The peddler has come to the conclusion that

the whole world is like a rattrap and it had

never existed for any other purpose than to
set baits for people.
Allegory
→ This is a pessimistic allegory and plays out
on the peddler himself when he steals the
thirty kronor and ends up in the woods.
→ However, through the kindness of others,
the allegory is reversed.
The peddler's theory about the world being a
rattrap in the beginning foreshadows the
Foreshadowing
"The world had, of course, never been very
scenario he finds himself in by the middle of kind to him, so it gave him unwonted joy to
the story. think ill of it in this way."
Personification
The world is personified as the peddler
→ "The whole forest, with its trucks and ascribes emotions and preferences to the
branches, it's thickets and fallen logs, closed world (as in the world can be kind to him if it
in upon him like an impenetrable prison from chose to be).
which he could never escape."

→ "To go up to the manor house would be Simile

like throwing himself voluntarily into the lion's
den." Parallels between the biblical story of Jesus's
birth and the peddler searching for a shelter.
→ "You can give back the money to the old Mary and Joseph were denied to stay in the
man on the roadside, who has the money inn for shelter and had to take shelter in a
pouch hanging on the window frame as a bait Parralelisms manger in a barn.
for poor wanderers."
Edla wants to host the vagabond despite his
pretense as she feels obliged to open up their
house and offer the stranger some respite on
Christmas time.

"The whole world with its lands and seas, its

cities and villages--was nothing but a big
rattrap. It had never existed for any other The writer uses pastoral imagery and spare
purpose than to set baits for people. It offered descriptions of the Swedish countryside. to
them riches and joys, shelter and food, heat create an atmosphere of rural life. There are
and clothing, exactly as the rattrap offered instances of imagery used in the description
cheese and pork, and as soon as anyone let
Metaphor
of the expansive landscapes seen by the
himself be tempted to touch the bait, it closed peddler on road, of the crofter's little gray
on him, and then everything came to an end." cottage, and of Ramsjo Ironworks.
→ Here, the world is compared to a rattrap The Crofter's Gray Cottage
and humans are compared to rats.
→ This paragraph also uses simile to → The crofter's cottage is described using
compare the baits the rattrap and world offer. simple, pastoral imagery.
→ "One dark evening as he was trudging
along the road, he caught sight of a little gray
cottage by the roadside, and he knocked on
the door to ask shelter for the night."
→ Furthermore, the image of the crofter living
alone with his cow on a small plot of land
The story is set during Christmas day and the
writer draws clear situational parallels to the The Rattrap: Imagery evokes the environment of rural Sweden in
the late 19th century.
story of the birth of Christ in a barn. Hence,
the New Testament is alluded. Allusions Literary Devices
Ramsjo Ironworks

→ While the story is dominated by rural

imagery, the description of Ramsjo Ironworks
gives the reader a sense of the industrial
landscape of the time.
→ "All the time there were many sounds to be
heard in the forge. The big bellows groaned
and the burning coal cracked. The fire boy
shoveled charcoal into the maw of the furnace
Understatement The Crofter's Cow with a great deal of clatter. Outside roared the
waterfall, and a sharp north wind whipped the
→ The crofter's crow symbolizes the crofter's rain against the brick-tiled roof."
economic status and subsistence (minimal → Infusing the loudness of the forge with the
livelihood). loudness of a natural formation like a roaring
→ It also symbolizes support. The cow waterfall and road, the industry setting is
A Fine Fellow supports the crofter and without the cow, the integrated into the pastoral landscape.
crofter would have no means of supporting ,
→ This is an example of verbal irony.
Symbolism himself.
→ "Yes, that was a fine fellow you let into the → The crofter is poor but stable enough to
house. I only wonder how many silver spoons afford basic necessities.
are left in the cupboard by this time." → "In his days of prosperity, he worked at
→ The Ironmaster is being sarcastic and Ramsjo Ironworks, and now that he was no
thinks of the peddler as nothing more than a longer able to do day labor, it was his cow
thief. which supported him."

The Signature
The Peddler Trap
→ The signature is a symbolism of new
→ In this situational irony, the peddler falls identity and personal transfromation.
into the very trap he thinks about at the → At the end of the story, Edla comes home
beginning of the story. to find a rattrap, thirty kronor, and a letter
→ He is convinced the world is a rattrap written in big messy scrawls.
which will bring him to his demise if he gets → The peddler, in the letter, signs himself as
lured in by the bait. However, he still steals Captain Von Stahle (the captain with whom
the money from the kind crofter and gets lost Ironmaster confused the peddler).
in the snowy night. Irony
→ Thus, the name becomes his only identity.
→ One would assume the peddler would be → The writer brings out a transformation of
more cautious as a believer of the rattrap the unnamed peddler who steals and
theory but he falls into it like anyone else. swindles to a respected upstanding citizen.
→ This symbolizes the human predicament of
not being able to keep oneself away from the
lures of the world.
→ "A bunch of rattraps hanging around his
chest."
Captain Von Stahle
→ "She entered, followed by a valet, carrying
→ This is an example of dramatic irony. on his arm a big fur coat."
→ When the Ironmaster mistakes the peddler
for his old army friend, the reader is aware of → "...lay with a piece of pig iron under his
the peddler being no Captain Von Stahle. head and his hat pulled down over his eyes.
→ The Ironmaster thinks that the man isn't
coming to his house because he is → "...we must see to it that he gets a little
embarrassed. But the reader is aware that the flesh on his bones."
peddler is anxious to avoid the situation.
→ Because the reader is aware of the entire → "The valet had bathed him, cut his hair,
situation while the Ironmaster and Edla are Metonymy and Synecdoche and shaved him.
being duped, this qualifies as dramatic irony.
→ "He looked at him with puckered brow..."

→ "The tramp took a step forward and struck

the table with his fist."

→ "The girl took the stranger by hand..."

→ "...the young girl sat and head hung even

more dejectedly than usual."