahame was orphaned as a child and went to live with his grandmother in
England. He was an outstanding student at St Edward's School in Oxford and
wanted to attend Oxford University but was not allowed to do so by his
guardian on grounds of cost. Instead he was sent to work at the Bank of
England which he did until retiring as Secretary of the Bank of England in
1907 due to ill health. He was shot during an unsuccessful bank robbery a
few years earlier, which may have precipitated his retirement.
His marriage was unhappy. His son Alastair (Grahame's only child) was born
blind in one eye and was plagued by health problems throughout his short
life; Alastair Grahame eventually committed suicide on a railway track in
Oxford while an undergraduate at the university, two days before his 20th
birthday. Out of respect for Kenneth's feelings Alistair's demise was recorded
as an accidental death.
Kenneth Grahame died in Pangbourne, Berkshire, England. He is buried in
Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, near the grave of the American expatriate author
James Blish
2
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
Grahame was born during the Victorian Era, when the British Empire was at
its peak. Its financial institutions were strong and stable. Their manufacturing
industries were ever-growing. However, right about the time the first major
tragedies were occurring in Grahame's life—the death of his mother at age
five and his father's desertion of his family when Grahame was eight—Britain
found that its stable roots were being shaken. The Crimean war with Russia
from 1854 to 1856 had already cast doubt on England's military strength.
Threats of war with Germany, France, Russia, and even the United States
compromised overall confidence in the Empire.
British society was also stressed by unrest and fluctuation. In 1870,
educational reform brought literacy to the working classes, allowing them to
expand their awareness within the political, intellectual, and literary arenas,
shifting focus and power away from the old land-owning families. The Trade
Union Amendment Act of 1876 gave legal sanction to trade unions, leading to
dissatisfaction among industries and major strikes in the 1880s and 1890s.
In the beginning of the twentieth century, labourers found a major political
voice with the formation of the Labour Party, which is still one of the two
main political parties in England to this day. Education reform continued with
the founding of the Worker's Education Association in 1903. The roots of the
Irish independence movement were also established around this time.
The women's movement contributed to this period of social upheaval.
Britain's male-dominated society, though oppressive to half of the
population, had maintained a certain amount of stability in the early part of
the Victorian age. When liberation organizations established themselves, like
the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies in 1897, the Woman's
Social and Political Union in 1903, and the Women's Freedom League in
1908, the male-dominated status quo began to break down.
Changes were occurring throughout England, not just in the cities and
industrial areas, but also in the countryside. The rural life was diminishing as
urbanization spread. According to Peter Hunt in The Wind in the Willows: A
Fragmented Arcadia, the last three decades of the nineteenth century saw
Britain's cultivated land reduce by half. Railroad lines crisscrossed England as
well as roadways, with the automobile becoming more and more popular. Not
only was the countryside disappearing, but it was becoming less pristine and
much more easily accessible.
Hunt suggests that all these changes gave rise to a nostalgic attitude toward
the Victorian life-style that was reflected in some of the literature of the
times: "the post-Romantic fashions of the Victorian age became more and
more 'precious' and, by Victorian standards, corrupt." He goes on to explain
that these writers "would look 'inward' but they also looked out to the
countryside, to an Arcadian past. . . ."
Grahame was among these writers. As Kuznets quotes in her article
"Kenneth Grahame and Father Nature, or Whither Blows The Wind in the
Willows?" Grahame once said to his Scribner's editor that he wanted to write
a book that was "free of problems, clear of the clash of sex." Grahame
certainly had his share of problems in his lifetime, not only during his
childhood, but also later with an unhappy marriage, and a nearly blind son.
The Wind in the Willows was a window to a simpler place and a simpler life: a
life "clear of the clash of sex," and thus no unhappy marriages and no
women's movements disrupting a male-dominated society; a life "free of
problems," where children don't have disabilities, and where a child may
sometimes get lost but is found again through the help of a magical piper; a
place where there are no wars, but only the occasional skirmishes with
Stoats and Weasels, who are repentant enough the next morning to get pats
on the head; most importantly, a place where a small riverbank community
is still intact, pristine, and buffered from the world at large by an untamed
wood.
3
SETTING
The Wind in the Willows is set in the English countryside along the banks of
the River in a locale similar to that of Cookham Dene. Mole leaves his
underground home and moves in with Water Rat whose snug burrow fronts
the River.
Nearby, at Toad Hall, lives the wealthy and eccentric Toad whose elegant
country estate has been handed down to successive generations of Toads.
Within walking distance is the mysterious Wild Wood, once the site of a large
city but now overgrown with a dense stand of trees and inhabited by hostile
creatures such as weasels and stoats. The Wild Wood is also the place where
the level-headed Mr. Badger makes his home. The setting is clearly pastoral,
and the only reminders of the industrial age that intrude are the motorcar
and the railroad, both of which land Toad in trouble.
4
SOCIAL SENSITIVITY
There is very little in The Wind in the Willows that could cause even the
youngest reader difficulties. What little violence there is is handled in a
humorous way; in fact, no one suffers more than a few bruises, as in the
banquet hall scene in the book's final chapter.
The dangers that do threaten the characters, such as Mole's near drowning—
are handled so that the character comes to no real harm, but learns a
valuable lesson about prudent behaviour. The characters are honest, simple
folks who eventually learn from their mistakes, even Toad. And they certainly
provide examples of what it means to be a loyal friend and a trusting
companion.
Grahame is not a didactic writer; in fact, he prefers to let his characters learn
from experience, clearly believing that it is impossible to tell someone how to
behave correctly if that person refuses to see the correctness of the advice,
as in the case of Toad who only learns to be less boastful and self-centred
after experiencing a series of humiliating adventures. All the telling on the
part of Rat, Badger, and Mole were to no effect. Toad had to learn his lesson
himself, in his own time.
5
SYNOPSIS
Chapter 1: The River Bank
The Wind in the Willows begins with Mole who is spring-cleaning his house
when he finds that "something up above was calling him imperiously." Giving
in to curiosity, he quickly digs his way to the world above. Everything is new
to him. He has not even seen a river before. The first person he makes an
acquaintance with is Water Rat, who invites Mole on a boat ride and an
impromptu picnic. Rat explains much to Mole about aspects of the world
above ground and the River Bank community. After the picnic, they head
back upstream towards Rat's hole in the bank of the river. Mole ends up
almost tipping the boat when he excitedly grabs the sculls (or oars) from
Rat, which Rat readily forgives.
Chapter 2: The Open Road
Mole and Rat pay a visit to Mr. Toad. Toad is happy to have the company and
pleased to meet Mr. Mole, and he convinces them to join him in a cart and
horse trip, which is his latest craze. Their first two days on the road are fairly
uneventful. On the third day, they come to their first high road, where they
are nearly run down by an automobile moving at high speed. The cart is
wrecked from veering off the road. Toad is taken by a new craze—
automobiles—and becomes useless as Mole and Rat deal with the situation.
They walk to the nearest town where they catch a train that takes them
home.
Chapter 3: The Wild Wood
Mole decides to journey alone to the Wild Wood so he can meet Mr. Badger
when he is unable to convince Rat to take him. At first, Mole is not alarmed
upon entering the Wild Wood, but he quickly becomes lost and frightened. He
ends up hiding in the hollow of a tree. When Rat becomes aware of Mole's
absence, he sets out after him. He finds Mole and allows him to rest awhile
before heading home. A sudden snowstorm hits in the meantime, making it
difficult for them to find their way, and they become lost. Luckily they
stumble upon the home of Mr. Badger.
Chapter 4: Mr. Badger
Mr. Badger promptly takes in the lost travellers. He feeds them, gives them
dry clothes, and allows them to warm themselves by his fire. Rat fills in Mr.
Badger on Toad's automobile craze, and they decide that once the winter has
passed, they will "take Toad seriously in hand." Otter also arrives at Mr.
Badger's. He explains how the River Bank community has been worried about
Rat and Mole being gone. Mole and Badger get more acquainted while they
tour the many passages of his home. Badger eventually takes his visitors to
the edge of the Wild Wood in one of his extensive passages so that they can
get home without further incident.
Chapter 5: Dulce Domum
Mole has a sudden and almost irresistible urge to see his home again after
encountering its smell on a journey. Rat decides that they should go and see
it, to Mole's delight. Since he has been away for so long, he doesn't have
much for them to eat. A group of field mice stop by to sing carols. Mole is
distressed at having nothing to feed them, as he has traditionally done in the
past. Rat sends one of the mice off to buy groceries. The mice continue to
entertain Mole and Rat until the food arrives, and they have supper. Rat tells
Mole that he has a "ripping little house."
Chapter 6: Mr. Toad
Spring arrives, and Rat and Mole are preparing the boat for another season
when Badger stops by to tell them that the time has come to intervene with
Toad's irresponsible behaviour with motorcars. Badger makes an
unsuccessful attempt to requite Toad, after which they lock him in his room
and guard him "till the poison has worked itself out of his system." Toad
manages to escape. He steals a car, smashes it, and ends up in jail.
