In the vast and varied kingdom of literary animals, few creatures carry the symbolic weight of the rat. Living in the shadows of human civilization—in our walls, sewers, and forgotten spaces—the rat has scurried into the dark corners of our stories, becoming one of literature’s most powerful and contradictory figures. It is simultaneously one of the most reviled animals in Western culture, a walking emblem of disease, betrayal, and decay, and in other traditions, a revered icon of intelligence, wealth, and resilience.
This profound division raises a fundamental question: Why does this one animal represent so many opposing ideas? The answer lies not in the creature itself, but in what it reflects about us. As humanity’s constant, often unwelcome companion, the rat has become what one author calls our “mirror species,” a creature onto which we project our greatest fears and our most admired strengths.
The Two Faces of the Rat: A Direct Answer
In literature, rats primarily symbolize a deep and persistent duality. In the Western literary tradition, they are overwhelmingly negative symbols, serving as harbingers of plague, icons of urban decay, agents of primal fear, and emblems of the deepest human betrayal. This dark reputation is rooted in historical trauma, particularly the Black Death, and has been amplified by centuries of folklore and fiction.
Conversely, in many Eastern traditions and in a significant body of modern fiction, rats are portrayed in a positive light. They are celebrated as symbols of intelligence, cunning, resourcefulness, community, and prosperity. This positive view often stems from admiration for the rat’s undeniable ability to survive and thrive in any environment. This symbolic divide is not inherent to the animal but is a projection of different cultural anxieties and values. Because rats live so close to humans, they have become a blank slate upon which we write the stories of our own societies—our fears of collapse and our hopes for survival.
| Symbolic Trait | Common Negative Meanings | Common Positive Meanings |
| Health | Disease, Plague, Contagion | Fertility, Abundance |
| Character | Betrayal, Deceit, Greed | Intelligence, Cunning, Ambition |
| Society | Squalor, Decay, Oppression | Community, Resilience, Survival |
| Psychology | Primal Fear, Guilt, Madness | Resourcefulness, Adaptability |
The Dark Side: Rats as Harbingers of Doom
The rat’s role as a literary villain is deeply entrenched in the Western imagination. Its ability to thrive in the unseen spaces of human society—sewers, basements, and the cavities of walls—makes it a perfect metaphor for all things hidden and corrupt: societal decay, political oppression, and the repressed fears of the human subconscious. Over time, the literary portrayal of this dark symbolism has evolved. Initially an external threat representing literal disease, the rat gradually transformed into a symbol of internal, psychological torment, tracking humanity’s shifting fears from plagues that ravage the body to ideas that destroy the soul.
Vessels of Plague and Death
The rat’s most infamous symbolic role is that of the plague-bringer. This association is so powerful that it persists in the collective consciousness, even as modern scientific research has shown that the rat’s role in spreading the Black Death was likely exaggerated, with human fleas and lice playing a more significant part. Literature, however, has been instrumental in cementing the image of the rat as the primary harbinger of pestilence and death.
In-Depth Case Study: Albert Camus’s The Plague
Perhaps no work has more effectively used the rat as a symbol of death than Albert Camus’s 1947 novel, The Plague. The story, set in the French Algerian city of Oran, famously begins not with sick people, but with sick rats. Dr. Rieux, the narrator, steps on a dead rat on his landing, the first of a wave of rodents that emerge from the city’s hidden recesses to stagger, bleed, and die in the open.
In the novel, these dying rats serve several symbolic functions:
- An Omen of Doom: The rats are the first, undeniable sign that something is terribly wrong. Their public deaths force a hidden problem into the light. Just as the citizens of Oran try to ignore the dying rats until the streets are littered with them, they later try to rationalize and deny the plague itself until it becomes an inescapable reality. The rats symbolize a dark truth that people prefer to ignore.
