The Wind in the Willows Themes

The Wind in the Willows follows four animal friends—Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad—who live lives of luxury along an English river. As the seasons pass, the friends explore the river, go on picnics, tell stories, and venture into the nearby Wild Wood. But the novel also focuses on a more serious matter: the intervention Mole, Rat, and Badger stage when Toad (who’s wealthy and conceited) develops what his friends…

As Mole, Rat, Badger, and Toad enjoy their lives along an English river, the narration regularly offers asides telling readers that the way the animals behave is guided by “animal etiquette,” or agreed-upon ways that animals should interact with one another in their riverside society. Manners, whether they be related to animal etiquette or more human concerns (such as being modest about one’s wealth or apologizing when one has done something…

Though The Wind in the Willows focuses heavily on the outdoors, the novel also devotes a lot of attention to the four main characters’ domestic, interior spaces. Mole begins the novel in a neat, tidy, underground home and soon joins Rat in a well-furnished house built into the riverbank. Badger lives in an extensive home built into tunnels under the Wild Wood, while wealthy and pompous Toad lives in the nicest house on the river…

Much of The Wind in the Willows focuses on Badger, Rat, and Mole’s intervention to change Toad’s rude and arrogant behavior. Toad is extremely wealthy and lives off his father’s money, in a grand (and, in his opinion, the best) estate on the river. He pursues expensive hobbies until he gets tired of them, and he constantly boasts about his wealth and insults those of lower classes. And while it’s…