The Politicians and Town People of Hamelin are corrupt, only worrying about their money. When everything was going wrong the for the Town, the Mayor was nowhere to be seen, but when the rats were gone, the Mayor came out and took all of the praise. We can tell that the Mayor is very desperate because he does not even know who this stranger is and he relys on him to do the job. If the Pied Piper would not have showed up, who would have fixed the problem? Considering the amount that the Pied Piper wanted for the job he did, the Politicians and Town People were ungrateful. If he had not turned up, they would still be in the mess they was in before with all the rats but the Pied Piper has come and cleared it up for them in a short amount of time. When the Pied Piper took away the children, they was an element of regret because he had taken away their futures but it was too little too late.
The Children from the poem represent innocent victims for the punishement. Why do the children have to suffer for the faults of their parents and Politicians. You could also say that the Children are not targeted and rather that they were saved. They weren't asked to go with the Pied Piper, they just went. We can see the Pied Piper as a father figure and he was there to save their souls. The kids were not dragged away, they came “tripping and skipping” and “ran merrily after the wonderful music”. The only thing you can criticise the Pied Piper about is leaving the disabled child behind. He could not make it too the hill because he “could not dance the whole of the way”. The disabled child was sad about this for the rest of his life because he felt like he missed out, he was not happy that he stayed, he wanted to go. The rats reflect human nature in the poem. They are killing, fighting, interupting, stealing and biting babies. They are ruthless. Man cannot control fate, we are vunerable just like the rats.
A main theme in the play is greed. We see this by the Town's People and the Politicians.They are dishounourable and lowered their reputation. The Mayor wanted to spend the money on “Claret, Moselle, Vin-de-Grave, Hock;” which were expensive wines that they could use for the “council dinners”. The lesson to be learnt here is to do what you say and stay true to your word. Another theme is consequences. Behaviour will determine fate. The adults thought they could get away with it and the Mayor brushed aside the Pied Pipers powers by saying “Do your worst, Blow your pipe there till you burst”, not knowing the full potential of the pipe. The consequence of messing with the Pied Piper was the worst case scenario for the adults, taking away their kids and not being able to do anything about it or know where they will be for the rest of their lifes. Good vs Evil is another theme that we see in this play, with good always winning in the end.
We see Pyschological Reader Manipulation in the poem with the reader automatically liking the Pied Piper for doing the job he was hired to do. The reader could have their own opinion on the Pied Piper in the end because he does various things that could make the reader dislike him, like leaving the disabled child behind or taking the innocent children away. We also see Dramatic Irony because the Mayor does not know what he is getting himself into by messing with the Pied Piper but we had seen his powers before with the rats, so we immediately knew that the Mayor was leading a bad path. The poem had a happy ending but not for everyone. The ending was only happy for the children, the rats were killed, the Town's People had their children taken away and there was a forever lasting sadness in the town of Hamelin, being constantly reminded of the day the Pied Piper came.
The subtitle of the poem, “A Child's Story” does reflect the poem overall because there are lessons to be learn from the Town's People. If the poem was read to a child, it would have to be explained to them, to show them the true meaning of it. Even though an adult would read the poem to them, they would still feel the suspense of what is going to happen next and could visualise the setting of the poem. On the other hand the poem has parts of it that are not really suitable for a child, corruption, rats killing humans and general stuff that would not really be seen in a childs story.