Chapter 7: The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
Rat, returning from an engagement with the Otters, brings news to Mole of
the family's missing child, Portly. They decide to search for the boy by
paddling upstream in the boat. Rat starts to hear beautiful music, which Mole
is also eventually able to hear. They follow it until they find a mythical
creature with horns and hoofed feet, at which lies the lost child, asleep. The
creature vanishes, and they take the child to his father. Rat and Mole seem
to forget their mythical helper, though they feel a little strange.
Chapter 8: Toad's Adventures
The jailor's daughter takes pity on Toad and devises a plan for his escape
that involves disguising him as a washerwoman. Toad is able to attain his
freedom but finds that he has rather limited resources since his coat and
money, among other things, are still in his jail cell. An engine driver allows
Toad aboard his train after being convinced that Toad is "a poor unhappy
washerwoman." After riding for several miles, the engine driver realizes that
they are being pursued by the police. Toad confesses all to the driver, who
still manages to take pity on him. The driver slows down the train at an
advantageous point and Toad jumps off. Having evaded his pursuers, he
finds himself in an unfamiliar wood.
Chapter 9: Wayfarers All
Rat finds himself restless on a beautiful summer day. He encounters field
mice making early preparations for winter as well as swallows who reminisce
of their southern winter homes. Rat is thinking about what it would be like to
do more travelling when a seafaring rat wanders by. The Sea Rat tells him of
his experiences abroad. Upon his departure, the Sea Rat has convinced Rat
come with him. Rat returns home to gather a few things before heading off,
but Mole is ultimately able to prevent him from leaving.
Chapter 10: The Further Adventures of Toad
Having spent a night in the unfamiliar wood, Toad is a little cold but happy to
be free. He follows a canal and eventually encounters a horse towing a barge
with a stout woman aboard. Using his washerwoman outfit to his advantage,
he is able to convince the barge woman to take him aboard. The woman sees
through his disguise when Toad is unable to help her with her washing and
throws him overboard. Insulted, he steals her horse, which he sells to a
gypsy. Still needing a way to get home, he hails a passing motorcar, which
turns out to be the car he had stolen earlier. He is not recognized through his
disguise. Toad convinces the gentlemen in the car to let him drive for a
while. In his excitement at being behind the wheel again, he reveals his
identity and ends up smashing the car again. He is once more pursued by the
police but escapes when he falls into the swift-moving river and is swept
downstream.
Chapter 11: "Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears"
The Water Rat pulls Toad from the water. After telling Rat of his adventures,
he gets cleaned up. Rat tells Toad that Toad Hall has been taken over by
Stoats and Weasels. Toad, infuriated, attempts to infiltrate his home twice
but is repelled by the Stoat guards. Badger arrives at Rat's, having devised a
plan that will allow Toad, Rat, Mole, and himself to liberate Toad Hall while
the Weasels are enjoying a banquet in celebration of the Chief Weasel's
birthday. On the morning they intend to carry out the plan, Mole journeys to
Toad Hall alone and, using Toad's washerwomen disguise, beguiles the
Stoats into believing that a massive invasion of Badgers, Rats, and Toads
would be coming that night.
Chapter 12: The Return of Ulysses
After being outfitted with weapons by Rat, they follow a passage that takes
them underneath Toad Hall and into the pantry. The Chief Weasel is in the
midst of singing a derisive song about Toad when the four friends spring
forth from the pantry, scaring away the Weasels at the banquet and the
Stoats outside. The morning after the attack, Badger convinces Toad that he
needs to have a banquet to celebrate. Preparations are made and invitations
sent out. Shortly before the event, Toad gives a speech and sings a song to
an imaginary audience in his room, though he is very humble when the
actual guests arrive.
PLOT SUMMARY
The Wind in the Willows tells the story of Mole, Water Rat, Badger, and Toad,
and takes place along a peaceful riverbank surrounded by lush meadows.
Mole is originally from a neighbouring meadow, but one fine spring day he
ventures away from his home and finds the magical life of the river awaiting
him. Mole quickly becomes fast friends with Water Rat, a polite and civilized
creature who invites Mole to live with him while he teaches Mole the secrets
of river life.
Mole accepts Water Rat's invitation, and also accepts the invitation that life
has seemingly offered to him. Mole quickly feels at home on the river. He
and Rat, along with Rat's friend, the Otter, spend their days exploring the
wonders to be found along the river. Soon, we meet Mr. Toad, who is no
stranger to adventure. Toad is a rich and somewhat spoiled creature. He is
generous in nature and loves to share his home, his food, and his fun, but he
is far too interested in the praise and admiration of others. And Toad, being
conceited, is always the first to praise and admire himself and encourage
others to join in.
The storyline follows Toad from one hapless adventure to the next; the worst
of it being Toad's reckless passion for motorcars. Unlike his other hobbies,
where Toad starts out passionately and then quickly becomes bored, Toad
unfortunately doesn't get bored of motorcars: not even after crashing six of
them (for Toad doesn't have the patience to learn to drive well), and not
even after his friends, Rat and Mole, warn him repeatedly to quit his reckless
carousing and settle down at home. Toad's friends realize that Toad will be
Toad, and they accept, for the most part, their inability to talk sense into
him.
Meanwhile, Mole and Rat are having adventures of their own. Mole, having
been a sheltered, underground creature for most of his life, finds the river life
stimulating. His desire for adventure outmatches his ability to take care of
himself, as illustrated when the naïve Mole goes exploring alone in the
dangerous Wild Wood. The loyal Rat searches for Mole, and finds him, and
the two friends are then lost in a sudden blizzard. Thankfully, Rat's wisdom
guides them to safe shelter as they stumble upon the hidden home of Badger
in the heart of the Wild Wood. Badger and Mole, both underground creatures,
"hit it off," and the three become fast friends. Badger has a reputation for
toughness, and no friend of his will ever be bothered by anyone in the Wild
Wood.
During one chapter in the book, Rat, Mole, and Badger decide to take Toad in
hand. They try first to reason with Toad and hope to convince him to give up
his dangerous motorcar hobby. Toad pretends to listen, but soon admits he
has no intention of giving up cars. Consequently, the friends imprison Toad in
his huge mansion, taking turns guarding him and hoping to outlast Toad's
obsession. Toad pulls a fast one and escapes from his watchful friends. He
sets off on a tearing adventure which starts with him stealing a motorcar, for
which he is sent to prison, and ends with his escape from prison, during
which he eludes police with some clever trickery. Before the adventure is
through, Toad not only steals a horse, but actually has the gall to steal the
same motorcar a second time; somehow, despite this outrageous behaviour,
he finds his way safely back to Rat's home on the riverbank.
While at Rat's home, Toad learns that, during his absence, his home has
been commandeered by some of the folk from the Wild Wood. Toad's loyal
friends had attempted to guard his home after Toad escaped, but the
weasels, stoats, and ferrets pulled a sneak attack and drove Badger and Mole
out of Toad Hall. Now the four friends plot together to retake Toad Hall. In
the climax of the story, the four friends save the day and make their
reputations by driving the unsavoury group of weasels, ferrets, and stoats
out of Toad Hall.
Mole learns some hard lessons during the course of the story, but with the
help of his friends and his openness to learn from his mistakes, he grows into
his life, and by the end of the story has become a confident, world-wise
animal. Toad, Mole, Badger, and Rat live happily ever after, having gained a
greater appreciation for their lives, their homes, and their friends.
6
CHAPTER ANALYSIS
CHAPTER 1
In this chapter we are introduced to the wonderful cast of animals which
populates The Wind in the Willows. The author makes use of
anthropomorphism by having the animals express human traits. Each of the
characters is a peculiar mix of both childlike and adult qualities - alternately
naïve and wise, helpless and independent. In this chapter we begin to know
Mole as a fastidious housekeeper, somewhat sheltered and naïve, with a
childlike openness to making new friends and having adventures - yet he can
also be a bit of a smart aleck. The Water Rat begins to reveal himself as a
caring friend and polite host who's always up for a good laugh. It is through
these loveable characters that Kenneth Grahame is able to illustrate the good
and bad angels of human nature, and these characters also illustrate that
good friends will forgive us our flaws if our heart's in the right place. Nature
itself is virtually a character in the book and represents the author's best
depiction of the pastoral theme, which Kenneth Grahame wrote about
frequently.
CHAPTER II
In this chapter, the dynamic between Toad and his friends is established.
Toad's good and bad points are revealed as we watch him embark on a new
hobby. Toad is rich, charming, and loves "people" (a term the author uses to
describe his animal characters). Toad is also an overconfident braggart who
does not take into account the amount of work or resources needed to
accomplish his bold visions. To Toad's credit, however, he does seem to
understand his own limitations, as we see when he insists that Ratty
accompany Toad on his travels; Toad knows his level-headed friend will help
compensate for Toad's tendency to rash behaviour. The idea that
understanding one's own limitations is an aspect of wisdom is revisited later
in the storyline, through Mole's character.
