Question

But one day this man had fallen into a line of thought, which really
seemed to him entertaining. He had naturally been thinking of his
rattraps when suddenly he was struck by the idea that the whole world
about him the whole world with its lands and seas, its cities and
villages --- was nothing but a big rattrap.
1)Who does this man" refer to in the first line?
2) What does this man" compare the world to?
3) Did this man" ever get trapped in the "big rattrap?
4) Who did help "this man" get out of the rattrap?​

Answer 1

1. Not able to tell because story is not provided
2. This man compare the world to big RATRAP
3. yes because the big rat trap is its cities and villages

Answer 2

This paragraph is from the chapter "The Rattrap Seller" by Selma Lagerlof.

(a) This "man" refers to the rattrap seller, a peddler.

(b) He compares the world to a big rattrap. His perspectives are that the world offers us different kinds of snares as solaces of life. This consequently traps us in the rattrap of the world and leads us to different sorts of tragedies.

(c) Yes, he had allowed himself to be tricked by a lure and had been trapped in the "big rattrap". The entire timberland, with its trunks and branches, its shrubberies and fallen logs, shut in upon him like an impervious jail from which he would never escape.

(d) Edla Williamson, the daughter of the owner of the iron mill helped the peddler to get out of the rattrap. He said that it was she who let him liberated from the rattrap by raising his status from that of a simple seller to that of a Captain.