Class 12 English Flamingo Chapter 4 The Rattrap NCERT Solutions

Q. From where did the peddler get the idea of the world being a rattrap?

Answer: He got it from his own trade. One day, while plodding along the road thinking about his rattraps, he was struck by the idea that the whole world was nothing but a big rattrap. Just as his rattrap offered “cheese and pork” as bait, the world offered “riches and joys, shelter and food, heat and clothing”, and as soon as anyone let himself be tempted to touch the bait, it closed in on him.

Q. Why was he amused by this idea?

Answer: The world had never been very kind to him, so it gave him “unwonted joy to think ill of it in this way.” The idea broke the sad monotony of his lonely life on the road, and it became a cherished pastime of his to think of people he knew who had let themselves be caught in the dangerous snare, and of others who were still circling around the bait.

Q. Did the peddler expect the kind of hospitality that he received from the crofter?

Answer: No. He knocked only to ask for shelter for the night, and was used to “sour faces.” Instead, the old crofter was happy to have company: he gave him porridge for supper, a big slice of his tobacco roll, and played mjolis with him until bedtime. This warmth was far more than the peddler expected.

Q. Why was the crofter so talkative and friendly with the peddler?

Answer: The crofter was an old man without wife or child, living alone. He was lonely and “happy to get someone to talk to in his loneliness,” so he welcomed the stranger warmly and shared his food, his tobacco and his confidences freely.

Q. Why did he show the thirty kronor to the peddler?

Answer: The crofter was proud that his cow could give milk for the creamery every day and had earned him thirty kronor the previous month. The stranger seemed incredulous, so to prove his claim the trusting old man took down the leather pouch from the window frame and showed him the three wrinkled ten-kronor bills.

Q. Did the peddler respect the confidence reposed in him by the crofter?

Answer: No. Half an hour after they parted, the peddler came back, smashed a window pane, took the thirty kronor out of the pouch and hung the pouch carefully back in its place. He betrayed the old man’s trust and even felt “quite pleased with his smartness.”

Q. What made the peddler think that he had indeed fallen into a rattrap?

Answer: After the theft he left the public highway for the woods and got lost in a big, confusing forest, walking round and round in the same part of it. He then recalled his own thoughts about the world and the rattrap: “He had let himself be fooled by a bait and had been caught.” (The book does not name the bait; it can be read as the stolen money.) The forest closed in upon him “like an impenetrable prison from which he could never escape.”

Q. Why did the ironmaster speak kindly to the peddler and invite him home?

Answer: In the uncertain light of the furnace, the ironmaster mistook the peddler for an old regimental comrade, Nils Olof (“But of course it is you, Nils Olof!”). Elizabeth is dead, his boys are abroad, and only his oldest daughter is at home, so he says it is “too bad we didn’t have any company for Christmas”; he wanted company to help them “make the Christmas food disappear a little faster.”

Q. Why did the peddler decline the invitation?

Answer: He thought of the thirty kronor he had stolen. Going up to the manor house would be “like throwing himself voluntarily into the lion’s den,” since he might be found out. He only wanted to sleep in the forge and then sneak away as inconspicuously as possible.

Q. What made the peddler accept Edla Willmansson’s invitation?

Answer: Edla’s compassion and friendly manner. Noticing that he was afraid, she assured him, “You may be sure, Captain, that you will be allowed to leave us just as freely as you came.” She said this in such a friendly manner that he “must have felt confidence in her”, and he seemed surprised that she had come for him herself: “It would never have occurred to me that you would bother with me yourself, miss.”

Q. What doubts did Edla have about the peddler?

Answer: In the forge she noticed that he was frightened and thought that either he had stolen something or else he had escaped from jail. The next morning she also told her father that the night before she had not seen anything about him to show that he had once been an educated man.

Q. When did the ironmaster realise his mistake?

Answer: On the morning of Christmas Eve, at breakfast. The valet had bathed the stranger, cut his hair and shaved him, and dressed him in one of the ironmaster’s own suits. In the furnace light the ironmaster might have made a mistake, but now, in broad daylight, it was impossible to mistake him for an old acquaintance.

