Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Wind in the Willows, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Friendship and Mentorship
Manners, Conduct, and Consequences
Nature, Leisure, and the Modern World
Home, Identity, and Adventure
Greed, Arrogance, and Social Class
Summary
Analysis
Since the hollow tree’s opening faces east, Toad wakes early in the morning. His toes are also cold, so just before he wakes he dreams that he’s at home and his blankets get up and leave the room to get warm downstairs. When he wakes up, he remembers he’s free and feels suddenly exuberant. He’s ready for the world to help him and amuse him, as it used to. So, Toad wanders hopefully down the road and through the woods. Before long, though, Toad is annoyed—he’d like the road to tell him where to go, not just be silent.
Toad’s nonsensical dream of his blankets getting up and leaving him freezing suggests that it’s hard for him to accept that he’s not actually home in comfort at Toad Hall. Toad’s entitlement also shines through when the narrator notes that Toad wants the world to help and amuse him. But as previous chapters have shown, nature isn’t always helpful, especially to those who don’t respect it as much as the novel suggests they should.
Themes
Eventually, the road meets a canal. Around a bend, Toad sees a horse plodding along and pulling a barge. There’s a stout woman on the barge, and she greets Toad with a “good morning.” Toad laments that it would be a good morning if he weren’t out looking for his married daughter, while his washing work and his mischievous small children wait at home. He tells the woman his daughter lives near Toad Hall, and the woman says she’s going that direction. She offers to give Toad a lift and helps him into the barge. Toad is thrilled; he always comes out on top.
Toad genuinely believes he’s better than the working-class people who help him (and that he’s impersonating), so he doesn’t feel guilty about taking advantage of their kindnesses and hoodwinking them. At this point, the barge woman hasn’t asked for any compensation—she seems to just be willing to help someone in need. Toad doesn’t recognize this, though, instead focusing on how clever he thinks he is to have fooled her.
Themes
Literary Devices
The woman asks Toad about the washing business, which he airily deems the best work in the country. He says he has 20 girls working for him; they’re “nasty little hussies,” but he keeps them in line. Toad also boasts that he adores washing. The woman says this is fantastic—she also loves washing, but her husband is a shirker, and since he’s off hunting, she can’t do the laundry. Toad tries to change the subject, but it’s too late: the woman asks Toad if she can do him a favor by letting him wash some of her underwear for her, since he likes washing so much.
Toad warms to his subject at first; it seems to delight him to speak poorly of the young women he supposedly employs, and it’s fun to playact for a moment. But of course, things backfire when the woman offers to do Toad a favor and let him do some of her laundry. Again, it seems like she’s just trying to be nice and help out a washerwoman who loves her job. The joke, though, is on Toad: given his immense wealth, he’s probably never done his own laundry before.
Themes
There’s no way for Toad to escape. The woman won’t let him steer, and it’s too far to leap to the bank. He decides washing can’t be that hard, gathers the supplies, and tries to remember what he’s seen through laundry windows. But a half-hour later, Toad is extremely angry. He keeps dropping the soap and the garments are still dirty. The woman gazes out the front of the barge, fortunately—but Toad’s paws are getting wrinkly. He’s proud of his paws, and he hates this. Suddenly, the woman laughs: Toad is obviously lying and has never done laundry in his life.
It’s obvious that Toad has never washed clothes before, and the fact that he hates the task primarily because his paws are getting wrinkly is another mark of Toad’s privilege. As a wealthy gentleman, Toad’s paws probably aren’t marked by calluses or other signs that he works with his hands. In this way, Toad is really objecting to the fact that he now looks like a lower-class person who has to work.
Themes
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Toad loses control. He shouts that the woman can’t speak that way to her “betters,” insults her weight, and snaps that he’s a distinguished toad who won’t let a barge-woman laugh at him. The woman peers under Toad’s bonnet and remarks that Toad really is a toad—and she can’t have a “nasty, crawly” toad on her clean barge. She grabs Toad by the legs and throws him into the water. When Toad finally crawls onto the bank, he sees that the woman is laughing. He vows to get revenge.
The woman has only laughed at Toad and pointed out the truth: that Toad lied. But in response to this perceived transgression, Toad feels justified in insulting her and trying to put her in her place. He expects respect from lower-class people, even when he takes advantage of them and hasn’t earned their respect. So, Toad doesn’t elicit much sympathy when the woman throws him overboard—like Mole’s experience when he ventured into the Wild Wood, this is a lesson in how all actions have consequences.
Themes
After taking a moment to recover, Toad gathers up his skirts and races after the barge. He ignores the woman’s taunts, unties the horse, and leaps on, galloping away. The horse gallops for a bit, but it’s not particularly fit. It slows to a walk. Toad tries not to think about how long it’s been since he last ate as they amble along. After a while, the horse suddenly stops, almost unseating Toad who was nearly asleep. Toad looks around and sees a caravan nearby, with a “gipsy” man sitting out front. The man has a fire going—and on it is a pot filled with a wonderful smelling stew. Toad is suddenly wildly hungry, but he can’t decide if he wants to fight the man or try something else.
It’s not enough for Toad to just insult the woman’s appearance and leave it at that. Now he steals her horse, with seemingly no recognition that she needs the horse to do her job—this could seriously affect her life. Then, when Toad comes across the “gipsy” man, it again shows how little he values people of lower classes. (Note that “gipsy” or “gypsy” is considered an ethnic slur for the Romani people, so its use here reflects the era in which the book was written.) Toad’s first thought is to overpower the man to take the stew, which would deprive the man of his dignity and bodily autonomy.