- A Symbol of Absurd Suffering: The plague in Camus’s novel is often read as an allegory for the absurdity of the human condition—the random, meaningless nature of suffering and death. The rats are the first victims of this absurdity. They die senselessly and without reason, foreshadowing the fate that will soon befall the human inhabitants of Oran.
- A Parallel to Humanity: The rats function as a direct mirror for the people of Oran. They are the first to be struck down by the disease, and their mass death precedes the mass death of humans. At the end of the novel, when the plague finally recedes, the sight of rats returning to the city is a sign of life and recovery, confirming their role as a barometer for the city’s fate.
Interestingly, the iconic image of the “staggering rat” that Camus uses so effectively was not his own invention. This specific depiction has its roots in 19th-century French missionary reports on plague outbreaks in Yunnan, China. These accounts were not purely scientific observations; they were narratives crafted to portray a “cosmological, end-of-the-world” crisis that justified colonial intervention and religious conversion.
Camus’s novel is widely interpreted as an allegory for the Nazi occupation of France, with the plague representing the suffocating, inescapable evil of fascism. Thus, a key literary symbol for the European experience of totalitarianism is, ironically, borrowed from a narrative constructed to support European colonialism in Asia. This reveals a complex and layered history, where political narratives shape literary symbols, which in turn influence our understanding of history and science.
Icons of Fear, Filth, and the Supernatural
In the genres of horror and gothic fiction, the rat embodies decay, the uncanny, and our most primal fears. Rats are perfect for this role because they are “un-killable, constantly present, often unseen” creatures that transgress the boundaries between our clean, orderly homes and the filthy, chaotic world outside. Gothic authors, in particular, seized upon the rat as a symbol of regression—the terrifying idea that the veneer of civilization is thin and can be easily stripped away, returning humanity to a more savage, animalistic state.
In-Depth Case Study: Gothic Horror in Stoker’s Dracula and Lovecraft’s The Rats in the Walls
Bram Stoker’s Dracula and H.P. Lovecraft’s “The Rats in the Walls” both use rats to create an atmosphere of dread, but they do so in ways that show a fascinating evolution of the symbol from an external to an internal threat.
In Dracula, rats are minions of the vampire, physical extensions of his supernatural evil. The asylum inmate Renfield, who worships Dracula, is promised a feast of living things, culminating in the vampire’s offer of “Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands, millions of them, and every one a life”. Here, rats symbolize a devouring, life-draining force. They are part of Dracula’s unholy army, agents of decay and carriers of a fundamentally medieval pestilence that the Count brings with him to modern London. Stoker’s novel reflects late-Victorian anxieties about Darwin’s theory of evolution, which blurred the line between human and animal. Dracula, with his psychic control over wolves and rats, represents a being who embraces his animalistic nature, threatening the civilized, rational world of his human adversaries.
In “The Rats in the Walls,” Lovecraft internalizes this horror. The story’s narrator, a man named Delapore, restores his ancestral home, Exham Priory, only to be tormented by a sound that no one else can hear: the scurrying of rats within the walls. This sound is not a physical threat but a psychological one. It is an auditory manifestation of a repressed ancestral guilt, for Delapore eventually discovers that his family practiced ritualistic cannibalism for centuries in a grotto deep beneath the priory. The rats are the sound of this horrifying past gnawing at the present. They symbolize the inevitability of his own regression into that same primal, savage state, which culminates in the story’s chilling climax where he is found devouring one of his companions, having given in to his inherited depravity. The threat is no longer an external monster like Dracula; it is a corruption carried in one’s own blood.
Emblems of Betrayal and Dehumanization
Beyond disease and decay, the rat is a potent symbol of moral failure, particularly betrayal. The common phrase “to rat on someone” directly links the animal to the act of an informant or traitor, an association that dates back to the 1620s and the belief that rats would abandon a sinking ship. This symbolism is powerfully weaponized in literature to explore the breaking point of the human spirit and the mechanisms of dehumanization.
