Long Answer Type Questions

Q1. How does the peddler interpret the acts of kindness and hospitality shown by the crofter, the ironmaster and his daughter?

Ans. The peddler feels absolutely no compunction about accepting the hospitality of the crofter and then robbing him of his hard-earned kroner. He enjoys playing cards with his host all evening and then makes away with his money the next morning. When the ironmaster having mistaken him for a regimental comrade invites him to his house to share his Christmas lunch, he feels a sense of entrapment, having the stolen money on his person, and thus declines the invitation. He feels that to accept the hospitality of the ironmaster would be like voluntarily throwing himself into the lions den. However, he does not at the outset disclose his true identity because he hopes to profit from the mistake thinking perhaps a few kroner would come his way but now he only wants to rest near the forge at night and quietly slip away in the morning. The ironmaster’s daughters kindness touches the tramp’s heart making him feel more worthy. She makes him feel comfortable and raises his self-esteem. Even after his true identity has been discovered, she feels sympathetic towards him and convinces her father to let him stay and share Christmas cheer with them. She does not for a moment doubt his integrity and the tramp repays this faith and kindness by leaving behind the stolen kroner to be returned to the rightful owner along with one of his rattraps as a present and a letter addressed to the daughter thanking her for elevating his status to that of a captain and for the chance to redeem his mistake.

Q2. What are the instances in the story that show that the character of the ironmaster is different from that of his daughter in many ways?

Ans. The ironmaster is a man of power whose ambition was to ensure that good iron was shipped out. He believed in closely supervising the work at the ironworks to make sure that all was in order. When he saw the tramp, he was not overcome with sympathy. His arrogance came to the fore and he commenced to give him a piece of his mind regarding his unwise decision of not resigning at the appropriate time. His invitation to the tramp to come to his house stemmed more from a sense of superiority rather than true philanthropy. He was most indignant to discover that the tramp had deceived him regarding his true identity. The ironmaster’s daughter sensed something amiss on her very first meeting with the tramp. She was not convinced that he had ever been in the army and when she was proved right, her reaction was not one of indignation but one of sympathy, understanding and kindness. She realised how he must always have to contend with being turned away and not being made welcome anywhere and decided that she would give him that opportunity of feeling secure and welcome in their home. She had more faith in him than did her father and when the tramp did nothing but eat and sleep, she was able to appreciate the fact that he had probably never felt so secure in his life. She even convinced her father to gift him the suit that was loaned to the tramp as a Christmas gift.

Q3. The story has many instances of unexpected reactions from the characters to others’

behaviour. Pick out instances of these surprises.

Ans. The peddler, walking along on a winters evening, is able to avail the unconditional warmth and hospitality of the owner of the cottage. The host shares his food, his home and his confidences, showing the stranger the money that he had made. The tramp, the next day, feels no remorse for stealing the money and walking away. When he is seeking shelter from the cold and has the opportunity to spend the night at the ironmaster’s house, he declines as he has the stolen money with him and feels that he will be walking into the lion’s den. However, when the same invitation is extended by the ironmaster through his daughter, the tramp accepts as her kindness filters through. Left alone in the ironmaster’s house, the tramp has every opportunity to make away with the valuables. On the contrary, the tramp goes away leaving behind the stolen money to be returned to the rightful owner along with a rattrap as a present for the ironmaster’s daughter.

Q4. What made the peddler finally change his ways?

Ans. The peddler had lived a life of privation and constant rejection. It had made him cynical and

embittered. Self-preservation had become his sole objective and he could not sense the difference between right and wrong. He had lost his sense of self-worth, having lived in penury with no home to call his own and not even a name to answer to. He had to resort to begging and petty thieving to survive and life offered no pleasure at all. The sadness and monotony of his life had convinced him of the fact that life was like a huge rattrap and just as the cheese and pork in the traps that he made were the bait, so also the riches, joys, shelter and the food that life offered were the bait. As soon as anyone let himself be tempted, it closed in around him and all came to an end. He took pleasure in thinking of all the acquaintances who had been caught in this trap. However, the meeting with the ironmaster’s daughter was the turning point in his life. The kindness, the concern and the understanding that she showed him touched the core of his heart and transformed his way of thinking.