CHAPTER III
In this chapter, again we learn what a sensible, level-headed friend Rat is.
When Mole decides, against Rat's advice, to visit the Wild Wood and search
for Badger, he goes off alone, without a word to his friend. When Rat realizes
where Mole's gone, he is not upset, he does not judge his friend, and he does
not panic. Instead, Rat shows the ultimate loyalty by heading off to rescue
his friend from a potentially dangerous situation. There is no moment of
doubt in Rat's mind as to whether or not to go after his friend; Rat's loyalty
is unquestioning. His friend is in trouble, and that's all he needs to know.
Once he catches up with Mole in the woods, Rat does his best to make his
friend feel safe and confident despite the gravity of their situation. Only at
the end of the chapter - after Rat feels that Mole has caused them to become
lost in a blizzard in a dangerous area of the woods - does the Rat finally lose
his temper with Mole. Despite his (rather human) frustrations, Rat
nevertheless saves the day by keeping a cool head and finding shelter for
both of them.
CHAPTER IV
In this chapter we learn more about the reclusive Badger. Being a larger
animal, and somewhat of a loner, Badger is thought to be mean by some. We
find instead that he has a generous and caring heart. He shelters his two
friends through the storm, and the next morning, he has taken in two more
lost travellers. Badger's big kitchen table gives the appearance of having
served many guests, and we begin to realize that Badger's mean reputation
is unwarranted. Being a more solitary, underground creature, he simply
prefers to stay out of the day-to-day doings of Society. He has a caring heart
and finds a kindred spirit in Mole. Mole's addition to the group of friends
brings Badger closer together with them all. Until this chapter, Rat has never
had the nerve to knock on Badger's door, and apparently Badger never
encouraged him to do so. With the addition of Mole, plus their common goal
of helping Toad out of his troubles, the friendships are sealed tightly. Badger
even trusts them enough to show them the location of a secret tunnel
leading in and out of his home.
CHAPTER V
This chapter is a particularly touching treatment of the homecoming theme,
melded with the literary concept of a golden age. We all have lost golden
ages in our lives - times and places to which we can never return because
the places or the people have gone or because we've changed so much it
would not be the same if we returned. The human longing for a lost golden
age is a universal trait, and Grahame expresses it wistfully, poetically, and
powerfully through our little friend Mole. Smell is one of the most powerful
inducers of human memory, and an animal's sense of smell is so much more
than just scent: it includes "the whole range of delicate thrills which murmur
in the nose of the animal night and day, summoning, warning, inciting,
repelling…Home! That was what they meant, those caressing appeals, those
soft touches wafted through the air, those invisible little hands pulling and
tugging, all one way!" (Chapter V, pp. 103-104) When Mole catches the
scent of home and thinks he will not be able to return to it, he expresses
such depth of longing that sobs issue from his very soul. Luckily for little
Mole, he is not denied his homecoming. Kenneth Grahame writes in a happy
reunion for Mole and his home, and shares Mole's new-found appreciation for
the warmth of home, regardless of its size or appearance.
CHAPTER VI
Toad is a remarkably loveable creature for being such a continual
troublemaker. Toad has a childlike ability to ignore all the possible
consequences for his outrageous behaviour. Only when caught does Toad
suddenly demonstrate remorse; but each time he's caught, he is only briefly
sorry, then gets in trouble all over again at his very first opportunity. This
would get tiresome if Toad weren't so darn loveable. It is a testament to the
author's keen sense of human nature that all of the animal characters are
loveable in spite of, or even because of, their flaws. The author's deep insight
into human nature played a part in changing public opinion on the nature of
childhood. Grahame lived through the societal change brought about by the
advent of industrialization, and it was partly the creation of labour-saving
devices that allowed society's children to enjoy their childhoods longer, as
opposed to being put to work at a young age to support their families, as
many children had done throughout history. Grahame helped teach his
contemporaries to view children, not as objects to be put to work or shuffled
around, but as miniature adults in training with lessons and challenges and
viewpoints of their own.
CHAPTER VII
The piper is Pan; the Greek god is always depicted as a satyr, which in Greek
mythology means a creature with the horns and hind-quarters of a goat and
the bearded face of a human male. There are many Greek legends about
Pan. He is associated with lust and licentiousness; with his horned head and
cloven hooves, he is believed to be an early symbol of the Christian devil.
Pan was reputed to stalk helpless nymphs and boys, and the "pan-pipes"
which he invented were made out of the same type of reeds to which the
author refers throughout the book. In The Wind in the Willows, the reeds
carry the messages and songs of the wind; in this chapter the reeds carry
the song sung by Pan himself. In the legends, Pan invents the pan-pipes as a
result of chasing a nymph; the nymph was so repulsed by him that when he
nearly catches her by the river, she begs the gods to transform her shape so
that Pan cannot have her. She becomes one of the hollow reeds along the
riverbank, and Pan plucks the reeds and creates a pipe from them as a
reminder of the nymph who got away. While all of these legends are
suggestive, especially as regards the dangers that can befall a boy (like
Portly) who's lost his way, it is most likely that the author includes his
reference to Pan because Pan was also considered the Greek god of nature of meadows, fields, rivers, and animals. At his most benign, Pan can be
considered a carefree naturalist and represents a love of nature's creatures.
His character is like Huck Finn or Peter Pan - expressing a boyish love of the
great outdoors - and Pan also shares Badger's preference for wilderness
solitude over civilized Society. Kenneth Grahame has taken the most poetic
aspects of the Pan mythology and written Pan in as the animal's god, their
"Friend and Helper." The author's interest in this mythology may have been
partly inspired or influenced by his contemporaries among the British writers
and poets; Kenneth Grahame wrote much about the beauty of nature, and
therefore it seems only natural that he would be interested in the lore of the
Greek god of nature. The very title of The Wind in the Willows was originally
supposed to be "The Wind in the Reeds," and the idea of nature playing the
reed pipes along the shore, to the secret tune of the wind and water, is
repeated throughout the book. Pan makes an excellent personification of
nature and its mystical secrets, and in this chapter we find that it is Pan's
tune being played by the reeds.
CHAPTER VIII
Whenever the Toad is in trouble, he instantly reforms and regrets his
reckless, selfish behavior. However, the minute Toad sees how to get out of
a scrape, he reverts to being boastful, conceited, and self-congratulatory for
so cleverly getting himself out of trouble. He's a wonderful character in a
children's story, for the reader can learn a moral lesson from Toad's weak
character. Despite his faults, Toad is fun and clever and endearing to the
reader. Toad's friends always forgive his faults, and in Toad's better
moments, he recognizes that the truths his friends tell him are for his own
good.
In this chapter, Toad's convincing washerwoman disguise relies on the
reader's suspension of disbelief that a tiny toad could pass as a human
woman and actually fit into her clothes. The animal's ability to approximate
human size is another aspect of the anthropomorphism seen throughout the
book. The animals always remain relative in size to each other, but adapt
their relative size to humans in order to drive motorcars, ride horses, and
wear human clothing. As this is a fantasy story, the reader has no more
trouble accepting Toad in the washerwoman's clothes than accepting that
Toad wears fancy suits and riding gear and that the Mole has a black velvet
smoking jacket. Somehow, when the story is suitably interesting, the mind's
eye always manages to imagine the unimaginable, much in the way that
today's talented animation artists create their versions of the unimaginable in
popular films. Animated versions of The Wind in the Willows have been
brought to life, inspired by the imaginations of filmmakers who once read this
whimsical book and pictured the impossible clearly in their mind's eye.
CHAPTER IX
This is one of the chapters that seems "dropped in" or "out of nowhere." It is
one of the chapters added by the author when compiling his short stories into
one coherent narrative., The book's short stories are woven together as a
collage, and it works for the most part — despite chapters like this which
don't follow the otherwise chronological narrative - because each chapter is
thematically linked to the entire literary effort. This chapter inspires the
reader to reflect on the opposite of home life: wayfaring. The wayfarer is one
whose destination is always just over the next horizon. The life of a wayfarer
has a certain appeal to someone like Rat, even though he is very grounded
and roots himself solidly to his living space. Up until now, Rat has completely
closed his mind to the thought of travelling beyond his river - which he feels
provides plenty of both adventure and travel. In this chapter, he makes an
attempt to see the other point of view and finds it darkly compelling. The end
of the chapter is inconclusive as to whether Rat would have benefited from
heeding the wayfarer's call, and the reader is left with a feeling of distrust
about the travelling Sea Rat who tries to compel the Water Rat, through
some sneaky hypnosis, to follow him south. By the end of the chapter,
Grahame has created a continuous emotional chronology for the reader: we
have a chance to examine and decide for ourselves about the pros and cons
of wayfaring just before the characters themselves must take decisive action,
over the next three chapters, to reclaim Toad's home. This structure makes
perfect sense to the reader on an intuitive level: first, we are shown the
value of home; then we are presented with a choice (the wayfarer presenting
the benefits of travelling and living rootlessly); finally, the characters in the
story are asked, not only to make the choice of whether to live in or abandon
their home, but if they choose to fight for that home in order to keep it.