Q. What did the peddler say in his defence when it was clear that he was not the person the ironmaster had thought he was?

Answer: He made no attempt to pretend. “It is not my fault, sir,” he said. “I never pretended to be anything but a poor trader, and I pleaded and begged to be allowed to stay in the forge. But no harm has been done. At worst I can put on my rags again and go away.” When the ironmaster mentioned the sheriff, he added his rattrap warning: the whole world is a big rattrap, and a day may come when the ironmaster himself may want “a big piece of pork” and get caught in the trap.

Q. Why did Edla still entertain the peddler even after she knew the truth about him?

Answer: Out of compassion. That morning she had been happy thinking how homelike and Christmassy she would make things for “the poor hungry wretch,” and she could not give up the idea at once. She pointed out that he walks the whole year long with probably no place where he is welcome, always chased away and afraid of being arrested, and she wanted him to enjoy “a day of peace with us here — just one in the whole year.” She also felt they ought not to chase away a human being whom they had invited and promised Christmas cheer.

Q. Why was Edla happy to see the gift left by the peddler?

Answer: The package held a small rattrap with the three wrinkled ten-kronor notes and a letter. It showed that the peddler had taken nothing from the manor house, and that he was asking Edla to give the crofter’s stolen money back to him. She gave “a little cry of joy.” The book does not say why; one reading is that her kindness and trust, which her father had doubted, had brought out the good in him.

Q. Why did the peddler sign himself as Captain von Stahle?

Answer: Edla had treated him all day with the respect due to a captain, so he wanted to be nice to her in return “as if I was a real captain.” Being raised to captain gave him, in his words, “power to clear himself,” so he signed with the title that had let him escape the world’s rattrap. It is also a touch of his humour.

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

Answer: At first, the peddler seems to interpret acts of kindness through his own cynical “rattrap” philosophy, treating each kindness as an opportunity rather than as genuine goodwill. His rattrap idea shapes how he reads the kindness he receives, but the text gives his need (“to keep body and soul together”) as the reason for his petty thievery, and says he felt “quite pleased with his smartness” after robbing the trusting old crofter. He plays along with the ironmaster’s mistaken warmth, hoping only for a couple of kronor. Edla Willmansson’s kindness, given even after she suspects he may be a thief, puzzles him: “Why had she done it? What could the crazy idea be?” His letter answers her kindness with honesty: “Since you have been so nice to me all day long … I want to be nice to you, in return.”

Q. 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?

Answer: The ironmaster’s kindness is warm but conditional: he invites the “captain” home only because he mistakes him for his old regimental comrade, Nils Olof, and the moment daylight reveals the mistake, his warmth turns to suspicion and he is ready to mention the sheriff. The next morning, hearing of a robbery nearby, he again assumes the worst, wondering how many silver spoons are missing from his own house. Edla, by contrast, is kind with her eyes open: she privately suspects the stranger may be a thief or an escaped convict from the very first evening, and is kind to him anyway. She insists he stay even after her father wants him gone, and, that night, tells him he may keep the suit as a Christmas present and will be welcome again next Christmas. Where the ironmaster’s kindness depends on believing a comfortable story about the stranger, Edla’s kindness does not depend on the stranger’s story at all.

Q. The story has many instances of unexpected reactions from the characters to others’ behaviour. Pick out instances of these surprises.

Answer: Several reactions in the story surprise the reader as much as the characters. The old crofter, instead of turning away a ragged stranger, welcomes him with porridge, tobacco and a card game, and even shows him the thirty kronor his cow had earned him, out of pure trust. The peddler repays this trust by robbing him, an unexpected turn given how warmly he had just been treated. The ironmaster’s mistaking a poor tramp for an old army comrade, and inviting him home on that basis, is itself unexpected. Most surprising of all is Edla’s reaction: rather than being frightened or repulsed once she guesses the stranger may be a criminal, she insists he stay, closing the door herself so that he cannot leave. Finally, the peddler’s own reaction, leaving the stolen money with Edla to give back to the crofter and thanking her with a letter rather than simply vanishing with his loot, reverses everything the reader has been led to expect of him.

