Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows is a favorite of mine. I usually find myself turning to it in Autumn or Winter and this year is no different. It is a classic tale of talking animals whose character fits perfectly with their species. Badger is reserved but fierce in battle, Ratty is at the whims of his thoughts just as much as he is at the whims of the river he calls his home, Mole is furtive and shy, and even Toad is loud and bombastic, making a display of himself.
For many years I have seen aspects of myself in all four of the main characters, but I have never endeavored to more fully explore those characters, what it is that makes them who they are and thus why I feel I can see myself in them. To that task I now turn, not only for myself but for you, gentle reader, that you may see yourself in these delightful characters. Though I must warn you, the comparison isn’t always nice.
Mole
First, of course, comes our friend the Mole. Mole is meant to serve as a kind of everyman (everycreature?). Just as we are new to the world of the Riverbank, the Wild Wood, and Toad Hall, so too is he. As he experiences these worlds for the first time, so do we. In fact, unlike most of the other characters, Mole actually changes and deviates in many ways from the molish characteristics he has when we first meet him.
Being a mole, he is naturally shy and furtive, but when he feels that call of … something, he is drawn out of his hole and into the wide world. He is prosy, but there is a poetic streak in him. He insists on unpacking and repacking the picnic basket when he first meets Ratty, but he also launches for the paddles and overturns the boat. His view of the world is the most filled with wonder because everything is new to him. The boat, the river, Badger’s home, and Toad Hall all fill him with joy. When Ratty would rather not go in the caravan with Toad, it is Mole’s desire to experience it that brings him along (Ratty doesn’t want to because he knows how it will end, but the naïveté of Mole overcomes his more jaded view of Toad’s hobbies). What is most interesting about Mole is that he is forever changed by his experiences. When goes home again in “Dolce Domum” he discovers that, while he loves his home and knows it will always be there for him, it is no longer where he belongs. The world has become too big to be confined any longer.
Ratty
Ratty is a water vole (commonly called a water or river rat). He is the most poetic of the group, so much so that Grahame makes him an actual poet. And like a poet, he can sometimes be oblivious to the practical. At point he overturns his sloop because he is waxing poetical. He is beguiled by Toad when he claims to be ill to the point of death. Still, he is a true poet. He composes songs about ducks and only he can hear fully the song of the Reeds after he and mole encounter Pan. Ratty is also an adventurer, so long as the adventure isn’t too far from home. He has the most weapons when the four friends set out to take Toad Hall and has no fear of walking through the Wild Wood. But when the ocean rat comes and Ratty begins to feel the siren song of the Wide World, he is eventually brought back to his place in it, a sadder but a wiser Rat.
Badger
Badger is the most prosaic of the bunch and proud to be so. He is stolid, almost locked in place. He ventures from his cavernous home only to find food or to help those in need. Like Lewis’s Trufflehunter––though Badger came first––Badger remembers. Even his home is built in the ruins of the British Romans. In this he is a little more poetic than he might want to be seen. He can talk to Mole about it because Mole knows, Mole understands, and so Mole can see that poetic side of him when others can’t. His reputation is both tough and yet gentle. You wouldn’t want to be his enemy, as we see clearly in the “Return of Ulysses” but he is also a fierce protector. Lost mice and hedgehogs can make their way to his home and he will put them up and feed them before sending them off with a guide to make sure they get home again. He exemplifies both caring for the poor and the foreigner amongst you as well as radical wish to be left alone and to leave others alone. He does not attack the weasels or stoats for being who they are, but when they take Toad Hall, he is the first to desire their overthrow. Badger is Badger, he is dependable, moral (to the nth degree), a warrior (but only at need), and an unwilling statesman who must work to make Toad better, not because he wants to, but because he feels obliged to do so for the good of Toad and for all.
Toad
Toad is loud and brash and bombastic. He thinks himself far more poetical than he is. He is intelligent, but proud. Quick-witted, but easily baited. He sticks at nothing but what he thinks is best, and what is best is a moveable target. Toad is to be laughed at, and yet to be sympathized with. And Toad will see any game through to the end, so long as he thinks there is still sport to be had. He is a strange and fascinating character. All throughout we can see that his perceived cleverness gets him into as many scrapes as it gets him out of. He seems incapable of reform. Yet at the end, after a final rising chorus of “Toad’s Last Little Song” he completely changes, or appears to. The Narrator certainly tells us “He was indeed an altered Toad.” And yet, I cannot help but think this is Toad’s final game. He puts on the mask of respectability and humility (except in his relation to the Barge Woman) and simply makes it a game to never take it off. Whether his face grew to conform to the mask we can never know. But what we can know is this: A friend like Toad is exasperating and more trouble than he’s worth and yet is a friend you could never do without and for whom you would lay down your life.
Conclusion
For myself, I can see in me Toad’s stick-at-naught attitude and his bombast but also his gregariousness, Ratty’s poetry and fluidity, Badger’s gruffness in the face of injustice and (I hope) his magnanimity in desiring to help others, and Mole’s wonder at the world around him. At least, I can see these aspects when I’m at best. Often times I am as oblivious as the Rat and as impulsive as Toad and as easily hurt as Mole. Even Badger’s desire to stay at home and not leave (unless forced to do so) assails me often.
But what about you? Which of these characters or which aspects of them do you see in yourself? Perhaps today is the day to pick this gem of a book back up not only to learn more about yourself, but to spend a little more time getting to know this animal cast so you can recognize them when you meet them in their human counterparts.