Wind in the willows

WIND IN THE WILLOWS – PLOT SUMMARY

The Wind in the Willows is a children’s novel written by Kenneth Grahame about a group of fictional animal characters dressed as gentlemen, with human physical traits.   It is a slow moving story but which picks up pace and is about adventure, morality and friendship set in the English countryside.  The main characters in the story are Mole, Ratty, Badger and Toad.

Firstly the story starts with Mole and Ratty, both woodland creatures who become friends.  They meet one fine spring day when Mole, who has got fed up of spring cleaning his underground home, ventures out to explore and get some fresh air and ends up down at the riverbank where Ratty, a water rat, spends his days.  Ratty takes Mole for a ride in his rowing boat and teaches his all about his life spent either in, on or close by the river.  The pair get along very well and spend many days boating together.

One day during the summer, on one of their many boat trips, Ratty takes Mole to Toad Hall to introduce Mole to his friend Toad.  Toad is rich, happy, kind-hearted & very friendly but also has an obsessive and egocentric side to his personality which tends to lead him into mischief.  He is always obsessing about something and is current fad is his horse drawn caravan.  He somehow manages to persuade Mole & Ratty, who aren’t very keen, to join him on a camping trip.  However like everything else Toad is into he soon gets very bored until a passing car scares the horse, which causes the caravan to end up in a ditch.  Toad’s latest craze then becomes motorcars!

Anyway one day Mole and Ratty end up at another one of Ratty’s friend’s home, Badger, who lives deep in the wild wood.  Whilst there they tell Badger all about Toad’s latest obsession and how he has crashed seven cars and been in hospital three times.  They also tell him how worried they are about Toad’s behaviour and safety and ask for Badgers help.  Firstly they go to Toad Hall and try and talk to Toad who is not in the mood for listening to them at all.  They therefore decide that the only thing they can do to protect Toad from himself is to place him under house arrest, with each of them standing guard outside his room.  Unfortunately whilst Ratty is guarding him Toad pretends to be ill, tricking Ratty and manages to escape.

Upon escaping from his friends at Toad Hall, Toad then steals a car, which he subsequently crashes, is caught by the police and is sent to jail for 20 years.  Whilst in prison he befriends, the jailer’s daughter, who helps Toad to escape by dressing him up as a washer women.  He has no clothes, other than a washer women’s, no money or belongings and the police are looking for him.  Whilst on the run Toad meets a women on a barge who lets him take a ride in exchange for his services as a washer women.  When Toad then ruins the wash she throws him off the barge and into the canal.  He then gets into further bother with the car he stole before and ends up in the river which carries him, quite luckily, back to where Ratty is living.   Ratty informs Toad that whilst he was getting in to bother and in jail all his friends stayed at Toad Hall to look after it until he returned but that unfortunately Toad Hall was taken over by stoats and weasels. 

Toad is horrified and upset at this news but it makes him realise what good friends he has and how badly he has treated them and other people.  Badger informs Toad, Mole & Ratty that he knows of a secret tunnel.  The group of friends enter Toad Hall, attack the intruders and take back Toad Hall.  Toad then holds a banquet party in order to celebrate his return with his friends and other people.  He is really sorry for everything he has done and makes amends by repaying all the people he has wronged.

Toad, Ratty, Badger and Mole all stay on and live at Toad Hall and live happily, every after.