# Robert Fulton Tanner explained — Spoon River Anthology

> Chapter companion for Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters.

## What happens

Robert Fulton Tanner reflects on the futility of revenge against life itself, comparing his experience of being bitten by a rat while demonstrating a patent trap to the inescapable trap of existence. He describes life as an ogre that lures people with desires for money, prestige, and power, only to watch them struggle in misery.

## Themes in this chapter

### Illusion vs. Reality

The poem contrasts the illusion of achieving desires (money, prestige, power) with the reality of being trapped and mocked by life.

### The Search for Meaning

Tanner's bitter meditation on life as a trap reflects a search for purpose and justice in a world that offers none.

## Character check-ins

### Robert Fulton Tanner

The speaker who compares life to a trap and reflects on his own failed revenge.

## Key lines

> If a man could bite the giant hand / That catches and destroys him, / As I was bitten by a rat / While demonstrating my patent trap, / In my hardware store that day.

If only a person could retaliate against the overwhelming force that traps and ruins him, just as I was bitten by a rat while showing off my trap in my store.

_Tanner wishes for the ability to strike back at life, comparing it to the accidental bite he received._

> But a man can never avenge himself / On the monstrous ogre Life.

But no one can ever get revenge on the monstrous force that is life.

_Tanner concludes that revenge against life itself is impossible._

> You enter the room—that’s being born; / And then you must live—work out your soul, / Aha! the bait that you crave is in view: / A woman with money you want to marry, / Prestige, place, or power in the world.

Birth is like entering a room; then you have to live and struggle, seeing the tempting bait of a wealthy spouse, status, or power.

_Tanner describes life as a trap baited with desires._

> At last you get in—but you hear a step: / The ogre, Life, comes into the room, / (He was waiting and heard the clang of the spring) / To watch you nibble the wondrous cheese, / And stare with his burning eyes at you, / And scowl and laugh, and mock and curse you, / Running up and down in the trap, / Until your misery bores him.

Finally you fall into the trap, but then Life appears, having waited for the sound of the spring, to watch you nibble the bait, stare at you with burning eyes, mock and curse you as you run frantically, until your suffering becomes tiresome to him.

_The ogre Life is a cruel observer who enjoys the victim's misery until he grows bored._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters/robert-fulton-tanner
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/spoon_river_anthology_se/chapters