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TAMIL NADU NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

RESEASRCH PROJECT

SUBJECT: - ENGLISH
TITLE:- A STUDY ABOUT IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN PHILOSOPHY

SUBMITTED TO: -ANIL KUMAR SIR

SUBMITTED BY: -

1. BHARGAV (BA0190013)
2. MOHIT BYADWAL (BA0190035)
3. NANDITA V (BA0190037)
4. ANUSHKA KASHYAP (BA0190008)
5. NAGUNURI HARSHITA KIRAN (BA0190036)
6. M.CHETHAN GOWDA (BA0190015)
7. ASHWATI( BA 0190009)
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to extend to our gratitude to our Vice Chancellor Prof. (Dr.) Kamala
Sankaran. We would also like to thank our English Professor Anil Kumar Sir for his
invaluable support in the completion of this project.

We would finally like to thank the Tamil Nadu National Law University (TNNLU) for
providing innumerable facilities and the staff who guided us to ensure completion of the
project.

We would like to thank our friends and family for their support.
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INTRODUCTION

This project deals with a focus on the aspects of philosophical spiritualism and materialism
with reference to the “The Rattrap”. While our lives may have become more hectic and
busier, it is essential for us to not forget the concepts of humanity, goodness and kindness. In
this cruel world, it is important for us to remember that emotions and compassion are
characteristics that make us truly human and this story is a reminder to us that it is never
wrong to be tender hearted. It is an everlasting remainder that kindness is not a weakness but
it is what makes us strong. Such literature inspires us to move towards goodness and always
rethink about our actions and their consequences to those around us. This story is like a
mirror and the reflected image is various approaches to life. We find that regardless of the
problems and darkness that looms around in our lives, positivity and compassion can guide
through the mystery of life. It is our thoughts and hopes that keep the humanity inside us
alive.

It is absolutely fascinating to observe and interpret the diverse traits exhibited by various
characters in the story. Each character represents different mind-sets and approaches to life.
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Aim of the project

The aim of the project is that all human beings are prone to fall into the trap of material
benefit. However, every human being has an essential goodness that can awakened through
understanding and love. A human being has the tendency to redeem himself from dishonest
way. It’s developed with the help of the metaphor of the rattrap. From the view of peddler the
world is big rattrap and all are chasing it and the materials benefit like food, shelter, clothes,
money are the temptation that allure a person to fall into Rattrap. The peddler is not
overburdened with morality. But in the end he seems to be a transformed character. Miss
Edla Willmansson kindness & love make him a gentleman at the end of the story. Throughout
his life, the peddler had never known respect. He was always treated coldly by the world. For
the first time in his life, he was honoured and respected as if he were a caption. Even after the
truth was exposed, the daughter continued to treat him in a similar way. The way he was
treated encourage him to behave in a like manner. He signed the letter as captain von stahle
so as to underline the impact of Elda's goodness on him.

OBJECTIVES
We seek to study about the various ways in which these philosophies can be interpreted and
about the meaning they convey to people. What we seek to do is observe the various types of
philosophies exhibited by the characters in this story and understand the essential
characteristics of these philosophies. The way people deal with certain situations brings out
the materialistic and spiritualistic tendencies in them. This story is especially is still relevant
in modern times where with scientific and technological development, it has become even
more important for us to think about views and beliefs that we hold and whether these are
justified and reasonable.

A man is stuck in a cynical, selfish mind-set as a result of his harsh life, and so he takes his
advantages where he can get them even at the expense of others. While stuck at the bottom of
the society, it gave a person pleasure to think of others who were more ruined. But now he
had seized a chance for greater prosperity and immediately finds himself caught in the
"rattrap" as well. In finally reveal, it's made clear that a person can be changed by the
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experience of unconditional kindness, and it is wrong to assume that just because a person
stole once, he was immoral at heart.

