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The reader’s sympathy is with the peddler right from the beginning of the story. Is the sympathy justified? |
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Answer» ‘The Rattrap’ is written in the backdrop of industrial revolution in Sweden in the second half of the nineteenth century. Many families were displaced by the growing industry and some people were reduced to a life of extreme poverty. The peddler in the story was a victim of such an economic change. He managed his life by begging and stealing. The pitiable state in which he was living evokes the sympathy of the reader. Even when he stole the money of the crofter, we don’t consider him to be a criminal. It was taken as a normal reaction of a poor man when he saw so much money easily available to him. Thus, the peddler’s extreme poverty and the circumstances in which he lived, justifiably make the reader sympathetic to him from the beginning of the story. |
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