Again we see how Grahame's intuitive understanding of human nature makes
his writing so strong, as he explores the dreams that most people have:
dreams of exploring the life of a wayfarer or of settling down into a home of
their own.
CHAPTER X
Once again we have the whirligig of Toad's emotional roller coaster, going
from high to low and circling back around again. Toad reforms each time he
gets in trouble; when he miraculously escapes, Toad gives himself all the
credit (a lot of which he certainly deserves) and becomes conceited once
again, which leads him to believe he's untouchable and thus only gets back
into trouble. Toad's remorse each time he gets caught is so charmingly
sincere, just as sincere as his "in-your-face" attitude when his adventures are
going well. In this chapter, Toad faces every possible hurdle in trying to
make his way back home, which sets up for us the grand climax which is to
come. It's also the author's way of beginning to wrap up his "home" theme.
If Toad had simply appreciated his home life, instead of abandoning it for
cheap thrills, he wouldn't be in this mess and wouldn't have to work so hard
to reclaim what was once his. Nonetheless, Toad's character and his
adventures are so much fun that the reader can absolutely empathize with
Toad's propensity to throw caution to the winds.
CHAPTER XI
Home and roots are once again the theme of the chapter. Not only has
Toad's home been taken away from him, but his only chance to get it back
stems from his own roots. Badger, we learn, was a friend of Toad's father
and has knowledge of a secret passage they can use to sneak into Toad Hall.
Had Toad not maintained this friendship with Badger, this link to his past, he
would never have learned about the secret passageway which will allow him
to reclaim his ancestral home.
This chapter builds the suspense leading up to the ultimate showdown in the
final chapter. We learn more about the opposition: the weasels, stoats, and
ferrets. We also learn more about the main animal characters as we watch
the different ways they handle the pre-fight stress. The one quality that all of
our friends - Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad - display most prominently, is
loyalty. Loyalty to each other is what gives them the courage to enter Toad
Hall and fight it out with the enemy. Mole, Rat, and Badger put themselves
on the line for Toad, but it should be noted that Toad displays a quieter, and
actually more mature, type of loyalty: Toad allows his friends to tell him how
to run his life "for his own good" without getting angry. Toad may not always
heed his friends' advice, or even agree with it, but he knows it comes from
love, and he's too loyal to his friends to treat their oftentimes pushy concern
as meddling.
CHAPTER XII
In this final chapter, we witness Toad's complete reformation. This is a mixed
blessing, as the reader inevitably enjoys Toad's wild side. His reform is
crucial to the happy ending, partly because Toad's changed attitude allows
the four fast friends to live happily ever after with impressive reputations and
peace in their hearts. Still, the reader hopes that Toad is not completely
reformed and that he will retain a touch of the endearing swagger that
makes him who he is.
The recapture of Toad Hall represents the completion of Kenneth Grahame's
homecoming theme. The valuable lesson about the value of home, which is
learned by the main characters, is part of the reason this story endures as a
childhood classic. The concept of home is universal to all human beings, as is
the concept of nature. These two predominant themes make The Wind in the
Willows a story which transcends both culture and time to touch the hearts of
readers everywhere.
7
CHARACTER ANALYSIS
7.1 INTRODUCTION
The principal characters in the novel, though they all have their faults, are
idealized in many ways.
Several virtues are epitomized in Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad, so much so
that they become themes. There are numerous examples of hospitality,
forgiveness, compassion, generosity, and humility. Even the arrogant Toad is
able to humble himself and put aside his conceited ways in the end, having
matured though a succession of trying circumstances with the guidance and
help of loyal friends.
7.2 CHARACTERS
7.2.1
Badger
Badger, sometimes referred to as Mr. Badger, commands great respect as
well as fear among the animals. Rat is the first to mention him: "Dear old
Badger! Nobody interferes with him. They'd better not." By the end of the
novel, he is especially feared by the Weasels, who quiet their infants by
telling them that "if they didn't hush them and not fret them, the terrible
grey Badger would up and get them." Toad is able to humble himself and
apologize for his reckless behaviour with automobiles when Badger has him
alone in a room. It is only after he is with Rat and Mole again that is able to
say "No! . . . I'm not sorry!"
Badger is also considered very wise. He is rarely questioned by Rat and Mole
and only occasionally by the arrogant Toad. He is also impartial in his
shrewdness. When Toad says "I'll learn 'em to steal my house!" in reference
to the Stoats and Weasels, Rat corrects him, replacing "learn" with "teach."
However, Badger insists that Toad's manner of speaking is more appropriate.
Later, however, when Mole recounts how he visited the Stoat guards in
disguise and exaggerated their coming attack, Rat and Toad both reprimand
him for giving away the element of surprise while Badger commends him for
his cleverness at putting the animals on edge.
Although he is wise, respected, and feared, he is not above being
compassionate and forgiving. He is always willing to assist those in need,
especially friends. He takes in Mole and Rat without hesitation when they are
lost in the Wild Wood. He gives them dry clothes and food and allows them
to stay the night. He takes great pains in attempting to get Toad to behave
responsibly during his motorcar craze and is still selfless towards him when
his efforts do not work. He looks after Toad Hall while Toad is in jail and
helps Toad retake his home when it is overrun with Weasels and Stoats.
7.2.2
Barge woman
Toad meets with the barge woman shortly after his escape from jail when he
is lost in the woods. She is a stout and rather rustic woman. She seems quite
willing to assist Toad when she thinks he is a washerwoman that might be
able to help her with her laundry, but wastes no time in throwing him
overboard when it turns out that he has no skill whatsoever at washing.
7.2.3.
Engine Driver
The engine driver seems willing to help anyone in a desperate situation.
When Toad is disguised as a washerwoman, he gives Toad a ride on his train
because Toad, as the washerwoman, can't get home to see her kids because
she has lost her money. When they are later pursued by the police, Toad
confesses to his crimes and trickery, but the engine driver is still willing to
help him evade his pursuers, saying ". . . you are evidently in sore trouble
and distress, so I will not desert you."
7.2.4
Gentlemen in the Motorcar
The gentlemen with the motorcar mostly serve to move the plot along. The
first time they appear in the text, they merely provide Toad with a car to
steal. When they appear later on, they pick Toad up on the side of the road
and let him try driving their automobile, intrigued by the idea of a
washerwoman driving. Toad becomes so elated at being behind the wheel
again, after spending so many days in jail, that he gives himself away and
also ends up smashing the car. One of the gentlemen, after finding a
policeman, pursues Toad across a field until Toad falls into the river, which
sweeps him back to the River Bank community.
7.2.5
Gypsy
Toad encounters the gypsy after riding a few miles on the horse he stole
from the barge woman. Finding himself famished, he moves toward a
caravan, or covered wagon, beside which are the gypsy and a pot over a fire
radiating delicious smells. He goes over to see if he can find a way to get
something to eat. The gypsy quickly asks if he can buy Toad's horse. Toad
bargains with him and eventually gets six shillings and six pence for it, plus
as much of the gypsy's stew as he can eat.
7.2.6
Gaolor’s (or: Jailor's) Daughter
The jailer, knowing how fond his daughter is of taking care of animals, allows
her to take care of Toad upon her request. She brings his meals, which are
likely better than what the other inmates get, and she keeps him company.
They grow to like each other more and more, so much so that the jailer's
daughter can no longer stand seeing Toad locked up. She devises a
successful plan for him to escape in which Toad is disguised in the clothes of
her aunt, who is the washerwoman for the jail.
7.2.7
Mole
Mole is arguably the most passionate of all of The Wind in the Willows
characters. He is always willing to help another animal in need. Even when
Rat, a rather compassionate character himself, is not able to muster the
initiative to go looking for the Otter family's lost child, Portly, Mole insists
they do something, saying "I simply can't go and turn in, and go to sleep,
and do nothing, even though there doesn't seem to be anything to be done."
Mole is generally very excited about people, whether meeting them for the
first time, or seeing them after a long absence. When Toad returns home
from his "adventures," Badger is somewhat sympathetic in his greeting, but
a little too reserved for Toad's liking, while Mole is ecstatic at seeing him and
gives Toad exactly the type of greeting he wants, telling him that he is a
"clever, ingenious, intelligent Toad!" Mole's emotions are stirred by more
than just people. When seeing Rat's boat for the first time, his "whole heart
went out to it at once. . . ."
Mole is new to the River Bank community and to the entire world above
ground. In the beginning of the novel, he is much like a child, seeing
everything for the first time, as demonstrated when he says to Rat, "all this
is so new to me. So—this—is—a—River!" He is very eager to do and
experience new things, as when he grabs the oars from Rat in order to try
rowing. He is quite astute, quickly picking up skills and subtle intuitions, as
demonstrated in the following lines:
He learnt to swim and to row, and entered into the joy of
running water; and with his ear to the reed stems he caught, at
intervals, something of what the wind went whispering so
constantly among them.