METHODOLOGY

The story “Rat trap” essentially has three main characters. The protagonist of the story is a
Rattrap seller who steals sometimes and could hardly make both ends meet. We tried to
critically analyse this character of the story with the help of three different philosophies
proposed by three different philosophers.

The first philosophy with which we tried to establish a similarity with the protagonist is
given by a Danish philosopher and social critic named Soren Kierkegaard. He is known as the
father of Existentialism. Soren Kierkegaard in his philosophy states that a person can exist at
a level less than true selfhood. After analysing the protagonist in our view we could come to a
conclusion that the rattrap seller lacked selfhood and in this project we tried to establish
similarities with the philosophy given by Soren Kierkegaard.

The second philosopher with whose philosophy we established similarities is Jean-Paul

Charles Maynard Sartre. He is a philosopher from French, literary critic and a political
activist.

Even Sartre played an important role and was one of the key figures in the theory of
Existentialism. Friedrich Nietzsche is the third German philosopher with whom we tried
establish a similarity of ideology.

The second main character of the story is the ironmaster. His character is critically analyzed
in the project through the theory of Moral Particularism. This theory is mainly influenced by
Sir David William Ross. The essence of this concept is that there are several prima facie
duties on the basis of which decisions are meant to be taken. To come to a conclusion if an
action is moral or not, the action is not determined by moral principles; instead, the morally
relevant features and the situation are taken into consideration.

The third dominant character in the story is Edla Willmansson, daughter of of the ironmaster.
We tried to compare our analysis with Immanuel Kant’s philosophy. He was a German
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philosopher. He believed that moral obligations arose out of duties. He states that those duties
should be obeyed irrespective of the situation.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Selma Lagerlof, a Swedish author has narrated the story of “The Rat Trap” in such a way that
it involves the psychological aspect of the protagonist and also shows how materialism plays
a key role in the dynamic environment. Moreover, the author gives us the message of how
emotions of love and acceptance can reform a person. Through the course of this story, there
is a rat trap seller who leads a very poor life because of his low earnings. He had to engage
himself in robbery and other unethical activities to earn his livelihood. He leads a lonely life
and is very pessimistic about his surroundings which made him feel that the entire world is a
rat trap. The peddler had to look for a shelter every night which shows how uncertain and
aimless his life was. One day, he was offered a shelter by an old crofter. He ends up stealing
the money from the crofter. After this incident, the peddler chose a path which led him to a
dense forest. During the later course of the story, an ironmaster mistakes the peddler to be
one of his old friends and invites him home for a stay. The peddler rejects this offer to stay as
he is scared of being caught. But the attitude of the ironmaster’s daughter makes him accept
her offer of staying in their house. However, when the ironmaster discovers that the peddler
was actually not his friend, he wanted to send the peddler out of the house. But Edla stands
up for the peddler and refuses to let him leave. When they find out that the peddler had
previously stolen from someone else, they assume that they too might become victims of his
theft. In the end, things do not go the way they had imagined. The peddler left a letter of
thanks and the stolen money inside the trap which made them feel amused because the old
crofter and his daughter had been scared imagining various other things that could have
happened because of the peddler. This story brings out aspects of kindness and love that have
been analysed and interpreted by various researchers. The Rat trap brings out elements of
philosophical spiritualism and materialism in human beings. These made the peddler a lonely
and secluded person who gets involved in questionable activities because he had a perception
that the world was a rat trap but after meeting Edla, his perception is changed completely and
he decides to mend his ways in the end.
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DISCUSSION

While going deeper into a discussion of what philosophical traits are exhibited by various
characters in this story, it is important to understand that the behavior of these characters is
shaped by their experiences and unique understanding of the world.

The initial focus is on the character traits exhibited by the rat trap peddler. The peddler
exhibits traits of existentialism throughout the story until his meeting with Edla Willmannson
and her father. We compare his actions and ideas in light of the thoughts expressed by
famous philosophers like Soren Kierkegaard, Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre.

