How do the authors present addiction in The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame, Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne, and Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen?
Addiction is a matter often touched upon in literature. The trials and tribulations of the addict have been explored in depth by many authors, playwrights and poet. But no author has created so vivid a picture of the downfalls of an addictive personality than Kenneth Grahame in his classic novel, The Wind in the Willows.
Through the character of Mr Toad, Grahame creates a striking portrait of the nature of addiction, leading up to the moment in Chapter 6 with Mr Toad, when Badger announces that the time has come for him to “…take him [Mr Toad] in hand…” This moment is the start of an intervention, Badger, Ratty and Mole attempt to save Toad from his ostensible motorcar addiction but all is in vain and this failed intervention prompts Toad’s descent into a life of deception and crime. Through his compulsion, Toad loses everything; Grahame paints us a tragic picture of his dependence, particularly when Toad Hall becomes overrun by weasels. Even after his decent into the depths of prison, Toad still finds himself drawn towards the pull of the motor car, as demonstrated by these lines:
So although, while the Rat was talking so seriously, he kept saying to himself mutinously, “But it was fun, though! Awful fun!” and making strange suppressed noises inside him, k-i-ck-ck-ck, and poop-p-p, and other sounds resembling stifled snorts or the opening of soda-water bottles
This indicates the depth of Toad’s obsession, he is preoccupied by the notion of the motorcar, it is part of his subconscious. This representation of an underlying desire that plays on the subconscious of the subject as echoed by A.A. Milne in Winnie-the-Pooh particularly in the chapter titled In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump. The character of Pooh, who constantly battles his inner demons in the form of an aggressive honey addiction, finds sleep evading him during this chapter:
Some hours later, just as the night was beginning to steal away, Pooh woke up suddenly with a sinking feeling. He had had that sinking feeling before, and he knew what it meant. He was hungry.
Here we see Pooh finding that his addiction to honey is starting to affect his everyday life, a narrative that Milne regularly revisits, perhaps as a way of emphasising the depth of Pooh’s compulsion. Much like Toad, Pooh’s addiction is shown to have developed on a subconscious level, out of the control of the subject.
Also like Toad, Pooh finds that many of his quests or adventures are thwarted by his addictive nature. In In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump, Pooh is so desperate for a fix of honey that he disrupts the plan to catch a Heffalump by eating the honey which was to be used as bait. Toad’s life as an aristocratic, upper class figure is disrupted by his fall from grace, prompted by the theft of a motorcar.
This narrative is echoed by Henrick Ibsen in his play Hedda Gabler, where we see character of Ejlert Lovborg suffer a similar fall from grace when he sinks back into the alcohol driven lifestyle of debauchery which he had escaped at the beginning of the play. A motif of relationships is created in Hedda Gabler which is paralleled both in Winnie-the-Pooh and The Wind in the Willows:
Tesman: On the way back to town. We broke up… the last of us… all together. And Brack came along too to get some fresh air. And then, you see, we agreed that we’d better see Ejlert home. Well, you know, he had quite a few drinks inside him!
Here we see Eijlert’s addiction highlighted through his peers. The idea that Brack and Tesman had to see him home suggests their relative sobriety in comparison to Ejlert’s debauched state. This motif of an addict seen through the eyes of relatively sober peers is repeated in the Wind in the Willows through the characters of Rat and Mole forcing Toad out of his motoring gear, “They had to lay Toad on the floor…” and “Then the Rat sat on him, and the Mole got his motor clothes off him bit by bit, and they stood him up on his legs again…” create an image of Toad which is similar to that of Lovborg; a dependant figure, unable to care for himself when under the influence of that substance to which he is addicted.
In In Which Piglet Meets a Heffalump, Pooh’s descent into desperation is witnessed by the characters of Christopher Robin and Piglet. When Piglet first witnesses Pooh in a completely undignified state, he doesn’t see his old friend, rather he sees a Heffalump, suggesting perhaps that Piglet would rather confront his darkest fears than witness Pooh at his lowest. Here Milne could be creating a metaphorical representation of the monster of addiction – in Piglet’s eyes Pooh is transformed into “…a great enormous thing, like – like nothing…” Piglet cannot accept what Pooh has become. The final lines of the chapter demonstrate what could be Christopher Robin’s desperate attempts to remind Pooh that he is surrounded by friends:
“Oh Bear!” said Christopher Robin. “How I do love you!”
“So do I,” said Pooh.
Whilst it is possible to interpret this as a purely light hearted moment, it is also possible to read this as Pooh’s moment of realisation, perhaps a turning point. When he replies “So do I…”, he could be admitting that through his compulsion towards honey he is hurting himself, and that he must surely change his ways if he truly loves himself and his friends.
The complexities of addiction are explored in great detail in these texts, showing the toll that an addiction can take on the life and relationships of the protagonist. These ideas are perhaps best explored through The Wind in the Willows and Winnie-the-Pooh, as here the authors have created small communities of the River Bank and the Hundred Acre Wood which become microcosms of society, heightening the potency of the images of addiction we see depicted within each text.