The Wind in the Willows (Characters)

Characters

Badger

Badger, sometimes referred to as Mr. Badger, commands great respect as well as fear among the animals. Rat is the first to mention him: "Dear old Badger! Nobody interferes with him. They'd better not." By the end of the novel, he is especially feared by the Weasels, who quiet their infants by telling them that "if they didn't hush them and not fret them, the terrible gray Badger would up and get them." Toad is able to humble himself and apologize for his reckless behavior with automobiles when Badger has him alone in a room. It is only after he is with Rat and Mole again that is able to say "No! I'm not sorry!"

Badger is also considered very wise. He is rarely questioned by Rat and Mole and only occasionally by the arrogant Toad. He is also impartial in his shrewdness. When Toad says "I'll learn 'em to steal my house!" in reference to the Stoats and Weasels, Rat corrects him, replacing "learn" with "teach." However, Badger insists that Toad's manner of speaking is more appropriate. Later, however, when Mole recounts how he visited the Stoat guards in disguise and exaggerated their coming attack, Rat and Toad both reprimand him for giving away the element of surprise while Badger commends him for his cleverness at putting the animals on edge.

Although he is wise, respected, and feared, he is not above being compassionate and forgiving. He is always willing to assist those in need, especially friends. He takes in Mole and Rat without hesitation when they are lost in the Wild Wood. He gives them dry clothes and food and allows them to stay the night. He takes great pains in attempting to get Toad to behave responsibly during his motorcar craze and is still selfless towards him when his efforts do not work. He looks after Toad Hall while Toad is in jail and helps Toad retake his home when it is overrun with Weasels and Stoats.

Bargewoman

Toad meets with the bargewoman shortly after his escape from jail when he is lost in the woods. She is a stout and rather rustic woman. She seems quite willing to assist Toad when she thinks he is a washerwoman that might be able to help her with her laundry, but wastes no time in throwing him overboard when it turns out that he has no skill whatsoever at washing.

Engine Driver

The engine driver seems willing to help anyone in a desperate situation. When Toad is disguised as a washerwoman, he gives Toad a ride on his train because Toad, as the washerwoman, can't get home to see her kids because she has lost her money. When they are later pursued by the police, Toad confesses to his crimes and trickery, but the engine driver is still willing to help him evade his pursuers, saying " you are evidently in sore trouble and distress, so I will not desert you."

Gentlemen in the Motorcar

The gentlemen with the motorcar mostly serve to move the plot along. The first time they appear in the text, they merely provide Toad with a car to steal. When they appear later on, they pick Toad up on the side of the road and let him try driving their automobile, intrigued by the idea of a washerwoman driving. Toad becomes so elated at being behind the wheel again, after spending so many days in jail, that he gives himself away and also ends up smashing the car. One of the gentlemen, after finding a policeman, pursues Toad across a field until Toad falls into the river, which sweeps him back to the River Bank community.

Gypsy

Toad encounters the gypsy after riding a few miles on the horse he stole from the bargewoman. Finding himself famished, he moves toward a caravan, or covered wagon, beside which are the gypsy and a pot over a fire radiating delicious smells. He goes over to see if he can find a way to get something to eat. The gypsy quickly asks if he can buy Toad's horse. Toad bargains with him and eventually gets six shillings and six pence for it, plus as much of the gypsy's stew as he can eat.

Jailor's Daughter

The jailer, knowing how fond his daughter is of taking care of animals, allows her to take care of Toad upon her request. She brings his meals, which are likely better than what the other inmates get, and she keeps him company. They grow to like each other more and more, so much so that the jailer's daughter can no longer stand seeing Toad locked up. She devises a successful plan for him to escape in which Toad is disguised in the clothes of her aunt, who is the washerwoman for the jail.

Mole

Mole is arguably the most passionate of all of The Wind in the Willows characters. He is always willing to help another animal in need. Even when Rat, a rather compassionate character himself, is not able to muster the initiative to go looking for the Otter family's lost child, Portly, Mole insists they do something, saying "I simply can't go and turn in, and go to sleep, and do nothing, even though there doesn't seem to be anything to be done." Mole is generally very excited about people, whether meeting them for the first time, or seeing them after a long absence. When Toad returns home from his "adventures," Badger is somewhat sympathetic in his greeting, but a little too reserved for Toad's liking, while Mole is ecstatic at seeing him and gives Toad exactly the type of greeting he wants, telling him that he is a "clever, ingenious, intelligent Toad!" Mole's emotions are stirred by more than just people. When seeing Rat's boat for the first time, his "whole heart went out to it at once."

Mole is new to the River Bank community and to the entire world above ground. In the beginning of the novel, he is much like a child, seeing everything for the first time, as demonstrated when he says to Rat, "all this is so new to me. So — this — is — a — River!" He is very eager to do and experience new things, as when he grabs the oars from Rat in order to try rowing. He is quite astute, quickly picking up skills and subtle intuitions, as demonstrated in the following lines:

He learnt to swim and to row, and entered into the joy of running water; and with his ear to the reed stems he caught, at intervals, something of what the wind went whispering so constantly among them.

Mole is also rather independent for someone so new to the area, which gets him into trouble at the beginning of the novel. In his usual manner, he is very anxious to meet Mr. Badger, whom he's heard much about from Rat. Rat, who is content to wait for Badger to call on them, is too passive for him. Mole decides he will venture into the Wild Wood alone in order to meet Badger, which leads to him getting lost and stuck in a snowstorm. But he does get to meet Badger before his journey is over. Toward the end of the novel, Mole again ventures out alone in disguise and convinces the Stoats that a massive attack is coming to Toad Hall. This makes their small ambush more effective and also shows how much wiser he has become in the ways of the above ground world.