We notice that this man selling rattraps is referred by many names throughout the story: rat
trap peddler, vagabond, stranger, tramp and ragamuffin. While all these may initially seem
like descriptive nouns, it shows that this poor man, alone and selling rat traps has no identity.
He may have been given a name at birth, but our name is not our only identity. In fact, our
name cannot be our identity unless we accept that it represents us. The peddler develops a
particular belief about the world as a result of this lack of identity. Identity is not rigidly
restricted to a name or a number, rather it is who we see ourself as. It is who we perceive
ourselves to be. It is the acceptance of our existence. And from the lack of such identity
comes a lack of individuality and selfhood.

According to Kierkegaard, being aware of oneself is the true task and endeavour of life.
(Johnson 32) But he did not believe that this awareness was achieved by everyone. (Johnson
35) He believed that individuals can exist at a level lower than true selfhood which was the
case with the rattrap peddler. However, Kierkegaard does not define what exactly constitutes
individuality. The situation of the rat trap peddler can only be perceived as lack of selfhood
and cannot be defined as such. This is because Kierkegaard believed that there was no
abstract formula to capture individuality. So, we cannot determine that a particular fact shows
lack of identity, rather it is the accumulation of several factors that decides whether someone
has selfhood or not. In this case, we can say that poverty, loneliness, hardship and distress
were contributing factors to conclude that the rat trap peddler has a lack of selfhood.
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The peddler’s philosophy about the world being a rattrap is similar to Sartre’s philosophy of
nothingness. It was peddler’s belief that the whole world was nothing but a huge rattrap and
the nature, seas and civilisation was bait. It is a variation of the philosophy of nothingness
which was that as long as there is existence, there is nothingness inside us. (Sartre 24)
Nothingness allows humans the benefit of freedom of choice and action which is what the
peddler seems to desire. But at the same time, the very fact of our existence places
restrictions on this freedom by forcing us to make choices. This ultimately seems to be what
the peddler regrets as it was his actions and choices that led to his situation of being in
poverty and without a sense of purpose. Similarly, he imposes this ultimate conclusion of
being restricted by the consequences of our choices on others also through the example of a
rattrap. He does not want to believe that he is alone in experiencing this restriction.

By being caught in a rattrap, he does not refer to death or destruction; rather he is referring to
failure. That is the theme of the peddler’s philosophy. He is referring to the failure of an
individual to bridge the gap between his dreams and his reality. This failure is the confusion
of existence. We want to believe that we are capable of great things, but ultimately our
choices prevent us from achieving our goals. It is this failure that causes sadness of life. For
example, we may desire that we want to stay fit and healthy but our choices such as
overeating and lack of exercise may prevent us from achieving our goal. Although such
failures can be recoverable from, when such failure becomes the norm of our life as in the
case of the peddler, it can lead to confusion about life.

The peddler may have wanted to achieve big in life, he may have dreams and desires; but he
has been prevented from achieving these dreams due to the consequences of his actions. He
may have assumed that he has an ultimate destiny as we all do, but his failure to achieve his
supposed destiny results in a loss of hope. Not wanting to accept failure, he comes to a
conclusion that all humans ultimately face this failure in life. It’s just that he is ahead of the
curve. It is important to note that although he uses the word ‘end’, he does not refer to a
literal end in our life. We continue to live on, but the world becomes seemingly purposeless
and monotonous. We become trapped in our own failures.