In-Depth Case Study: George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell’s dystopian masterpiece Nineteen Eighty-Four provides the ultimate literary example of the rat as an instrument of psychological destruction. For the protagonist, Winston Smith, rats are his deepest, most primal fear. The totalitarian Party, which prides itself on knowing every citizen’s innermost thoughts, saves this specific horror for the final stage of his re-education in the dreaded Room 101.
In Orwell’s novel, rats symbolize several aspects of the Party’s power:
- Total Control and Surveillance: The rats that infest the dilapidated corners of London are a physical manifestation of the Party’s unseen but ever-present control. Just as rats are everywhere, the Party’s telescreens watch every move. They are a filthy, persistent force that preys on the helpless, just as the Party preys on its citizens.
- The Antithesis of Humanity: Rats represent depravity and a beastlike existence. In the world of Oceania, the Party has reduced its citizens to a state of fear and paranoia, stripping them of their individuality and humanity. In essence, the people have become like rats trapped in a cage, controlled by Big Brother.
- The Instrument of Ultimate Betrayal: The climax of Winston’s torture occurs when his interrogator, O’Brien, brings out a cage containing two large, starving rats, preparing to strap it to Winston’s face. Faced with his worst nightmare, Winston’s will finally breaks. He screams frantically, “Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!”. In this moment, the fear of the rat forces him to commit the ultimate betrayal, sacrificing the one person he loves to save himself. This act destroys the last remnant of his independent self, his loyalty, and his humanity. The fear of the rat makes him become a “rat” in the colloquial sense—a betrayer—completing his submission to the Party.
The Brighter Side: Rats as Unlikely Heroes
Despite their dark reputation in Western literature, rats are not universally seen as symbols of evil. A look at global folklore and modern children’s fiction reveals a powerful counter-narrative, one that celebrates the very traits often viewed as negative. The rat’s cunning, its ability to survive against all odds, and its tendency to live in close-knit communities are reframed as virtues: intelligence, resilience, and societal cooperation. Modern authors, in particular, seem to have made a conscious effort to rebel against the traditional stereotype, reclaiming the rat as a complex and often heroic figure.
Emblems of Wisdom and Prosperity in World Folklore
To understand the positive portrayal of rats, it is essential to look beyond the Western tradition. In many Eastern cultures, the rat is held in high esteem.
- In the Chinese zodiac, the rat is the first of the twelve animals. According to legend, it won its place through cunning and resourcefulness, tricking the ox into giving it a ride across a river during a great race. It is associated with positive traits like ambition, intelligence, and creativity.
- In Japanese folklore, the rat is a companion to Daikoku, one of the Seven Lucky Gods and the god of wealth and prosperity. As such, the rat is seen as a symbol of abundance and good fortune.
- In Korean history, rats were once viewed as wise, diligent, and even protective guardian figures. Old Korean sayings used the rat as a metaphor for persistence and hard work. This positive image only began to sour when rats became seen as agricultural pests, demonstrating how a symbol’s meaning can shift based on a society’s relationship with the animal.
Champions of Intelligence and Community
Modern children’s literature has become a key battleground for rehabilitating the rat’s image. Authors have created stories that feature rat characters who embody intellect, moral reasoning, and a profound sense of community.
In-Depth Case Study: Robert C. O’Brien’s Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH
Robert C. O’Brien’s 1971 novel, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, stands as a landmark in the positive portrayal of rats. The book tells the story of a colony of rats who, after being subjected to experiments at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), have developed human-level intelligence.
The rats of NIMH completely subvert the negative stereotype:
- A Civilized Society: Far from being filthy pests, the rats have built a sophisticated and literate society in an old rosebush. They have tapped into the local electrical grid to power lights, elevators, and other machinery. Their intelligence is a tool for liberation, which allowed them to escape the laboratory and build a new life for themselves.
- A Moral Compass: The central conflict for the rats is an ethical one. Their leader, Nicodemus, explains that they are ashamed of their current lifestyle, which relies on stealing food and electricity from the nearby human farmer. They view this as a form of parasitism and are actively planning to move to a remote valley to create a new, self-sufficient society where they can live with dignity and without stealing. This portrays them as beings with a strong sense of moral responsibility.