Otter

Otter is a good friend of the novel's four main characters, Rat, Mole, Badger, and Toad, and comes into the story several times in person and by name. He often serves as a link to the River Bank community at large. Upon his first appearance in the text, he says, "All the world seems out on the river today. I came up this backwater to try to get a moment's peace, and then stumble upon you fellows!" There are several more occurrences of Otter bringing information from the larger community into the reader's scope, another important one being when he arrives at Badger's house and describes how the community was alarmed that Rat and Mole were missing.

Otter is also distinct in that he has the closest thing to a representation of a family in the book. The four main characters are all bachelors. Otter not only has a son, Portly, but seems to have a family, which is referred to as "the Otters." The Otters are never specifically called a family, but it is clearly implied by the fact that they entertain Rat at their house as a unit and inquire about Portly as a unit.

Portly

While Portly does not affect the overall events in The Wind in the Willows, he is central to chapter 7, "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn." Portly is Otter's son and is so young that he is referred to as a baby at one point. Portly has a tendency to wonder off alone, which is usually not a worrisome event since everyone in the River Bank knows and looks after him. In this chapter, however, he is gone for multiple days, which causes the Otters a certain amount of anxiety. Rat and Mole find him at the feet of a mythological creature, presumably the "piper" mentioned in the chapter title, by following his music. Portly is not mentioned elsewhere in the book, which is in keeping with this anomalous chapter that also presents the one-time development of magic as well as the strongest development of a character's family, i.e., the Otters.

Rat

Rat, also known as River Rat, is one of the four central figures in the novel. One of the first noticeable characteristics about Rat is his generosity. He is the first person that Mole meets above ground, and Rat welcomes him to the River Bank by taking him on a boat ride and bringing along a picnic for them to share, which includes "coldtonguecoldhamcoldbeefpickledgherkinssal adfrenchrollscresssandwichespottedmeatginger beerlemonadesodawater — ." Coming home after the picnic, Rat invites Mole to stay at his house for the night. The novel spans roughly a year, and Mole lives in Rat's house for almost that entire time. One of the few exceptions is when they stay at Mole's house for a night, and even then, Rat demonstrates his generosity by giving one of the field mice money to buy groceries for a nice supper, allowing Mole to be a good host to his visitors.

Rat is also a compassionate character, though he seems to be more inclined to help others when it is a matter of proper appearance or behavior. When he finds Mole after he wandered off alone in the Wild Wood, the first thing Rat says to him is, "You shouldn't really have gone and done it. We riverbankers, we hardly ever come here by ourselves." When he pulls Toad from the river after he has escaped the police, he immediately tells him to "go off upstairs at once and put on some of my clothes and try and come down looking like a gentleman." This may explain why he is at first inclined to do nothing when young Portly goes missing. He may feel helpless since solving the problem has nothing to do with instilling proper animal behavior.

Sea Rat

The Sea Rat is another character that is central to one chapter, "Wayfarers All," but appears no where else in the text. Rat encounters the Sea Rat one day when he is feeling restless, and he doesn't know why. The Sea Rat tells Rat of his adventures abroad. Rat is swept away in his stories and intends to go with the Sea Rat to his next destination, but he is stopped by Mole. The encounter with the Sea Rat enhances one of themes of the novel — the struggle between a desire to indulge in the familiarity of home and the desire to experience new things away from home.

Stoats and Weasels

The Stoats and Weasels take over Toad Hall while Toad is in jail, to the surprise of Badger and Mole who are looking after it. Rat tells Toad how "they took and beat them severely with sticks and turned them out into the cold." They are theantagonists for the last two chapters of The Wind in the Willows, "'Like Summer Tempests Came His Tears,'" and "The Return of Ulysses." However, they are more complex than that, as Rat explains: "They're all right in a way — I'm very good friends with them but they break out sometimes and then — well, you can't really trust them." In keeping with Rat's description, one of the Weasels, shortly after being expelled, comes back to Toad Hall to see if he can be of service in any way.

Toad

Toad is the driving force for the plot twists of a large portion of the book. His automobile craze leads to him stealing a car and getting sentenced to twenty years in prison. He escapes from prison and returns home, being periodically pursued by the police on the way. As he journeys home, he meets several interesting people, including the engine driver, the bargewoman, and the gypsy. He eventually finds himself at Rat's house, who tells him that the Stoats and Weasels have taken over his house. Thus the four principle characters must join together to recapture Toad Hall.

Rat gives a fairly accurate description of Toad's personality, though he is probably being a little too kind:

So simple, so good-natured, and so affectionate. Perhaps he's not very clever — we can't all be geniuses; and it may be that he is both boastful and conceited. But he has got some great qualities, has Toady.

Toad does enjoy a simple life. Having inherited a great amount of wealth, he does not have to work to provide for himself. Instead he is constantly looking to fill his life with whatever hobby most captures his attention at the time. He also enjoys entertaining and will often try to combine entertaining his friends with his hobbies, which leads to the cart trip with Mole and Rat. Toad is also indeed arrogant and enjoys being the center of attention. He often dreams of delivering speeches and singing songs describing his exploits to a captivated audience, as he pretends to do just before the party celebrating the recapture of Toad Hall. In the very end, Toad seems to have mended his ways, no longer acting so arrogant and self-centered. As the text indicates, "He was indeed an altered Toad!"