Q5. How does the metaphor of the rattrap serve to highlight the human predicament?

Ans. The tramp during his wanderings hit upon the thought that just as the cheese and the pork are the bait in the rattraps that he makes so also the joys, the warmth, the shelter and the comforts that life offers are the bait to trap humans in the huge rattrap of the world. It gave him immense pleasure to ruminate about all his acquaintances who had fallen into the trap. Though these were the thoughts of an embittered man who envied those whose lot was better than his, yet the metaphor of the trap holds some truth when one thinks about life. The more one has, the more one wants and sometimes the reasons for wanting those things become secondary to the wants themselves. Jealousy and rivalry are the corollary of material acquisitions and the only motivation to possess things is to outdo another. The rattrap of the world entraps us and we are so occupied with chasing the state of fulfilment that ever evades us that we are again engulfed in despair and discontentment.

Q6. The peddler comes out as a person with a subtle sense of humour. How does this serve in lightening the seriousness of the theme of the story and also endear him to us?

The peddler, with his subtle sense of humour was able to make an equation between the rattraps that he made and the world, which he likened to a huge rattrap, offering bait and then closing in, round those who fell for them. This was his way of consoling himself that no matter what his lot, he was better off than those who fell for the worldly bait of joy, warmth, shelter and other such comforts. This makes the sad, the weary and melancholy tramp very human and real. He manages to arouse the sympathy of the reader despite his thieving ways and his dead conscience for he makes the reader examine the merits of self-preservation. His preoccupation with remaining undetected as the thief who has made away with the thirty hard-earned kroner of the crofter makes him refuse the luxury of spending Christmas at the fine house of the ironmaster. The kindness with which the ironmaster s daughter treats him touches the core of his hitherto hardened heart. The restoration of his dignity results in his transformation into a responsible human being, sensitive, courteous, grateful and gracious.

Q7. The reader’s sympathy is with the peddler right from the beginning of the story. Why is this so? Is the sympathy justified?

The peddler earns the sympathy of the reader because on every occasion when his woes seem to be ending, he is assailed by fresh problems, as if caught in a rattrap with no escape. After receiving hospitality form a crofter, he is assailed by feelings of guilt as he stoops to temptation and steals the crofters earnings. Paradoxically, he loses his way in a forest even though he is a vagabond who has always found his way through the woods. At the smithy when he is mistaken for an acquaintance of the iron master he plays along, only to be discovered subsequently and being threatened with imprisonment. When Edla offers him unconditional love and hospitality, he does truly reform. He rids himself of the stolen wealth and presents the girl with the kroner in a symbolic rattrap, and becomes a carefree and satisfied individual.

Q8. The story also focuses on human loneliness and the need to bond with others.

(a) Festivities are not complete without bonding with other human beings. Thus the ironmaster

takes home the peddler mistaking him for his former acquaintance Captain von Stahle because

he cannot bear to leave an acquaintance stranded on Christmas Eve.

 (b) The daughter and father welcome the stranger as they like to have company to share their joys on Christmas.

(c) Even after finding out that the stranger is not the former acquaintance, the daughter insists on

his staying with them because of the need for human company.

(d) The story illustrates that lonely people are willing to take in any human beings because of the

innate need for human company. Thus the crofter welcomed the vagabond under his roof.

(e) The confession of the man to stealing or acquiescing to a false identity did not alter the

generosity of his hosts as they were hungry for company at all costs.

Q9. The story is both entertaining and philosophical.

Ans. (a) The story is entertaining because of the many sudden twists in the storyline that is maintained throughout the content. Each time, the stranger seemed to have overcome his troubles, he met with fresh hurdles.

(b) It is entertaining because of the differences in the locales where the various incidents occur,

and the dialogue of the characters. The scene of mistaken identities reveals this point.

(c) The story maintains an air of suspense right through and even the concluding part of the story

is a startling one.

(d) The story is philosophical because it poses an open-ended query as to whether our lives are

conditioned by our fate or are a direct follow-through of our own follies, caught as we are in a giant rattrap.

(e) It also brings to the fore that human love, in the form of hospitality when given

unconditionally, brings about real change as was revealed through the character of the ironmasters daughter towards the peddler.