Q. What made the peddler finally change his ways?

Answer: The book does not state the cause directly, but the peddler’s letter points to Edla Willmansson’s kindness: “Since you have been so nice to me all day long, as if I was a captain, I want to be nice to you, in return, as if I was a real captain.” The ironmaster treats him according to what he believes about him, first a false belief (the mistaken warmth) and then suspicion. Edla is kind to him even after guessing he may be a thief, wanting only that he enjoy one day of peace. The letter also says that being “raised to captain” gave him “power to clear himself.” One reading is that this kindness finally awakens in him the honesty that his letter shows.

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

Answer: The rattrap metaphor works at three levels. First, the peddler uses it to describe the whole world: it offers “riches and joys, shelter and food, heat and clothing” as baits, exactly as a rattrap offers cheese and pork, and anyone tempted by them is caught, “and then everything came to an end”. Second, the metaphor turns out to be true of the peddler himself: having stolen the crofter’s money, he gets lost in the forest and realises he “had let himself be fooled by a bait and had been caught”, as he had imagined the world trapping others. Third, by the end of the story the metaphor becomes something else entirely: an actual small rattrap, left as a gift, holding the stolen money for Edla to give back to the crofter. Together these three levels highlight the human predicament that anyone, however clear-sighted about greed and temptation, can still be caught by it, and that something outside the trap itself, in this story unconditional kindness, offers a way out of it.

Q. 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?

Answer: The peddler’s humour shows itself most clearly in his “rattrap” speech to the ironmaster: rather than begging for mercy, he turns his accuser’s own position back on him, warning that even the powerful ironmaster might one day be tempted by “a big piece of pork” and get caught in the trap himself, a remark clever and pointed enough that the ironmaster actually laughs at it. This wit stops the story from becoming a grim lecture about poverty and dishonesty; it gives the peddler dignity and intelligence even at his lowest moment, and it is part of why the reader keeps sympathising with him even after learning he is a thief. A man who can joke about his own philosophy while defending himself is far easier for the reader to forgive, and to believe capable of change, than one who can only plead or flee.

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

Answer: The story opens by describing the peddler’s poverty and hunger, and presents his petty thievery as something hunger forced on him (“the business was not especially profitable, so he had to resort to both begging and petty thievery to keep body and soul together”), so the reader’s first impression is of a man pushed into dishonesty by real need. This sympathy is largely justified: the story goes on to show that he is capable of humour, insight and, eventually, real honesty once he is treated with unconditional kindness. It is not blind sympathy, though, since the story never pretends his theft from the trusting old crofter was anything but wrong; it simply asks the reader to judge the whole person, including his capacity to change, rather than the single act.

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

Answer: Both the old crofter and the peddler are lonely figures. The crofter lives alone and is “happy to get someone to talk to in his loneliness,” which is why he welcomes a complete stranger so warmly. The peddler, for his part, has no home and no one who is glad to see him: Edla says there is “probably not a single place in the whole country where he is welcome and can feel at home”, and she wishes him to “enjoy a day of peace” with them. The story suggests that this need to bond with another person, to be seen and welcomed rather than just tolerated, is what finally reaches the peddler when neither charity nor threat could.

Q. Have you known or heard of an episode where a good deed or an act of kindness has changed a person’s view of the world?

Answer: This is a personal, discussion-based question with no single correct answer. A strong response describes a specific real or heard-of incident, explains what the act of kindness was, and connects it clearly back to the chapter’s own idea: that unconditional kindness, offered without expecting anything in return, has the power to change how a person sees the world and how they choose to act afterwards, as Edla’s kindness seems to change the peddler.