For the peddler, his theory is a coping mechanism to deflect the blame for his failures by
concluding that failure is not a part of life but the end of life.
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The peddler’s actions at the house of the old miner also have elements of Sartre’s philosophy.
The old miner helps the tramp by feeding him, giving him shelter and allowing him to sleep
at his house at night. But the peddler ends up stealing from the old miner after he leaves the
house. The peddler seems to feel no guilt after his act of stealing from the man who helped
him. This can be compared to Sartre’s philosophy that we can act without being determined
by our past. (Sartre 50) For Sartre, the past is a separate entity different from our present and
it is possible to live in the present without being judged for our past actions. (Sartre 62)

After stealing, the peddler immediately thinks about how to escape from the police by
avoiding the highway. There seems to be no self-reflection about his actions. Regardless of
whether he thinks they are right or wrong, the peddler seems to be a man who runs from his
past. He feels happy because of his ‘smartness’. For him rather than introspection of past
actions, the immediate benefits of his actions are more important. He feels that the 30
Kronors he stole could help him buy food and other necessities. But his focus seems to be on
the immediate benefits. There seems to be no thought about long term benefits or effects of
his actions. It is a doubt as to how long that money can help the peddler sustain himself but
such questions seem to arise to him only when the absolute necessity arises.

The judgment that Sartre talks about is not only by others but also by yourself. (Sartre 63)
The peddler does not judge himself for his actions in the past. This helps him move on with
life but we can infer he has committed certain extremely questionable acts. However, it feels
like the peddler is almost immune from self-criticism or retrospection.

Such attitude might be interpreted to be a ‘live in the moment’ attitude, but rather it is
questionable rationality. The peddler knows that his petty thievery can sustain him only for
short periods, but he does not care.

This is where an important trait of existentialism is expressed. The rattrap peddler has no
commitments or responsibilities towards anyone but himself. He does what he does to feed
no one except himself. This self-sustenance has evolved to such an extent that he cares about
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no one other than himself. What started due to the necessity for keeping himself alive has
taken over his life.

The peddler then decides to take a route through a forest to avoid the public highway. He
ends up getting lost in the forest and becomes tired and sinks to the ground. He feels the
forest closing around him like an impenetrable prison. He was literally lost, but the true
prison he was stuck in was the consequence of his actions. It was his failure that led him to
that moment. It was his choices that got him stuck in his prison of failure.

He feels like he finally has got trapped by bait. The philosophy of Kierkegaard seems
applicable here. Kierkegaard believed that truth is subjectivity and subjectivity is truth.
(Johnson 50) What he means is that there is no universal truth but only relative truths. Each
truth is shaped by experience, past and pain. (Johnson 52) In the peddler’s case, his truth was
that he had ended up getting up getting stuck in the rattrap which was his line of thought
about the world. His truth was that he had let himself be fooled by bait and had been caught.
On further analysis, this particular description is what the peddler believes is the truth. The
only objective facts we know are that he was stuck in a forest. But for the peddler, the
physical act of being lost signified a greater truth that he had to finally face his failure. This
was surely not a universal truth, but it was his only truth. According to Sartre, our passion is
our existence. (Sartre 80) So, based on passion for such subjective truth, individuals must
make choices and these choices will define who we are. It was the peddler’s passion in his
philosophy that is exhibited in what he thinks is his final moments. He sees the world closing
around him. But that is only a manifestation of his existentialism.

Next, the peddler seeks shelter in the ironmaster’s forge. When the ironmaster who mistakes
him to be a friend offers to help him, he refuses. But when the same is proposed by his
daughter, he accepts. His prospects of being caught with stolen money are the same in both
cases but something persuades him to accept the daughter’s request. Here Sartre’s belief that
one cannot explain their actions with reference to any human nature is important. (Sartre 82)
The peddler accepts the daughter’s request because he feels confidence in her tone. There is
no single explanation as to why the peddler felt more confident while speaking to the
daughter. He does not know anything about her; he is unaware about her morals, beliefs or
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even intentions. But he feels an unexplainable sense of security and safety in the presence of
the daughter. He did not go with her because he knew she was a good person or because she
had good morals. All we can say is that the only reason why he went with her was because he
wanted to. This is another good example of how he exhibited existentialist traits of individual
choice and free will.

