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The Rattrap Literary Devices
The Rattrap Literary Devices
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..."