Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Devoted Friend, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Innocence and Friendship
Storytelling, Language, and Morality
Class and Exploitation
Summary
Analysis
One day, an old Water-rat comes out of his hole and sees a Duck teaching her ducklings how to stand on their heads in water. “You will never be in the best society unless you can stand on your heads,” she calls out to her ducklings, who flatly ignore her. The Water-rat and the Duck begin to talk, and the former declares his esteem for “devoted friendship.” Overhearing their conversations, a Linnet asks the Water-rat what he thinks devoted friendship consists of. The Water-rat haughtily replies: “What a silly question! […] I should expect my devoted friend to be devoted to me, of course!”
The narrative begins with talking animals, hinting that the story is most likely a work of children’s literature. Yet, these anthropomorphic animals voice lofty ideas about “the best society” and “devoted friendship,” showing more sophisticated preoccupations than characters seen in typical children’s stories. Furthermore, the style of the narrative is rather satirical. From this, readers can gather than the story is intended for adults as well as children.
Themes
Literary Devices
The Linnet asks the Water-rat what he would do for his so-called devoted friend in return. The Water-rat claims to not understand the question, so the Linnet decides to tell the Water-rat a story about friendship. The Water-rat asks eagerly if the story is about him, to which the Linnet replies, “It is applicable to you.”
The inquisitive Linnet appears to be wiser than the selfish Water-rat, who does not understand that devoted friendship should be mutual. This preps readers to see the Linnet as a sort of authority figure, a reliable storyteller. When the Linnet begins telling his tale, readers can also see that the narrative operates as a story-within-a-story.
Themes
The Linnet begins his tale by introducing Hans, a poor, kindly peasant who lives in a tiny cottage with a beautiful garden. Hans works in his garden every day, and his flowers are known for their exceptional beauty. Hans’s “most devoted friend” is a rich Miller, named big Hugh. The Miller regularly walks by Hans’s cottage and takes flowers from the garden, declaring that “Real friends should have everything in common.” Hans simply smiles and agrees. The neighbors think it’s odd that the Miller, despite his wealth, never gives Hans anything in return. Hans never notices this, though, and instead delights in the wise and beautiful things the Miller says “about the unselfishness of true friendship.”
From the Linnet’s introduction of the two main characters—Hans and the Miller—readers can already guess that Hans is the protagonist while the Miller is the antagonist. The Miller, despite his wealth, unreservedly takes from Hans’s garden without offering anything in return. Readers can also begin to see Hans’s damning innocence; unlike his shrewder neighbors, the kindly peasant does not find it strange in the slightest that the Miller never gives him anything in return for his generosity.
Themes
Literary Devices
Winter comes. Since he has no flowers to sell at the market, Hans suffers from cold and hunger. The Miller never visits Hans and instead sits in his warm home with his wife and son, enjoying ample food and drink. The Miller claims to his family that there is no use visiting Hans, as “when people are in trouble they should be left alone and not be bothered by visitors.” He plans to see Hans in the spring, when Hans will once again have flowers to give to the Miller. The Miller’s wife lavishes praise on her husband, telling him that he is “certainly very thoughtful about others,” and that it’s “quite a treat” to listen to all the wise things he has to say. When the Miller’s son asks after Hans and offers to share his own food with the peasant, the Miller scolds him, saying that such a gesture would “spoil” Hans’s good nature.
The lack of visits during wintertime proves that the Miller does not actually care for little Hans. The Miller, in his selfishness and lack of concern, shows himself to be a complete hypocrite. Though having said previously that “real friends should have everything in common,” he shares neither warmth nor food with the cold and hungry Hans. The Miller’s wife shows herself to be either thoughtlessly devoted to her husband or just as selfish as him. The Miller goes as far as to extinguish any potential for generosity in his son, showing the extent of his selfishness.
Themes
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“How well you talk!” the Miller’s wife declares. The Miller affirms that talking well is much harder and “finer” than “acting well,” which many people know how to do. The Water-rat interjects, asking the Linnet if that is the end of the story. When the Linnet says that was just the beginning, the Water-rat scoffs that it is all the rage nowadays to start a story with the end, move on to the beginning, and end with the middle—he knows because he heard a very refined, spectacled man say so the other day by the pond. Nevertheless, the Water-rat encourages the Linnet to continue the story. The Water-rat likes the Miller an awful lot because he, too, has “all kinds of beautiful sentiments” like the Miller does.
The last exchange between the Miller and his wife prior to switching back to the frame story highlights the story’s satirical style—it is generally considered that acting well is more difficult than talking well. The Water-rat’s sympathy with the Miller aligns the two characters: like the Water-rat, the Miller does not understand that friendship entails devotion from both parties.
Themes
Literary Devices
Spring comes, and the Miller goes to visit Hans. When Hans admits that he thought the Miller had forgotten him, the Miller denies this vehemently and lectures Hans about how “friendship never forgets.” Hans tells the Miller he had to sell many possessions, including a wheelbarrow, in order to have money for food during the wintertime. He now has to buy his belongings back by selling flowers. The Miller offers Hans his broken wheelbarrow; even though it is in very bad shape, the Miller declares that he is being extremely generous in giving it to Hans, as “generosity is the essence of friendship.” Hans is grateful and exclaims that he has one spare plank of wood that he could use to repair this wheelbarrow. The Miller instead takes the plank of wood to mend his own barn-roof, as well as a large basket of flowers from Hans’s garden.
