The Devil and Tom Walker
The setting of Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” serves as a way for Irving to foreshadow coming events, especially events that are rather… grim. For example, “The swamp was… grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks”. Pine is a tree that can be seen as symbolising an everlasting element, and hemlock is extremely poisonous to domestic animals and, more importantly, humans. Later, Tom Walker meets the character named ‘Old Scratch, or the devil. The devil is a character that doesn’t age, and is harmful to people. The house that the Walkers share together is described as “forlorn looking” and having “an air of starvation”. The couple inside the house are just about as cheery as their home’s exterior, if not …show more content…
The supernatural’s involvement is obvious from the title of Irving’s short story- “The Devil and Tom Walker”. In fact, the supernatural takes the form of Tom Walker’s savior and tormentor, the Devil himself. This is proven when Tom Walker asks “who are you, if I may be so bold?” (Irving) The Devil, named such by the title of Irving’s short story, replies “... Oh, I go by various names… I am the great patron and prompter of slave dealers, and the grand master of the Salem witches.” (Irving). Another example of the supernatural is the ground on which Tom Walker originally encountered The Devil; the “strongholds of the Indians” (Irving). The land holds some supernatural influence, if not because of what transpired there “during their wars with the first colonists” (Irving), then because of who inhabits it; Old Scratcher. What transpired in the swamp wouldn’t have happened had the sacred ground been erased from the story’s history. Without supernatural influence, the story couldn’t have even taken place, since Old Scratcher is the main antagonist of “The Devil and Tom …show more content…
For example, when the story begins, the reader is given a description of a place that is vital to the story. “A few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is a deep inlet .. On one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove; on the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water's edge into a high ridge, on which grow a few scattered oaks of great age and immense size. Under one of these gigantic trees… there was a great amount of treasure buried by Kidd the pirate.” (Irving) The area in which Tom Walker meets Old Scratcher is in a similar swamp. “The swamp was thickly grown with great, gloomy pines and hemlocks... It was full of pits and quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses, where the green surface often betrayed the traveller into a gulf of black, smothering mud; there were also dark and stagnant pools, the abodes of...the water-snake.” (Irving) In contrast, both of Tom Walker’s homes have been described as “forlorn looking”, and “the greater part of it unfinished and unfurnished”.
The setting of Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” serves as a way for Irving to foreshadow coming events, especially events that are rather… grim. For example, “The swamp was… grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks”. Pine is a tree that can be seen as symbolising an everlasting element, and hemlock is extremely poisonous to domestic animals and, more importantly, humans. Later, Tom Walker meets the character named ‘Old Scratch, or the devil. The devil is a character that doesn’t age, and is harmful to people. The house that the Walkers share together is described as “forlorn looking” and having “an air of starvation”. The couple inside the house are just about as cheery as their home’s exterior, if not …show more content…
The supernatural’s involvement is obvious from the title of Irving’s short story- “The Devil and Tom Walker”. In fact, the supernatural takes the form of Tom Walker’s savior and tormentor, the Devil himself. This is proven when Tom Walker asks “who are you, if I may be so bold?” (Irving) The Devil, named such by the title of Irving’s short story, replies “... Oh, I go by various names… I am the great patron and prompter of slave dealers, and the grand master of the Salem witches.” (Irving). Another example of the supernatural is the ground on which Tom Walker originally encountered The Devil; the “strongholds of the Indians” (Irving). The land holds some supernatural influence, if not because of what transpired there “during their wars with the first colonists” (Irving), then because of who inhabits it; Old Scratcher. What transpired in the swamp wouldn’t have happened had the sacred ground been erased from the story’s history. Without supernatural influence, the story couldn’t have even taken place, since Old Scratcher is the main antagonist of “The Devil and Tom …show more content…
For example, when the story begins, the reader is given a description of a place that is vital to the story. “A few miles from Boston, in Massachusetts, there is a deep inlet .. On one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove; on the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water's edge into a high ridge, on which grow a few scattered oaks of great age and immense size. Under one of these gigantic trees… there was a great amount of treasure buried by Kidd the pirate.” (Irving) The area in which Tom Walker meets Old Scratcher is in a similar swamp. “The swamp was thickly grown with great, gloomy pines and hemlocks... It was full of pits and quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses, where the green surface often betrayed the traveller into a gulf of black, smothering mud; there were also dark and stagnant pools, the abodes of...the water-snake.” (Irving) In contrast, both of Tom Walker’s homes have been described as “forlorn looking”, and “the greater part of it unfinished and unfurnished”.