Mole is also rather independent for someone so new to the area, which gets
him into trouble at the beginning of the novel. In his usual manner, he is
very anxious to meet Mr. Badger, whom he's heard much about from Rat.
Rat, who is content to wait for Badger to call on them, is too passive for him.
Mole decides he will venture into the Wild Wood alone in order to meet
Badger, which leads to him getting lost and stuck in a snowstorm. But he
does get to meet Badger before his journey is over. Toward the end of the
novel, Mole again ventures out alone in disguise and convinces the Stoats
that a massive attack is coming to Toad Hall. This makes their small ambush
more effective and also shows how much wiser he has become in the ways of
the above ground world.
7.2.8.
Otter
Otter is a good friend of the novel's four main characters, Rat, Mole, Badger,
and Toad, and comes into the story several times in person and by name. He
often serves as a link to the River Bank community at large. Upon his first
appearance in the text, he says, "All the world seems out on the river today.
I came up this backwater to try to get a moment's peace, and then stumble
upon you fellows!" There are several more occurrences of Otter bringing
information from the larger community into the reader's scope, another
important one being when he arrives at Badger's house and describes how
the community was alarmed that Rat and Mole were missing.
Otter is also distinct in that he has the closest thing to a representation of a
family in the book. The four main characters are all bachelors. Otter not only
has a son, Portly, but seems to have a family, which is referred to as "the
Otters." The Otters are never specifically called a family, but it is clearly
implied by the fact that they entertain Rat at their house as a unit and
inquire about Portly as a unit.
7.2.9
Portly
While Portly does not affect the overall events in The Wind in the Willows, he
is central to chapter 7, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn." Portly is Otter's son
and is so young that he is referred to as a baby at one point. Portly has a
tendency to wonder off alone, which is usually not a worrisome event since
everyone in the River Bank knows and looks after him. In this chapter,
however, he is gone for multiple days, which causes the Otters a certain
amount of anxiety. Rat and Mole find him at the feet of a mythological
creature, presumably the "piper" mentioned in the chapter title, by following
his music. Portly is not mentioned elsewhere in the book, which is in keeping
with this anomalous chapter that also presents the one-time development of
magic as well as the strongest development of a character's family, i.e., the
Otters.
7.2.10
Rat
Rat, also known as River Rat, is one of the four central figures in the novel.
One of the first noticeable characteristics about Rat is his generosity. He is
the first person that Mole meets above ground, and Rat welcomes him to the
River Bank by taking him on a boat ride and bringing along a picnic for them
to share, which includes
"coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssaladfrenchrollscresssandwichesp
ottedmeatgingerbeerlemonadesodawater—." Coming home after the picnic,
Rat invites Mole to stay at his house for the night. The novel spans roughly a
year, and Mole lives in Rat's house for almost that entire time. One of the
few exceptions is when they stay at Mole's house for a night, and even then,
Rat demonstrates his generosity by giving one of the field mice money to buy
groceries for a nice supper, allowing Mole to be a good host to his visitors.
Rat is also a compassionate character, though he seems to be more inclined
to help others when it is a matter of proper appearance or behaviour. When
he finds Mole after he wandered off alone in the Wild Wood, the first thing
Rat says to him is, "You shouldn't really have gone and done it. . . . We
river-bankers, we hardly ever come here by ourselves." When he pulls Toad
from the river after he has escaped the police, he immediately tells him to
"go off upstairs at once . . . and put on some of my clothes and try and come
down looking like a gentleman." This may explain why he is at first inclined
to do nothing when young Portly goes missing. He may feel helpless since
solving the problem has nothing to do with instilling proper animal behaviour.
7.2.11
Sea Rat
The Sea Rat is another character that is central to one chapter, "Wayfarers
All," but appears nowhere else in the text. Rat encounters the Sea Rat one
day when he is feeling restless, and he doesn't know why. The Sea Rat tells
Rat of his adventures abroad. Rat is swept away in his stories and intends to
go with the Sea Rat to his next destination, but he is stopped by Mole. The
encounter with the Sea Rat enhances one of themes of the novel—the
struggle between a desire to indulge in the familiarity of home and the desire
to experience new things away from home.
7.2.12
Stoats and Weasels
The Stoats and Weasels take over Toad Hall while Toad is in jail, to the
surprise of Badger and Mole who are looking after it. Rat tells Toad how "they
took and beat them severely with sticks . . . and turned them out into the
cold. . . ." They are the antagonists for the last two chapters of The Wind in
the Willows, "'Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears,'" and "The Return of
Ulysses." However, they are more complex than that, as Rat explains:
"They're all right in a way—I'm very good friends with them . . . but they
break out sometimes . . . and then—well, you can't really trust them. . . ." In
keeping with Rat's description, one of the Weasels, shortly after being
expelled, comes back to Toad Hall to see if he can be of service in any way.
7.2.13
Toad
Toad is the driving force for the plot twists of a large portion of the book. His
automobile craze leads to him stealing a car and getting sentenced to twenty
years in prison. He escapes from prison and returns home, being periodically
pursued by the police on the way. As he journeys home, he meets several
interesting people, including the engine driver, the barge woman, and the
gypsy. He eventually finds himself at Rat's house, who tells him that the
Stoats and Weasels have taken over his house. Thus the four principle
characters must join together to recapture Toad Hall.
Rat gives a fairly accurate description of Toad's personality, though he is
probably being a little too kind:
So simple, so good-natured, and so affectionate. Perhaps he's
not very clever—we can't all be geniuses; and it may be that he
is both boastful and conceited. But he has got some great
qualities, has Toady.
Toad does enjoy a simple life. Having inherited a great amount of wealth, he
does not have to work to provide for himself. Instead he is constantly looking
to fill his life with whatever hobby most captures his attention at the time. He
also enjoys entertaining and will often try to combine entertaining his friends
with his hobbies, which leads to the cart trip with Mole and Rat. Toad is also
indeed arrogant and enjoys being the centre of attention. He often dreams of
delivering speeches and singing songs describing his exploits to a captivated
audience, as he pretends to do just before the party celebrating the
recapture of Toad Hall. In the very end, Toad seems to have mended his
ways, no longer acting so arrogant and self-centred. As the text indicates,
"He was indeed an altered Toad!"
8
THEMES
8.1 Hospitality
Hospitality comes naturally to many of the characters in The Wind in the
Willows. The text is filled with occurrences of one animal offering food and/or
shelter to another. At times it is merely a casual exchange among friends,
like Rat's long standing engagement of going to the Otters' for dinner, or Rat
paying a call on Toad and introducing his friend Mole. At other times, there is
a specific need, as when Badger brings Rat and Mole out of the cold of a
snowstorm, followed by a pair of lost hedgehogs the next morning. The
novel's most impressive example of hospitality is that of Rat taking Mole into
his home, which ends up lasting at least a year, having only met Mole that
day. There is neither discussion of payment nor any sort of anticipation that
Mole will return the favour. It is simply accepted. Shortly after Mole is invited
to stay at Rat's, the text reads, "When they got home, the Rat made a bright
fire in the parlour. . . ." It does not say "when they got to Rat's home"
because it is now home to them both.
8.2 Forgiveness
Forgiveness comes quickly and easily in The Wind in the Willows, regardless
of the size the offence. When Mole apologizes to Rat for taking the sculls
away from him in the boat, which leads to Mole and the luncheon basket
going overboard, Rat immediately responds with "That's all right, bless you!"
He then goes on to invite Mole to stay with him awhile so that he can learn to
row and swim.
Toad is forgiven several times throughout the book for much more serious
misconduct. Even four Weasels, taken prisoner during the recapture of Toad
Hall, are treated kindly when they demonstrate contrition: "They were very
penitent, and said they were extremely sorry. . . . So I [Mole] gave them a
roll apiece, and let them out at the back, and off they ran." Toad is also able
to let bygones be bygones when one of the Weasels returns to Toad Hall
looking to be of service. It is only with the slightest condescension that he
pats the Weasel on the head and gives him an errand to run.
8.3 Humility
While there are not obvious examples of humility throughout the text, it is a
major theme because it is a virtue that one of the principle characters, Toad,
clearly does not possess but clearly needs to learn. His friends are very
patient with him as he, time and time again, embarrasses them by making a
fool of himself. As Rat says, "Do you suppose it is any pleasure for me . . . to
hear animals saying . . . that I'm the chap that keeps company with
jailbirds?"
In the end, after a series of trying circumstances that Toad manages to fare
only through the kindness of strangers and the loyalty of his friends, he is
finally able to humble himself. Even when Otter encourages him during the
celebration of the recapture of Toad Hall, Toad responds with "I merely
served in the ranks and did little or nothing."
