The Pied Piper of Hamelin
“What are the ways in which Browning tells the poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin?”
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is set in medieval Germany, in a small town, Hamelin. The town is plagued by rats when a stranger, the Pied Piper, comes to town and offers to get rid of them if they Mayor will pay him. He plays bewitching music on his pipe which causes the rats to follow him. He leads the rats to the river and they drown. The Mayor breaks his promise and refuses to pay the Piper and the Piper responds by taking away the children of Hamelin.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is one of Browning’s longest poems ever written, there’s a lot to analyse when picking out ways in which Browning tells the poem. Nevertheless, he articulates underlying meanings in each stanza, skilfully allowing us to ponder upon his many techniques and ways of writing. Browning cleverly uses many different writing styles, and as an audience we can brilliantly conceive his themes and meanings of the poem.
In The Pied Piper of Hamelin, the narrative style in third person and its almost as if someone else is telling the story and this is how Browning’s poem could be re-told to children so that they learn a lesson from it, and this is where it began to evolve into a child’s book/play. The way he told this poem is so crucial because it became one of the most important and controversial poems of the 1840’s. Also, The Pied Piper of Hamelin is long and it allows the audience to discover underlying morals and themes which Browning portrays through his poem. This poem specifically has a meaning to it. The character use of the Pied Piper was cleverly structured and for a society where a person like that was taken seriously, it was a very controversial poem because there was a huge conflict as to whether the Pied Piper was right or wrong regarding his actions. Was it okay to take those innocent children simply because he didn’t get paid? Or is it because he was teaching