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The Peddler, with his subtle sense of humor, equates the rattraps he makes to the world, which he believes is a huge rattrap, offering baits like comfort, food, shelter and material benefits. One day the rattrap traps us and there is no way out. The Peddler’s insistence on staying in the warm forge arid refusal to go with the ironmaster evokes pity. We know that somewhere he is feeling guilty of stealing the kronor.
When the ironmaster realizes his mistake, the tramp’s ‘sermon’ about the world’ being a rattrap, temptations and desires, is really humorous, as it seems out of context. The ironmaster’s daughter’s kind and sympathetic attitude changes him completely. Even she realizes his human worth and treats him with dignity. The tramp’s final act of leaving a token of love, the rattrap and a letter, signing off as the captain is also humorous. Without the tramp’s philosophising element of the rattrap and his treatment of it in a humorous way, the story would have been seeped in seriousness.