It is necessary to understand that his stay at the ironmaster’s place is a phase of

transformation. But he does exhibit existentialist traits at this stage as well. His sole focus
seems to be on making full use of the comforts in the house and to sleep for as long as
possible. His routine is to eat food and sleep and repeat the same over again. This behaviour
can be viewed with reference to Nietzsche’s philosophy of existentialism. Nietzsche believed
that self-conservation is a consequence of human’s will to exert influence on outside world
and that life is essentially a struggle for survival.(Kaufmann 35)The peddler initially only
views his stay at the house as an opportunity and a stroke of luck. His routine is essentially a
way of ensuring his survival. While this may be called selfish or greedy, for the peddler it
was purely a necessary course of action.

The whole life of the peddler can be summed up in Sartre’s philosophy of “Existence before
Essence”. (Sartre 40) Sartre believed that there is nothing to dictate a person’s character,
actions or behaviour; rather it is only the person who can define themselves. It was solely the
peddler’s actions that defined who he was.

It can be said that the peddler’s philosophy about life is a combination of Kierkegaard’s
subjective truth, Sartre’s nothingness and Nietzsche’s self-conservation beliefs.

Next, we move onto the character traits expressed by Edla Willmanson’s father which were
similar to the philosophy of moral particularism put forward by W.D.Ross.
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His initial act of trying to help the peddler as he believes that he is an old friend has aspects
of W.D. Ross’ moral particularism in it. (Audi 1)According to this philosophy, there are
several primae facie duties on the basis of which we should take our decisions. (Audi 5) The
father only wanted to help the peddler because he thought it was an old friend who was in
distress and therefore needed help. He believed that it was an unwritten duty to help out his
long lost friend. It cannot be said that the father might have shown the same attitude towards
an unknown person. This is because this philosophy makes distinction on the application of
such duties according to the prevailing situation. This means that not all situations may be
covered by duties and even if one duty may apply to a particular situation, the same duty may
inapplicable to another situation.

This philosophy also emphasized on the absence of ethical dilemmas as if there was a
contradiction between two duties, one duty always outweighed the other one. (Audi 7)

This is why when the ironmaster discovers that the peddler is actually not his friend, he
makes no hesitation in deciding to send the peddler out. For him, the choice to help the
stranger had been made on the basis of a duty to help his friend, but now that duty was
nonexistent.

Now the choice was between helping a stranger who had lied to get into the house in the first
place and protecting himself and his daughter from a stranger. The ironmaster decides to
make his decision on the basis of the latter duty. This is the based on the belief that there is
always an absolute duty on the basis of which a decision is taken. (Audi 10)

Lastly, we come to the character traits exhibited by Edla Wilmansson and their similarity to
Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of ‘categorical imperative’. (Kant 3)

Edla helps the peddler out of a sense of moral obligation. She treats him with kindness and
compassion. When her father makes the decision to kick the stranger out she stands up for
him. She does not know exactly why she does this at the moment but it is an instinctive
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exposal of her deep-felt conviction that the moment they bought the peddler home, it had
somehow become an obligation for them to treat him well. According to Kant, there are
certain moral obligations called ‘categorical imperatives’ that are intrinsically valid in nature.
(Kant 5) He believed that these are universally valid in nature and applied to all situations.
(Kant 25)

Edla’s kindness and compassion was not conditional in nature. It did not matter to her
whether they were helping a friend or a stranger. These outside considerations did not affect
her basic intention to help those who came in need of it. During the whole stay of the peddler
at their house, she takes good care of him. It seems she has no expectation from the peddler
for the care shown to him. This is in line with Kant’s philosophy that there should be solely
pure intention behind every act. (Kant 27)

Unlike her father, she does not think that the act of lying by the peddler is a barrier to helping
him. Rather, she seems to accept the flaws in his character quite easily. She does not make an
exception with regards to her actions depending on the situation.

