Prose Chapter 4 - The Rat Trap

The Rat Trap is a story written by the Swedish author Selma Lagerlof. It is a poignant tale of a poor person who earns his livelihood by selling rat traps. To make ends meet, he ends up stealing money from an old crofter. To avoid being caught, he started travelling through the forest and ended up getting lost. Finally finding shelter at on old forge, he was taken aback by the kindness and generosity shown by the old ironmaster and his daughter.

To help students such as you understand this story better, we have come up with chapter summary and precise NCERT Solutions For Class 12 English Flamingo The Rattrap here at UrbanPro.

Summary

The Rat Trap is a tale that focuses on the values of compassion and kindness. It also shows how any person can change for the better if treated with warmth and benevolence.

The main protagonist of the story is a poor person. He sold rat traps for a living; however, to make ends meet, he was forced to resort to begging and even stealing. Living alone, he has a cynical view of the world- believing that comforts of life are just baits to lure us into the ‘rat-traps’ disguised as the mundane world.

One day, while knocking on doors looking for shelter, he was greeted by an old man who warmly welcomed him, keen in finally finding someone to talk with. The old man explained that he was a crofter at Ramsjo Ironworks. Due to age, he was unable to work there and supported himself by selling the milk from his cow. He offered the poor rat-trap seller some food and tobacco, along with a place to rest. The poor man had, however, stolen the old man’s money when he left the house.

To avoid being caught, the man decided that it would be better to travel through the forests. He had however lost his way around the woods and finally found Ramsjo Ironworks- an old structure which had seen days of prominence earlier. The old ironmaster at Ramsjo had mistaken him for an old acquaintance from the regiment, Nils Olof. The man did not wish to address the issue of the mistaken identity and pretended to be NIls.

The ironmaster caught his act of masquerading after he was properly cleaned and groomed. When found, the poor man made no efforts to hide and presented his line of thought (about the world being nothing more than a rat-trap) to the ironmaster. In his subconscious, he felt guilty for stealing the old man’s money previously and therefore falling victim to the rat trap’s bait. As he was about to leave, the ironmaster’s daughter stopped him, mentioning that she would like him to have at least a single good day in the whole year. She was missing the homely feeling of her brothers and wanted to feed the poor man.

Impressed by her noble act of kindness, the poor man left, keeping behind a gift for the lady. The gift contained a message and a rat-trap stuffed with the three ten-kronor notes- the same amount the man had stolen from the old man’s bag. He had also asked it to be returned to the old crofter.

To find more details of this chapter, refer to The Rattrap Question Answers Ncert and The Rattrap Class 12 NCERT Solutions here at UrbanPro.