8.4 Compassion
The events of The Wind in the Willows are often shaped by characters
helping other characters. Toad is most frequently the person in need of
assistance. His friends Badger, Mole, and Rat are always there for him,
whether they are locking him in a room in order to cure him of his
automobile craze or putting together a plan to drive the Stoats and Weasels
out of Toad Hall. Toad's escape from prison would have been impossible if it
wasn't for the kindness of complete strangers. The jailor's daughter takes
pity on Toad merely because she hates to see animals suffer. The engine
driver helps Toad upon their first meeting, both when he thinks Toad is a
washerwoman and when he is aware that he is a Toad on the run from the
law. The gentlemen that Toad steals the car from are a little too angry to
help Toad as Toad, but they do not hesitate to help him when he is disguised
as the washerwoman.
Toad is not the only one who gets himself into trouble. As soon as Rat
realizes that Mole has gotten himself lost in the Wild Wood, he starts out
after him. When Rat and Mole both end up lost in the snowstorm, Badger
keeps them from freezing by taking them into his home. Otter, also worried
about Rat and Mole, comes to find them at Badger's and offers to guide them
home. Rat and Mole are able to return the favour when they find Otter's son
Portly when he goes missing.
8.5 Home
A tension exists in The Wind in the Willows between the desire to stay near
the comforts of home and the urge to see and explore new places. In the
very beginning, Mole, tired of spring-cleaning, decides to leave his home.
"Something up above was calling him imperiously." For nearly all of the rest
of the novel, Mole lives away from his underground dwelling, returning only
once, again, at the beckon of an overwhelming urge: "the wafts from his old
home pleaded, whispered, conjured, and finally claimed him imperiously."
The same word is used to describe both urges—"imperiously"—possibly to
indicate the parallel strength of their call.
Rat also struggles within this dichotomy. He is generally a person that enjoys
being home; both on the cart trip with Toad and when visiting Badger's
house, his desire to return to his hole in the riverbank is explicitly indicated.
Nonetheless, in the chapter entitled "Wayfarers All," he is determined to
partake of the adventures described by the Sea Rat. It is only by force that
he is he prevented from leaving.
As demonstrated by the recapture of Toad Hall, home is something worth
fighting for. Yet Toad, probably more than any of the principal characters, is
afflicted by a powerful wanderlust, which is apparent when he coaxes Rat
before the cart trip:
You surely don't mean to stick to your dull fusty old river all
your life, and just live in a hole in a bank, and boat? I want to
show you the world! I'm going to make an animal of you, my
boy!
By the end of the book, there is no reason to believe that Rat, Toad, and
Badger have not returned to their homes. As for Mole, it is not specified
whether he continues to live with Rat or goes back to his own quaint
lodgings. The "joy and contentment" they all find is not contingent on
whether they live near or far away from their home. The Wind in the Willows
shows the appeal of either possibility but not which one to choose.
9
OBJECTS/PLACES
9.1 Toad Hall
Toad Hall is the ancestral home of the Toad family; it is easily the largest and
richest house in the area. It is in the Banquet Room at Toad Hall that the
final showdown takes place, and the four friends reclaim Toad's house from
the invading weasels.
9.2 Rat's Home
A hole in the riverbank marks the entrance to this cozy waterside property
with all the comforts of a human home. Rat's home symbolizes Rat's
generous and welcoming heart. Both Mole, at the beginning of the book, and
Toad, at the end, find themselves staring at this hole not realizing it's Rat's
home until he emerges to welcome them. Here, Mole and Rat become
roommates. Rat's home is a touchstone for all the animal friends and
supports the author's main theme.
9.3 Badger's House
In the heart of the Wild Wood lies this ancient home, built by Badgers who
were there long before Mr. Badger was even born. Mole, being a tunnelling
creature himself, loves Badger's underground home. A secret tunnel leading
from the house to the edge of the Wild Wood gives Rat and Mole safe
passage home after being in the unsafe woods.
9.4 Rat's Luncheon Basket
The luncheon basket is a wonderful, old-fashioned picnic hamper complete
with all the accessories needed for fine dining out-of-doors. Food is symbolic
of home in the book, and this luncheon basket is an important symbol of the
warmth and comforts of home. A luncheon basket can be packed for short
adventures, but it is not designed to carry long-term rations to far-away
shores; one must always return home when the luncheon basket is empty.
10 QUOTES
"Absorbed in the new life he was entering upon, intoxicated with the sparkle,
the ripple, the scents and the sounds and the sunlight, he trailed a paw in
the water and dreamed long waking dreams." Chapter 1
"Then a firm paw gripped him by the back of his neck. It was the Rat, and he
was evidently laughing-the Mole could feel him laughing, right down his arm
and through his paw, and so into his-the Mole's-neck." Chapter 1
"'I've given that up long ago. Sheer waste of time, that's what it is. It makes
me downright sorry to see you fellows, who ought to know better, spending
all your energies in that aimless manner. No, I've discovered the real thing,
the only genuine occupation for a lifetime. I propose to devote the remainder
of mine to it, and can only regret the wasted years that lie behind me,
squandered in trivialities.'" Chapter 2
"'Besides, there are a hundred things one has to know, which we understand
all about and you don't, as yet. I mean passwords, and signs, and sayings
which have power and effect, and plants you carry in your pocket, and verses
you repeat, and dodges and tricks you practise; all simple enough when you
know them, but they've got to be known if you're small, or you'll find
yourself in trouble.'" Chapter 3
"'Well, very long ago, on the spot where the Wild Wood waves now, before
ever it had planted itself and grown up to what it now is, there was a city—a
city of people, you know. Here, where we are standing, they lived, and
walked, and talked, and slept, and carried on their business.'" Chapter 4
"Pausing there a moment and looking back, they saw the whole mass of the
Wild Wood, dense, menacing, compact, grimly set in vast white
surroundings; simultaneously they turned and made swiftly for home, for
firelight and the familiar things it played on, for the voice, sounding cheerily
outside their window, of the river that they knew and trusted in all its moods,
that never made them afraid with any amazement." Chapter 4
"But ere he closed his eyes he let them wander round his old room, mellow in
the glow of the firelight that played or rested on familiar and friendly things
which had long been unconsciously a part of him, and now smilingly received
him back, without rancour. He was now in just the frame of mind that the
tactful Rat had quietly worked to bring about in him. He saw clearly how
plain and simple—how narrow, even—it all was; but clearly, too, how much it
all meant to him, and the special value of some such anchorage in one's
existence." Chapter 5
"He was about half-way through his meal when an only too familiar sound,
approaching down the street, made him start and fall a-trembling all over.
The poop-poop! drew nearer and nearer, the car could be heard to turn into
the inn-yard and come to a stop, and Toad had to hold on to the log of the
table to conceal his overmastering emotion." Chapter 6
"Breathless and transfixed the Mole stopped rowing as the liquid run of that
glad piping broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and possessed him
utterly. He saw the tears on his comrade's cheeks, and bowed his head and
understood." Chapter 7
"'This is the end of everything' (he said), 'at least it is the end of the career
of Toad, which is the same thing; the popular and handsome Toad, the rich
and hospitable Toad, the Toad so free and careless and debonair!'" Chapter 8
"Those eyes were of the changing foam-streaked grey-green of leaping
Northern seas; in the glass shone a hot ruby that seemed the very heart of
the South, beating for him who had the courage to respond to its pulsation.
The twin lights, the shifting grey and the steadfast red, mastered the Water
Rat and held him bound, fascinated, powerless." Chapter 9
"He looked the gipsy over carefully, wondering vaguely whether it would be
easier to fight him or cajole him. So there he sat, and sniffed and sniffed,
and looked at the gipsy; and the gipsy sat and smoked, and looked at him."
Chapter 10
"'You don't deserve to have such true and loyal friends, Toad, you don't
really. Someday, when it's too late, you'll be sorry you didn't value them
more while you had them!'" Chapter 11
"When the other animals came back to luncheon, very boisterous and breezy
after a morning on the river, the Mole, whose conscience had been pricking
him, looked doubtfully at Toad, expecting to find him sulky or depressed.
Instead, he was so uppish and inflated that the Mole began to suspect
something; while the Rat and the Badger exchanged significant glances."
Chapter 12
11 LITERARY QUALITIES
The Wind in the Willows is told in the style of many children's bedtime
stories.
The tales can function as separate stories or be read as a more lengthy
account of the adventures of Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad in the world
alongside the River. Like A. A. Milne's tales of Winnie the Pooh and
Christopher Robin, these are certainly more than tales about cute animals
who lead a jolly life.
Grahame is interested in what it means to be a friend, what "home" really is,
and how people express their loyalty to friends and home. He explores these
topics by placing his characters in predicaments and letting them find their
own solutions, as when Mole does not heed Ratty's warning and gets lost in
the Wild Wood or when Toad becomes the victim of his automobile
obsession. Although his stories take the form of bedtime narratives, they do
more than just entertain, they also explore human nature.
