Critical Commentary
The Tale of Mr. Tod was sketched out long before its 1912 publication, and is a forbidding tale with relief only in the landscape illustrations. Graham Greene thought Potter was suffering some sort of emotional disturbance when the tale was composed, but Potter denied the allegation and observed only that she was suffering the after-effects of the 'flu. She deprecated Greene's "Freudian school of criticism".
There are a few inconsistencies from the naturalist's view point. Foxes and badgers are not necessarily mutual enemies in nature. Badgers do not normally invade the homes of foxes, and are not typically dirty. Badgers do sometimes eat bunnies, not from a predeliction for bunnies but simply because they are omnivorous. The inconsistencies are few and employed to create individual characters rather than evoke an archetypical fox and badger.
The tale does have archetypical sources in the stories of Uncle Remus. There, both rabbits and foxes contend, but unlike the fox in Uncle Remus, the Potter fox is not particularly wily and the rabbits win – not by outsmarting the fox – but only because they enjoy a stroke of luck. The badger is not a typical animal in Uncle Remus but in Potter he is the clever one. The finale reunites the rabbits but the wily animals win nothing. Mr. Tod and the Uncle Remus stories are only similar in depicting the powerless triumphing over the powerful.
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