She shows humanity and goodness in her actions. For her, the act of helping the tramp is an
end in itself. She does not expect anything more from her acts. She does not use her humanity
as a means to achieve an end, but rather views it as an end. For example: the act of helping
someone whom we don’t even know is different from helping our boss or teacher in the
expectation that they may be favorable to us in the future.

The reformation of the peddler is something that exists outside the realm of all these
philosophies. It is evidence of a natural truth that true kindness and compassion can transform
anyone.

We can see his transformation in another angle. The basis of all his existentialist traits was
because of a lack of self-identity. But Edla gave him an identity. For her, he was Captain Von
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Stahle. This gave him the identity he was longing for all those years and possibly was a factor
in his transformation.

Findings:

1. Our perception of the world is influenced by our experiences in life. One’s perception
or belief can be proved to be wrong or can change after his/her experiences with
different people or situations.
2. Loss of self-identity can lead to an existential crisis and such a crisis can make a
person rethink about the true meaning of life and the purpose of their existence.
3. People can be kind and good in their own ways. People can express their morality in
diverse ways.
4. Humanity is a feeling deeper than morality and can cut across class, gender and
religions. While being human may be given, keeping our humanity is a choice. We
must not forget that nothing is more important than faith in mankind’s ability to be
compassionate.
5. It is possible for a person to escape from the prison of failure and disappointment
through kindness, compassion and understanding.
6. There is darkness and evil inside all of us but we can overpower these feelings of hate
and ill will through will power.

CONCLUSION

This story conveys a very noble and philosophical idea that the worldly things which
fascinate us are just like the bait of the rattrap, which entraps us. The topic is created with the
assistance of the illustration of the rattrap. Throughout everyday life, individuals face
hardships and troublesome occasions to shape and manufacture them, and this is appeared in
"The Rat Trap”. The majority of the encounters that the principle character faces speak to a
greater thought regarding life, and the character understands this toward the end of story. The
peddler of rattrap calls the world a big rattrap. The material advantages like wealth and
delights, safe house and food, warmth and clothes are alluring things that appeal an individual
to fall into the rattrap of the world. The thought is that the entire world with its land, seas, its
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urban areas and towns is a major rattrap.. The whole world sets baits for people. The world
offers riches and joys, shelter and food, heat and clothing, exactly as the rattrap offered
cheese and pork. As soon as anyone let himself be tempted to touch the bait, the world closed
in on him. And then there is no escape. The theme is developed with the help of the metaphor
of the rattrap. The rattrap peddler's comparison of the whole world with a giant rattrap makes
this an interesting commentary on how such people end and ultimately redeem themselves by
renouncing the temptation. The peddler's admission that he had been thief, and the treatment
he got as a captain, show how love and understanding can transform even a deprived soul.
The story thus comes to a full circle with the ending. All questions are answered and no loose
tags remain hanging.
 The completion additionally pays tribute to the integrity of mankind here displayed through
Miss Edla Willmansson. The upbeat consummation likewise excites our positive thinking and
faith in the basic decency of man and other human ethics. Along these lines it serves to move
the readers to do honourable acts. The way Edla Willmanson treats the peddler, we can draw
an exercise that the fundamental goodness in an individual can be stirred through
comprehension and it likewise features how goodness and benevolence appeared by certain
individuals can transform others. In any case, each individual has a basic goodness that can
be stirred through comprehension and love. An individual tends to vindicate himself from
exploitative ways.
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WORKS CITED

1. Audi, Robert. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice. Nebraska: Springer, 1998. Print.
2. Sartre, John-Paul. Being and Nothingness. Washington: WSP, 1993. Print.
3. Johnson, Ralph. The Concept of Existence in the Concluding Unscientific Postscript.
New Jersey: Springer, 1972. Print.
4. Kant, Immanuel. Critique of Pure Reason. New York: Dover Publications, 2013.
Print.
5. Kaufmann, Walter. The Portable Nietzsche. New York: Penguin, 1994. Print.