The Miller’s lectures about how “friendship never forgets” and how “generosity is the essence of friendship” highlights his utter hypocrisy. The Miller’s offer of a broken wheelbarrow forms a stark contrast with the flowers that Hans offers him: the Miller offers to give Hans his trash while Hans gives the Miller the best of what he owns, which is his sole source of income. At this point in the story, it becomes clear that Hans is innocent and friendly to a fault. Hans does not find it unfair that the Miller takes away his plank of wood, even though it was the only thing he had that could be used to repair the broken wheelbarrow and make it usable.
Themes
The next day, the Miller visits Hans’s cottage and asks Hans to take a sack of flour to the market for him. When Hans responds regretfully that he is too busy to help, the Miller accuses him of being “unfriendly,” especially as the Miller is to give him a wheelbarrow. Hans is horrified by this accusation and immediately takes the sack of flour to the market. The trip is long and difficult, but he manages to sell the flour for a good price and returns home exhausted.
From this interaction, readers can see that the innocent Hans is also quite idealistic: he values his good name and the Miller’s opinion of him over worldlier things. For Hans, friendship with the Miller is more important than tending the flowers in his garden, and, consequently, more important than his own livelihood.
Themes
The following day, the Miller visits Hans again early in the morning. When he sees Hans sleeping, he accuses him of being lazy and asks him to mend his barn-roof. Hans agrees, afraid that he might again come across as “unfriendly” if he refuses. When Hans finishes the job, the Miller declares happily, “Ah! […] there is no work so delightful as the work one does for others.” The next day, the Miller has Hans drive his sheep in to the mountain. The Miller continues to assign Hans chores, preventing Hans from working in his garden. Hans remains eager to please the Miller.
The Miller continues to exploit Hans, and Hans continues to passively accept this exploitation. Although readers likely find the Miller’s selfishness to be frustrating, Hans’s innocence may seem all the more aggravating. Both Hans and his garden suffer at the hands of the Miller, yet Hans remains eager to be a good friend—it’s clear, by this point in the story, that Hans is the devoted friend of the story’s title. Hans never seems to register the Miller’s hypocrisy, despite always listening to all his beautiful, albeit empty, sayings.
Themes
One night, during a storm, the Miller visits Hans and tells him to fetch the doctor, as the Miller’s son hurt himself falling from a ladder. Hans asks if he can borrow the Miller’s lantern to guide the way in the darkness, but the Miller refuses, citing that the lantern is new. Hans sets off in the dark and successfully reaches the doctor. Unfortunately, Hans gets lost on the moor on the way back, as he has no light to guide him. He falls into a deep hole and drowns. His body is found the next day by some passing goatherds.
The Miller’s selfishness culminates in his last errand for Hans; he not only makes an unreasonable request, but also refuses to give Hans the proper resources to accomplish the task at hand. Hans’s cold, lonely, and tragic death shows that all his generosity has been for naught. Furthermore, the Miller does not even bother to go look for his missing friend—Hans’s body is found by strangers and purely by chance.
Themes
After Hans’s body is brought back the village, the villagers hold a funeral. As the chief mourner, the Miller laments that he has no one to give his broken wheelbarrow now that Hans is dead, and that he wouldn’t get a cent for it if he tried to sell it. Declaring that he will never “give away anything again,” the Miller exclaims that “One certainly suffers for being generous!”
This tale of Hans and the Miller ends in the Miller’s triumph: the Miller gets the honorable position of chief mourner at Hans’s funeral. As seen by the Miller’s comment about his broken wheelbarrow, he feels no guilt regarding Hans’s death. The Miller receives no punishment for his wrongdoing, and Hans receives no justice. Furthermore, although the Miller is suggesting that he is the one who suffered for being generous, it’s clear that he never was generous nor is he truly suffering now—Hans was the one who was unflinchingly generous at every turn and paid for that selflessness with his life.
Themes
After a pause, the Water-rat asks what became of the Miller, and the Linnet responds that the Water-rat did not understand the moral of the story. The Water-rat is horrified the story had a moral at all and dives back into his hole. A few minutes later, the Linnet tells the Duck that the Water-rat ran off because he told him a story with a moral. The Duck is understanding and affirms that telling a story with a moral “is always a very dangerous thing to do.” The narrator has the final word, adding, “And I quite agree with her.”
The end of the tale returns to the frame story and comments on the danger of moral teachings. On the one hand, blindly accepting the morals one is taught, as in the case of Hans in the Linnet’s tale, can have disastrous consequences—Hans eagerly lapped up everything the Miller said about friendship being selfless and generous, which led to Hans’s death. On the other hand, not accepting any moral instruction, as in the case of the hypocritical Miller and the Water-rat, can lead to selfishness and exploitation.
Themes