There are three chapters in The Wind in the Willows that are particularly
interesting for their sophisticated literary form: "The Piper at the Gates of
Dawn," "Wayfarers All," and "The Return of Ulysses." The first two chapters
serve as pauses between the animals' adventures. In "The Piper at the Gates
of Dawn" Grahame explores the beauty of the coming sunrise and poetically
describes the woods and animals during this momentary pause between
night and dawn. Grahame draws on the myth of Pan in the form of the
mysterious goat-footed piper who lulls Rat and Mole with his music just
before the sun appears over the horizon. In "Wayfarers All," on the other
hand, Grahame captures the mood of birds preparing to fly south for the
winter, their sense of urgency and the emotions they experience as their
time of departure draws near.
He shows us Rat's uneasiness and discontent as he listens first to the birds'
conversation and then to the tales of the Sea Rat who is on his way to the
ocean and more adventures. Finally, in "The Return of Ulysses" Grahame
parodies the adventures of Ulysses in those of Toad, Rat, Badger and Mole.
The parallels to the Odyssey are strong: Toad first becomes separated from
his home and friends and is sent to prison and, in making his long and
difficult way home, has adventures on land and sea. And, when he finally
gets back to the River, he must retake his ancestral home from invading
weasels, ferrets, and stoats.
Grahame describes the natural world in a vivid manner. The worlds of the
River, the Wild Wood, the animals' homes and the surrounding countryside
are all drawn with meticulous attention to details that bring each scene to life
for the reader. Grahame also plays on his characters' natural "animal"
characteristics to add to the vividness of his descriptions as, for example,
when he uses a toad's natural ability to swell or shrink to show Toad's anger
or dejectedness.
12 CRITICAL OVERVIEW
Grahame at first had trouble placing The Wind in the Willows with a
publisher. His English editor, John Lane, rejected the manuscript, as did
Everybody's, the American periodical that initially solicited it. It was finally
picked up in 1908 by Methuen in England. Methuen was still sceptical; so
much so that he would not pay an advance on it, though Curtis Brow,
Grahame's literary agent, was able to get him to agree to rising royalties. In
1909, Scribner published the book in America, but only after receiving a
letter from President Theodore Roosevelt in its praise.
Critics did not receive Grahame's new work favourably. After publishing The
Golden Age in 1895 and its sequel, Dream Days, in 1898, both to wide
acclaim, his readers were in anticipation of another book involving the Gold
Age children. As Peter Hunt puts it in The Wind in the Willows: A Fragmented
Arcadia: "Kenneth Grahame had been a famous and much-admired writer
about children, and here, it seemed, was a book for children. . . ." It was
flouted as an "animal fable," as Lois Kuznets points out in Kenneth Grahame.
As Grahame's audience adapted and began to appreciate the novel for what
it was, its success slowly came to fruition. By 1959, Peter Green reports, in
his well-known biography of Grahame, that "The Wind in the Willows has
achieved over a hundred editions, and an average sale of about 80,000
copies." Its success has continued to grow since. It is now, without a doubt,
considered a classic of children's literature.
13 TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION
Discuss the symbolism of food in the book. What symbolises home to you?
Do you believe Toad's change of attitude at the end of the book will last?
Why or why not?
Which of the characters in the book do you think would make the best
friend? Why?
What is it about the Badger's nature that makes him dislike Society?
Discuss the author's point of view on adventure. What is its purpose? What
type of adventure does he find most suitable?
What moral lessons do you think the author was trying to teach his son
through these characters? Which, do you believe, is the most valuable?
Do you think Mole did the right thing by preventing Rat from leaving home to
travel with the Sea Rat? At what point does helping a friend cross the line
into controlling a friend's actions?
14 TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY
Grahame focuses on the mammals, and one amphibian, that live in and
around a river. What else can be found in a riverbank ecosystem? Write a
500-word essay considering Grahame's depiction of a riverbank as it
compares with actual river ecology.
Read Animal Farm, by George Orwell. How does his use of
anthropomorphized animals differ from that of Grahame's? How are they
similar? What sort of literary devices does each take advantage of through
the use of animals?
Read or attend a performance of A. A. Milne's Toad of Toad Hall. Milne did
not cover the events of all the chapters in The Wind in the Willows. Identify a
chapter that was omitted by Milne. Write a stage version of that chapter and
direct a performance of it.
What literary work is Grahame referring to when he titles the final chapter of
The Wind in the Willows The Return of Ulysses? What parallels can be made
between Toad and the protagonist of this literary work?
COMPARE AND CONTRAST
1908: The speed limit for automobiles is 20 miles per hour (mph) in
England. Automobiles are found mostly in Western Europe and North
America.
Today: The speed limit for automobiles in England is as high 70 mph, though
it is not uncommon for the flow of traffic to move at 80 mph. Automobiles
are found in virtually every country in the world.
1908: The population of the Great Britain is approximately 40,000,000.
Today: The population of Great Britain is approximately 60,000,000. While
this is a 50 percent growth, roads and urban development have increased at
a drastically higher rate, countered by a sharp decrease in cultivated and
undeveloped land.
1908: Women in Great Britain do not have the right to vote and have little
political power in general, especially with the death of Queen Victoria in 1901
and the ascension of King Edward VII to the throne.
Today: Women over the age of thirty have had the right to vote since 1918,
with women over the age of twenty-one gaining the right in 1928. Women
occupy many high level political positions, including seats in the parliament.
Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister in 1979. The monarchy is
again occupied by a woman, Queen Elizabeth II.
What Do I Read Next?
Grahame's The Golden Age (1895) is a collection of stories about five
imaginative children retreating from their repressive families and into their
own fantasies. This work made Grahame famous.
Dream Days (1898) is another collection of stories by Grahame. It is the
sequel to The Golden Age, involving the same five children. It furthered
Grahame's success as a writer.
Charlotte's Web (1952), by E. B. White, like The Wind in the Willows, is a
novel featuring animal protagonists. In it a pig is saved from being
slaughtered through the efforts of a spider who writes words in her web.
Redwall (1986), by Brian Jacques, is an animal novel that tells a magical and
adventuresome story in which a civilization of rats plays out the age-old
conflict of good versus evil. This is the beginning of an entire series of books.
Several abridged versions of The Wind in the Willows have appeared over the
years. Joan Collins adapted it into a fifty-two-page "retold for easy reading"
version, which was published in Britain in 1983 by Ladybird Books. Bob
Blaisdell adapted it into a slightly longer version, which was published in
1995 by Dover publications.
Several sequels were written by William Horwood, which are entitled The
Willows in the Winter (1993), Toad Triumphant (1995), and The Willows and
Beyond (1996).
15 WHY GRAHAME CHOSE TO WRITE A STORY ABOUT ANIMALS
THAT BEHAVE LIKE HUMANS.
Grahame's The Wind in the Willows is one of the first English examples of a
novel using animals as protagonists. Using animals that talk and behave like
humans in storytelling is by no means unique to Grahame; the tradition of
using anthropomorphized animals dates back thousands of years, appearing
in the mythology and tales of many ancient cultures. In Lewis Carroll's Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland, published more that forty years earlier, Carroll
had a talking rabbit and a talking cat, among others. However, Grahame's
novel is distinct from Carroll's in that the animals are the protagonists, with
well-developed, complex personalities. They are the ones who move the plot
along.
The lack of predecessors to rely on or imitate begs the question of why he
chose to write such a book. What tools or advantages does he gain when it
comes to the reader's perception of the text? Kuznets, in her article,
"Kenneth Grahame and Father Nature," quotes Grahame as once saying that
he wanted to write a novel "free of problems, clear of the clash of sex." Many
scholars argue that Grahame did not succeed in this regard, saying that
there are still underlying class conflicts, age conflicts, as well as sex conflicts,
despite the fact that there are very few characters specified as female and no
major female characters. Bonnie Gaarden describes her initial reaction to this
scholarship in her article "The Inner Family of The Wind in the Willows":
The small but emphatic voice of my childhood reading insisted
that these characters were like nothing so pedestrian as adult
human males; they were the Rat, the Mole, the Toad, and the
Badger—ageless, timeless, genderless.
Indeed, it is difficult for most readers to deny a certain light-hearted feel to
The Wind in the Willows, even when Mole is lost in the woods, Toad is
sentenced to jail, or the four main characters fight to liberate Toad Hall. The
prose is free of many of the burdensome issues that come with having
human protagonists. Kuznets, in her biography, Kenneth Grahame, writes,
"Grahame derives from the [anthropomorphic] tradition a . . . sense of the
possibilities of eluding both internal and external censors in using animals
rather than humans." The use of animal protagonists suppresses a reader's
tendency to question the credulity or quality of the work when certain
inconsistencies and improbabilities occur, such as those relating to sex, age,
and size. Grahame, however, does more than just fool our censors; he uses
the advantages that these characters have as animals as well.
