Greed In Washington Irving's The Devil And Tom Walker

Washington Irving was one of the best fiction writers of the early nineteenth century. He was the first American fiction writer to obtain an international reputation. He was also named for George Washington, the first president. Irving wrote “The Devil and Tom Walker” in the early nineteenth century, and the story took place in 1727. The story’s point of view was in the third person. The story’s setting took place at Charles Bay, near Boston Massachusetts. In “The Devil and Tom Walker” it is more than obvious that the Tom and his wife resent each other. Tom Walker and Mrs. Walker treat each other horribly. Whether it comes down to greed, doing things out of spite, or having a lack of sympathy towards each other, they do not hold back. One …show more content…
An example of an action of greed would be: “…they conspired to cheat each other. Whatever the women could lay hands, she hid away; a hen could not cackle but she was on the alert to secure the new-laid egg” (Irving 229). This shows how the wife was greedy and wanted to share nothing with her husband. They even lived in the same household and what was one's should have also been the others. They both wanted to have everything for themselves. The only other logical explanation would be if they were going to get divorced, but in that day in age, it did not happen too often. It went as far as Mrs. Walker having stashes of chicken eggs, it is a bit unreasonable to have stashes of chicken eggs kept away from her husband. Tom’s greediness is shown in the line: “…he was not a man to stick at trifles where money was in view” (232). This means that Tom is not a person to kid around when it comes to money. He was honestly considering selling his soul to the devil for wealth. This is a sign of how greedy he is, knowing he is going to suffer eternal damnation in hell he still accepts the offer from the devil for wealth. The wife was especially greedy when she urged Tom to sell his soul for them to have wealth. What she really wanted was to …show more content…
This can be shown when she urges him to take the deal: “…she urged her husband to comply with the black man’s terms and secure what would make them wealthy for life” (233). In this quote it may say “them wealthy for life” but in all honesty, it was the wife who wanted to gain the wealth for herself. She most likely would have attempted to hide it like many other things unless the husband hid it from her first. Either way, we will not find out because the wife decides to make the deal herself and goes out in search of the Devil. When she is not heard from after a few days Tom goes looking for her, though he was more concerned about the valuables she took with her. This can be supported with the quote: “He leapt with joy; for he recognized his wife’s apron, and supposed it to contain the household valuables” (234). This quote shows how he was very joyful to have found what he thought were his valuables. He had little concern about his wife and even felt a tinge of joy that she was deceased and was grateful for it. He felt bad for the loss of property and the loss of his wife which is shown in this quote: “Tom consoled himself for the loss of his property, with the loss of his wife, for he was a man of fortitude” (235). However, how could he feel bad and feel the need to console himself for the loss of his wife when he was slightly grateful to the Devil for her death. He did not really care too