- Community and Self-Sacrifice: The rats demonstrate a deep commitment to their community and to helping others. They agree to help Mrs. Frisby, a widowed field mouse, move her home to save her sick son, a dangerous undertaking they perform out of respect for her late husband, who helped them in the past. Their society is built on cooperation and mutual aid.
The novel uses its intelligent rat society to explore complex themes of science, ethics, and what it truly means to be civilized, presenting a powerful argument that intelligence and morality are not exclusive to humans.
Seekers of Light and Redemption
Other stories focus on the internal struggle of individual rat characters who feel trapped by the prejudice against their species and long for something more. These tales often use the classic literary motifs of light and darkness to explore themes of identity, forgiveness, and redemption.
In-Depth Case Study: Kate DiCamillo’s The Tale of Despereaux
Kate DiCamillo’s 2003 novel, The Tale of Despereaux, explicitly engages with the symbolism of rats as creatures of darkness. The castle dungeon, where the rats live, is a place of misery and evil, while the world upstairs is one of light and goodness. The story’s central rat character, however, defies this simple binary.
His name is Chiaroscuro, often shortened to “Roscuro,” a term from art that means the arrangement of light and dark together. This name is the key to his character:
- A Rat Who Craves Light: Unlike the other rats, who revel in suffering, Roscuro is fascinated by light and beauty. He ventures upstairs into the castle, where he is awestruck. However, when Princess Pea sees him, she recoils and calls him a “rat.” In that moment, Roscuro realizes that the word is an insult, “a word totally without light,” and the rejection breaks his heart.
- A Journey from Revenge to Redemption: His heartbreak twists into a desire for revenge, and he plots to kidnap the princess and trap her in the darkness of the dungeon. Yet, his plan is born not of pure evil, but of a desperate desire to possess some of the light and beauty he feels he has been denied. During the story’s climax, he confesses, “All I wanted was some light. This is why I brought the princess here, really, just for some beauty… some light of my own”.
- The Power of Forgiveness: Ultimately, Roscuro is redeemed not by his own actions, but by the compassion of others. When Princess Pea sees his remorse, she recognizes the struggle between light and dark within her own heart and offers him forgiveness in the form of soup. This act of grace saves both Roscuro and the princess herself from being consumed by darkness.
Roscuro’s character is a powerful symbol of the idea that no one is purely good or evil. He embodies the chiaroscuro of his name, proving that even a creature born in darkness can long for the light and is worthy of redemption.
Conclusion: A Mirror to Ourselves
The journey of the rat through literature reveals far more about humanity than it does about the rodent itself. As our “mirror species,” the rat reflects our deepest anxieties and our highest aspirations. Its dual symbolism is a direct projection of the human condition.
On one hand, the literary rat is the embodiment of our historical traumas, from the plagues that devastated our ancestors to the totalitarian regimes that crushed the human spirit. It is a symbol of our social prejudices, used for centuries to dehumanize those we fear or wish to oppress. And it is a manifestation of our most profound psychological fears—the gnawing guilt of the past, the repressed desires of the subconscious, and the terrifying fragility of our own identity.
On the other hand, the heroic literary rat reflects our most cherished ideals. It stands for the power of intelligence to overcome adversity, the importance of community and cooperation, the weight of moral responsibility, and the profound human capacity for forgiveness and redemption.
The evolution of the rat’s symbolism, from a simple pest in ancient fables to a complex psychological and social metaphor in modern novels, showcases the power of literature to shape our understanding of the world. The rat remains such a potent and enduring symbol precisely because it lives so close to us, in the margins of our carefully constructed world. It forces us to confront the parts of our society—and our own nature—that we would much rather leave in the dark. In its scurrying form, we see both the monster we fear we could become and the survivor we hope we can be.