It would be scholastically irresponsible to say that the dearth of female
characters in The Wind in the Willows is not noticeable. A substantial amount
of criticism has been written addressing that very issue (and no doubt casual
readers have also noticed this). I would venture, however, that it is less
noticeable because the large majority of the characters are animals.
Gaarden, writing in "The Inner Family of The Wind in the Willows," proffers
the following reason:
Grahame's refusal to so much as name any female animal until
the very last page of the book does not obliterate the feminine.
Rather, it circumvents the reader's habit of classifying
individuals primarily by sex, and leads us to differentiate,
instead, by species.
The casual observer generally cannot identify the sex of most animals. With
some it is more obvious, but certainly not with Rats, Moles, Badgers, and
Toads, especially if they are solitary, i.e., without the opposite sex with which
to compare. This can lead to an impression that animals are sexless as well
as a tendency to give animals a default gender. It the case of The Wind in
the Willows, it is male.
There are a number of inconsistencies having to do with age throughout the
text. Rat, for example, is usually portrayed as an adult, but not always, as
when Toad remarks, "My! won't he catch it when the Badger gets back!" This
puts Badger in the role of the father figure, and reduces Rat to a child who
has done something wrong. Mole, on the other hand, usually takes on the
role of the child, or the "good child" as Gaarden describes him in her article
"The Inner Family of The Wind in the Willows. He is dependant on Rat for
rescue and emotional support, he overestimates his capacities, he has fits of
impatience, and he is full of wonder. However, with the very first page of the
novel, Mole is "spring-cleaning his little home." Children do not own their
own homes, and they generally refrain from cleaning their own rooms, much
less an entire house, without being asked. This flexibility in age, like sex,
may go unnoticed by readers because of an ageless quality animals seem to
possess. Even more than sex, age is very difficult to determine in animals.
On the other hand, humans are quite aware of their own life cycle and what
each of its stages entails. A human child that owns a home would be much
more perplexing to readers.
The sizes of the animals are not so much inconsistent, but rather, incorrect.
No toad in the world is large enough to drive a car. No mole is tall enough to
walk with its head "beside a horse's head." A badger is vastly larger than a
toad. Again, Grahame is drawing on the anthropomorphic tradition. Readers
willing to accept talking animals are also willing to accept that they are about
the same size as humans, regardless of what kind of animal it is. However,
Grahame does more than give animals human qualities. He also takes
advantage of their animal abilities, as Cynthia Marshall explains in "Bodies
and Pleasures in The Wind in the Willows:
Indeed, so successfully does Grahame effect the bond between
readers and characters on the basis of shared pleasures that on
those rare occasions when the beastly status of a character does
receive explicit mention, we feel our own senses expanding to
encompass the experience.
One of the more poignant examples of "our own senses expanding" is when
Mole encounters the smells of home:
We others, who have long lost the more subtle of the physical
senses, have not even proper terms to express an animal's
intercommunications with his surroundings, living or otherwise,
and have only the word "smell," for instance, to include the
whole range of delicate thrills which murmur in the nose of the
animal night and day, summoning, warning, inciting, repelling.
It was one of these mysterious fairy calls from out the void that
suddenly reached Mole in the darkness, making him tingle
through and through with its very familiar appeal. . . .
Not only do the readers get to perceive the world though animal sensitivities,
they are also allowed to enjoy closeness to nature without the burdens that
go along with it. There is a strong sense of home, and the comforts of home,
throughout the story. Yet the characters spend most of the time outside or in
holes or along riverbanks or in a wood. It would be difficult to write such a
story about humans without the connotation of effort. At best, the characters
might enjoy the comforts of a nice, long camp out. Since animals always live
in the wild, and since people are not always aware of what they must do for
survival, it is easier to believe that they live effortlessly in their holes along
the river and in the woods.
In "Bodies and Pleasures in The Wind in the Willows," Marshall writes:
At once beast and human, small and large, the characters move
easily between radically discontinuous positions, partaking of
the delights available to all and the troubles germane to none.
The animal characters are undifferentiated, unrestrained. . . .
Many scholars argue that Grahame did not achieve a story either clear of
problems or free of the clash of sex. Their reasoning is often quite sound,
and I agree with some of it. The Wind in the Willows is certainly not rid of all
the cares of the world. Subtextual layers of the cultural context in which it
was written can be unearthed. Signs of Grahame's own personal troubles and
his family's dysfunction may be detectable. Still, he is able to draw on the
anthropomorphic tradition as well as his own imagination in order to find a
space for a story that is somewhat uncluttered by the rules of sex, size, and
age. He constructed a sort of imperfect umbrella under which he could
shelter his captivating novel from many of the burdens of the world. He did
this so that he might entertain his disabled son Alastair with stories at the
age of four. He has done it for countless other children.
16 FOR FURTHER READING
Bate, Roger, and Keith Hartley, Saving Our Streams: The Role of the Anglers'
Conservation Association in Protecting English & Welsh Rivers, Institute of
Economic Affairs, 2001.
Bate and Hartley consider the Anglers' Conservation
Association's fight to clean up and preserve English and Welsh
rivers that have been damaged through urban development and
pollution. The legislation affecting the conservation of riverbased ecosystems, also know as riparian systems, is also
examined.
Carpenter, Humphrey, Secret Gardens: A Study of the Golden Age of
Children's Literature, Pubs Overstock, 1991.
The book examines works from the golden age of children's
literature and their authors, including the sources of their
inspiration and the cultural circumstances that led these authors
to direct their writing towards children.
Eckermann, Erik, and Peter L. Albrecht, World History of Automobiles,
Society of Automotive Engineers, 2001.
Eckermann and Albrecht describe the development of the
automobile, from what lead to its invention to the most recent
technological advances. Photographs and diagrams complement
the text.
Green, Peter, Kenneth Grahame: A Biography, World Publishing, 1959.
The earliest comprehensive biography of Grahame, Green's
biography is the one most commonly referenced by literary
scholars. The book is accompanied by twenty-two pictures and
illustrations.
RELATED TITLES
Although Kenneth Grahame wrote only one novel, The Wind in the Willows,
he published three collections of his essays: Pagan Papers, The Golden Age,
and Dream Days, all of which contain material on childhood. Grahame
believed that the ages between four and seven were the most important
years in the formation of any person's nature.
During those years, Grahame felt, children develop their power of
imagination.
This idea was not popular at the time, and most people believed that an
overactive imagination led only to wasteful daydreaming and that fairy tales
and myths did more harm than good.
Grahame, on the other hand, thought that adults whose imaginations had
been properly nurtured during childhood would be able to turn to their
imaginary childhood world for spiritual rejuvenation.
Like many of his contemporaries— Robert Louis Stevenson, Walter de la
Mare, Sir James Barrie, Mark Twain, Joel Chandler Harris, Rudyard Kipling,
and Beatrix Potter—Grahame believed that adventure, fantasy, and
entertainment were worthy goals for children's literature. In fact, in his
essays Grahame warned parents and teachers that their refusal to expose
children to this type of literature would seriously hinder the child's healthy
development. In fact, he repeatedly insisted that nature, dreams, fantasy,
and the memory of these things added significantly to a child's intellectual
growth.
17
WHERE DO I GET THE ADDITIONAL MATERIAL?
RECOMMENDED:

www.play.com:
FREE DELIVERY (Click on the European flag top
right!)
1 The Wind in the Willows, book
Complete and unabridged, with the original illustrations by E.H. Shepard
(Yellow and brown cover):
37 EUR
2 The Wind in the Willows, DVD with Matt Lucas
Two editions:
1) Deluxe: DVD +book (paperback): 17.26 EUR
2) DVD only:
22.86 EUR
3 The Wind in the Willows, DVD with Terry Jones and other members of the
Monty Python group
29.98 EUR
4 The Wind in the Willows, audiobook (3 CDs)
Read by Alan Bennett:

www.amazon.co.uk
23.14 EUR
DEFINITIE/Belangrijkste eigenschappen TAALTAAK:
1.
Authentiek (of zo authentiek mogelijk).
2. Integratie van kennis (= woord geldt alleen voor van buiten geleerde kennis, niet over
iets dat ze opzoeken voor de taak, en verder min of meer mogen vergeten, tenzij je het
uitdrukkelijk in een klein kennistoetsje wil opvragen), omgezet in vaardigheden, en idealiter
in een vorm van vaardigheden onderling, bv. een lees-, spreek-, schrijf- of luisteroefening
eventueel over intercultureel onderwerp.
3. Die moet leiden tot communicatief-creatief product ( in één of andere vorm en/of
tekstsoort: een e-mail, een blog, een samenvatting, al of niet mondeling gepresenteerd, een
uitnodiging, een dialoog, een verzoek, een klacht, een telefoongesprek,…)
4.
Grootste deel van de toets: open vraagstelling
5. De leerlingen moeten de taak door middel van opdrachten en voorafgaande kleinere
oefeningen zelfstandig aankunnen, en moeten/mogen hulpmiddelen en strategieën
gebruiken.