Themes
Finally, the “gipsy” man asks Toad if he’d like to sell his horse. Toad had no idea “gipsies” love to buy and sell horses—but here’s an opportunity to get a meal and money. Toad insists he can’t sell his “beautiful young horse”; the horse is well-bred and loves Toad. But he asks anyway what the man might pay for the horse. The man offers a shilling per leg. Toad pauses to do the math and then insists his horse is worth way more than four shillings. The man says his final offer is five shillings.
The way the narrator has described the horse in no way suggests that he’s young and beautiful—he’s an old horse who’s functional but not particularly impressive. This will be obvious to the man if he knows anything about horses. Toad’s ability to effectively lie is slipping, and his difficulty with simple math makes him look even less clever.
Themes
Toad thinks it over. He’s hungry, has no money, and is far from home. Five shillings doesn’t seem like enough—but then again, he stole the horse, so it’s all profit. Toad says he’ll only accept six shillings and six pence, in addition to a meal; and he’ll throw in the horse’s harness. The “gipsy” man agrees after some grumbling. He then hands over the money and serves Toad as many servings of his stew as Toad can eat. An hour later, the man points Toad in the right direction, and Toad sets off.
Toad continues to think only of himself; he expresses no interest in giving the man a fair deal. Toad’s dishonesty and selfishness also contrast sharply with how honestly and generously the man agrees to this deal and then feeds Toad. Toad might look down on the lower classes, but the novel portrays the working-class people he encounters as morally superior to Toad in every way.
Themes
Toad is in great spirits. He has money, he’s almost home, and the food makes him feel “careless” and confident. He walks along, thinking of his adventures, and decides he’s the cleverest animal in the world. As he lists what’s happened in the last few days, he becomes so conceited that he composes a song in his own honor. The narrator only lists a few of the “milder” verses, in which Toad saves the day in a variety of situations. Toad walks and sings until he reaches a road—and hears a car coming. He decides to hail the car and ask for a ride to Toad Hall.
Toad falls back into his old ways as soon as he’s physically comfortable again. Now that he’s eaten, it’s easy for him to focus on how great he is, and it no longer matters so much that he’s far from home and doesn’t have much money. The song he sings only drives home how conceited he is. It also seems like Toad’s choice to hail the car is probably a bad one, since he can’t control himself around cars and could get himself in even deeper trouble.
Themes
Literary Devices
Confidently, Toad steps into the road—until he sees that the car is the very same one he stole not so long ago. He sinks to the ground, figuring he’ll go back to jail. He laments that he’s so conceited. But the car soon stops, and the men get out. They believe Toad’s washerwoman disguise and think he’s fainted, so they pick Toad up to take him to the nearest village. This makes Toad feel courageous again; clearly, the drivers don’t recognize him. He slowly sits up, thanks the men, and asks if he can sit in the front to get the fresh air in his face. The men oblige.
When Toad thinks he’s going to suffer consequences (if the drivers recognize him), he feels terrible and regrets his actions. But as soon as he thinks he can get away with tricking them, he’s back to his old, conceited self. This suggests that Toad hasn’t suffered consequences bad enough to make him permanently change his ways yet.
Themes
Suddenly, old yearnings grip Toad again—why shouldn’t he give in? He asks the driver if he can try driving, and the man laughs. He and his fellow agree it won’t do any harm to let a washerwoman drive. Toad slides to the driver’s seat and starts off slow. As he gets faster, one of the men warns him to be careful—and Toad loses his temper. He shouts that he’s not a washerwoman; he’s Toad, the “motor-car snatcher” who always escapes and is fearless. The driving party is aghast that the very Toad who stole their car is now driving it, and they try to restrain him.
For Toad, “why shouldn’t he give in?” is a rhetorical question. In his mind, there’s no reason he shouldn’t give in. But given that Toad has been imprisoned and faced a lot of unnecessary hardship for doing things like this, there are, of course, many reasons why he shouldn’t drive. One of them shows up later in this passage: cars cause Toad to lose his temper and make him even more conceited than usual. Admitting to his crimes suggests that Toad believes he’s going to get away with this, and it’s unclear if he’s right.
Themes
This is a mistake, since they don’t stop the car first. Toad turns the wheel and crashes through a hedge—and the car goes right into a pond. Toad flies through air and likes the sensation until he hits the ground. Then, he leaves the drivers struggling in the muddy pond and runs away as fast as he can. When he’s far away, he laughs and picks up his conceited song again—until he notices a driver and policemen running after him. Toad races on, regretting how self-centered he’s been. Toad is a stout animal and can’t outrun the policemen, but as he looks back at his pursuers, the ground suddenly disappears. Toad ran right into the river. He vows to never steal a car again as the river sweeps him along. When he finally manages to grab the riverbank, Rat emerges out of a dark hole in the bank.
Toad shows how little he cares about other people’s belongings when he crashes the car into the pond. This may ruin it, but Toad doesn’t care—it’s not his. Then, it’s significant that Toad starts to regret stealing the car once he falls into the river. The river represents the natural world’s power—and the novel has implied that cars (and the modern world they represent) disrupt nature. The fact that the river is able to overwhelm both Toad the car so easily suggests that nature isn’t something to be disrespected or ignored.
Themes
