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Summary
Chapter VI. Mr. Toad
The Water Rat and the Mole are preparing for the summer boating season when the Badger arrives to talk to the Toad about his motor cars. He hopes to help the Toad learn to be more sensible and less reckless. They arrive just as the Toad’s shiny, new red car has arrived. Dressed in his driving gloves and goggles, the Toad is about to take it for a drive. The Water Rat and the Mole take off his driving gear, and the Badger scolds the Toad for making a fool of all of them. But the Toad refuses to apologize. All he can think about is how glorious it feels to speed around in his car. He refuses to change his behavior, so they lock him in his room and promise to keep an eye on him until his craze for motor cars passes.
The Toad spends his time pretending to drive and crash imaginary cars that he has made using chairs. One day, the Water Rat is left alone with the Toad, whose attitude has changed. The Toad asks for a doctor and a lawyer for fear he is dying. The Water Rat locks the door before going to get help, and the Toad stuffs his pockets with cash and uses his bedsheets to escape out his window. He walks to a local inn for lunch, and a carload of other animals arrives. The Toad goes outside to see their car and promises himself that he will only look. In a seeming trance, he starts the car and drives away. At his hearing, the magistrate sentences him to twenty years in prison and sends him to the dungeon.
Chapter VII. The Piper at the Gates of Dawn
On a summer night, the Mole waits for the Water Rat by the side of the river. The Water Rat has spent the day with the Otter, whose son, Little Portly has run away. Little Portly is not yet a strong swimmer, so the Otter spends the night watching the ford where he and the child used to play together. Thinking about the Otter’s family, the Mole and the Water Rat can’t sleep. They take the boat downstream and search along the banks until dawn, when the Water Rat becomes enchanted with a faint, haunting song. They turn toward the weir, and the Mole finally hears the song too. As dawn breaks, the earth seems brighter and more colorful.
The Water Rat and Mole follow the music and land on a small island near the weir. They feel they are in the presence of something greater than nature, and it fills them with awe. The Mole lifts his eyes to see a demi-god with curved horns, shaggy legs, and hooves. He is playing music on the panpipes. Little Portly is asleep at his feet. The vision disappears with the rising sun. Just as they begin to feel sad that it’s gone, the demi-god sends a breeze to make them forget that they saw him. They wake the sleeping otter and return him upstream to his father. The Mole and Water Rat watch from a distance as the otters are reunited. As they travel home, they reflect on how tired they are and how beautiful the wind sounds in the willows. The Water Rat hears words as the breeze rustles the reeds. He doesn’t know what they mean, but he tells the Mole what he heard. The words are about catching a glimpse of one of nature’s helpers, then forgetting the vision.
Analysis
In Chapter VI, the community bands together to prevent the Toad from harming himself or others. This occurs through scolding the Toad, ostracizing him until he changes, and punishing him when he refuses to behave according to the area’s social norms. As the Toad’s bad behavior gets worse, his friends cannot help him. His reckless behavior escalates when he steals a car. At that point, a larger community figure, the magistrate, takes over where the Mole, Water Rat, and Badger failed. This shows how societies function at different levels. While the animals try to take responsibility to prevent the Toad’s bad acts, they ultimately fail to reign him in, and community officials step in. The magistrate’s punishment is a more severe version of the Mole, Water Rat, and Badger’s. The community’s officials scold him publicly and lock the Toad in a dungeon, ostracizing him entirely from society.
In Chapter VII, the Water Rat and the Mole help the Otter find his lost son because the event affects the entire community. In this instance, nature becomes animated and plays an active role in the search. The moon shines so brightly that it is almost as though they are searching in the daylight and the riverbank looks familiar. This is a contrast from the Mole’s experience in the snowstorm, when the Wild Wood seemed so frightening after dark. As the Water Rat and Mole continue their search, nature brings them another clue in the form of the demi-god’s music, which leads them to Little Portly. Ultimately, it is a higher power that helps them find Portly and set things right in the community. However, unlike the magistrate, who publicly displays his power, the demi-god makes sure the Mole and Water Rat forget their encounter with him. While the magistrate’s power is punitive and on display, the demi-god’s is benevolent and hidden.
Some characters in the novel are more social than others, but they do not all abide by society’s niceties and rules. They frequently drop in without being invited, for example, and the Water Rat in particular has some atrocious table manners. They are also animals, so their instincts may override other decisions. For example, the Badger will not confront the Toad in the middle of winter. Even so, the animals are concerned with the health of their society. The Badger lives in the Wild Wood, which is at some distance from Toad Hall and the river, so he could ignore the Toad’s recklessness, which is unlikely to put him in danger. However, the Badger cannot allow the Toad to bring harm to himself or others. Likewise, neither the Water Rat nor the Mole has children, but they are overcome by the thought of the Otter spending the night alone by the river and worry about Portly. Everyone except the Toad acts in the best interests of their community.
The Badger, the Water Rat, and the Mole make strong arguments to try and stop the Toad’s reckless behavior, but the actions they take against him seem harsh and self-serving. Crashing six motor cars puts the Toad and his neighbors in danger, and his friends are right to be concerned. But it is ironic that they deprive him of his freedom in order to prevent him from being confined to the hospital or jail. This raises the question of whether the Toad’s friends are managing the problem or abusing their moral superiority. The Badger in particular acts like a dictator when he dismisses the Toad’s chauffeur and orders the Mole and Water Rat to undress the Toad. A stern lecture is one thing, but locking the Toad in his bedroom and taking over his home is quite another. The Water Rat, Mole, and Badger do not seem to have considered all of their options in preventing the Toad from doing harm. Their actions suggest they may be more interested in staying at the Toad’s stately manor house and eating his food while they keep him under lock and key.
The Piper identified in the title of Chapter VII represents a nature god that watches over all the world’s helpless creatures, including Little Portly. The Piper inspires awe in the Mole and the Water Rat, which illustrates the great responsibility he has for caring for life’s fragile creatures. For this reason, he gifts them with forgetfulness after seeing him. Otherwise, they might hold onto their memory of the world’s dangers, including the feeling of being vulnerable and unable to save themselves and one another. The words the Water Rat hears as they float toward home contain the deeper truth of the demi-god’s nature, which is that he lives within them. They carry out his will, which is why he helps them on their rescue mission. Although the animals may not fully understand the Piper’s message, it brings them comfort and peace.