Q. The story is both entertaining and philosophical.

Answer: The story entertains through its fairy-tale manner, its mistaken-identity plot and the peddler’s dry humour, and it also carries a serious idea: temptation can trap people, and kindness offered without conditions can offer a way out. The entertainment value (a simple, well-told tale with a satisfying twist ending) and the philosophical value (a meditation on greed, judgment and redemption) work together rather than against each other.

Q. The man selling rattraps is referred to by many terms such as “peddler,” “stranger,” etc. Pick out all such references to him. What does each of these labels indicate of the context or the attitude of the people around him?

Answer: He is called, among other things: peddler and vagabond (the narrator’s neutral-to-pitying view of his trade and way of life), stranger and intruder (how the blacksmiths and, briefly, the ironmaster’s household see an unknown outsider), tramp and ragamuffin (how his ragged appearance is judged by people who do not yet know him), guest (once the crofter and later Edla treat him with hospitality), and finally Captain or Captain von Stahle (the identity he is mistakenly given, and the one he chooses to sign himself with at the end). Each label reflects not who he actually is, but how the person using it currently sees him, moving from suspicion and pity towards, briefly, false respect, and finally towards the earned respect his last act deserves.

Q. You came across the words plod, trudge, stagger in the story. These words indicate movement accompanied by weariness. Find five other such words with a similar meaning.

Answer: Shuffle, hobble, limp, shamble, and drag oneself along are five other words indicating tired, weary movement, alongside the story’s own plod, trudge and stagger.

Q. Notice the way in which the reflexive pronouns (pronoun + -self) have been used in these four sentences from the story: (1) “He made them himself at odd moments.” (2) “He raised himself.” (3) “He had let himself be fooled by a bait and had been caught.” (4) “…a day may come when you yourself may want to get a big piece of pork.” Pick out other examples of the use of reflexive pronouns from the story and notice how they are used.

Answer: As the book itself explains, in sentences 1 and 4 the reflexive pronouns “himself” and “yourself” are used for emphasis. In sentences 2 and 3, the reflexive pronoun is used in place of a personal pronoun to show that it refers back to the same subject as the sentence’s own doer. Other examples from the story that follow the same two patterns include the ironmaster hoping his daughter “would have better powers of persuasion than he himself” (emphasis, just like sentences 1 and 4), the peddler’s cherished pastime of thinking of “people he knew who had let themselves be caught in the dangerous snare” (same-subject, plural), and the ironmaster, who “could not bring himself to oppose” Edla when she pleads for the stranger (same-subject); each doer’s own action folding back onto the doer, exactly like “he raised himself” and “he had let himself be fooled.”

Q. Notice the words in bold in “The fire boy shovelled charcoal into the maw of the furnace with a great deal of clatter.” This is a phrase used in the specific context of an iron plant. Pick out other such phrases and words from the story that are peculiar to the terminology of ironworks.

Answer: Besides “maw of the furnace,” the story uses ironworks-specific terms and phrases such as smelter, rolling mill, forge, pig iron, anvil, and bellows (which “groaned” as they fed the fire), all of which belong to the specialised vocabulary of a working iron plant rather than everyday speech.

Q. Mjolis is a card game of Sweden. Name a few indoor games played in your region. ‘Chopar’ could be an example.

Answer: This is an open, region-based question. Along with the book’s own example of Chopar, other Indian indoor games a student could name include Ludo, Carrom, Snakes and Ladders, and traditional card games such as Rummy or Teen Patti, each of which plays a similar social role in a region to what mjolis plays in the story’s Sweden.

Q. A crofter is a person who rents or owns a small farm especially in Scotland. Think of other uncommon terms for ‘a small farmer’ including those in your language.

Answer: Other English terms for a small farmer include tenant farmer, smallholder and peasant. Other uncommon English terms include cotter (or cottar) and sharecropper. Indian languages have their own terms too: in Hindi, for example, bataidar is a sharecropper, a farmer who works another person’s land for a share of the crop. A student should give the term used in their own language and explain briefly how it compares to “crofter.”