The Devil and Daniel Webster

“The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” are both brilliant literary works that present the danger of greed and the misuse of wealth. Through the main characters’ follies and rash decisions, it sets up the story to give the readers an idea on how quickly wealth can become bad. Both short stories include the Devil and views of wealth; however, there are numerous differences within the text. Alongside the differences, there are also many similarities. Throughout the story many of the similarities and contrasts takes place in the resolution of the story, the devil’s illustration, and religion or a saving grace’s role. The resolutions in “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” are one of the contrasts between the stories. Both men were able to acquire wealth through a deal with Old Scratch, but they both had different wind-ups. After they made their bargains, both lives changed to the better, but it was only a matter of time until the Devil closed the deal. In “The Devil…

“The Devil and Daniel Webster” is a short story about a New Hampshire farmer, Jabez Stone, who sells his soul to the Devil and is defended by Daniel Webster, a man who is revered throughout the North as a great lawyer and man. Stone makes a deal with the devil, Mr. Scratch, for prosperity for seven years and gets three years extending to that prosperity. Stone then gains the help of Webster to defend his soul and life. Finnis, Durkheim, and Hart are major philosophers that would each take a…

Compared to the Romantics, Puritans had no connection between their writing and the reader. An abundance of examples can easily be found throughout Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker, Bonet’s The Devil and Daniel Webster, and Poe’s The Masque of the Red Death. Each of these stories was written to humanize the writing so the readers could connect to it easier. The humanization helped the reader to connect to the characters that were able to defeat evil without God’s help, using the human power…

The items in life that people have for free, may be overlooked and seen as unimportant, when really those are the things individuals will end up missing if they were ever taken away. In The Devil and Daniel Webster, Daniel fought for Jabez Stone’s freedom from the devil, after Jabez had already sold his soul. Daniel realized “For it was him they’d come for, not only Jabez Stone” Daniel shouts to the devil, “You shall not hate this man”(Benet 313-316). Daniel acknowledges how much his freedom…

Jarl Erik looked over his papers with an angry look. "Felix why are we losing money!" Erik yelled at his steward. "Sir the harvest wasn't good because of the raiders from the east valley, so we didn't have a good trade this year" Felix said in a quivering voice. Felix never liked it when his master got mad because it alway ended bad. "Well then it looks like we need more money so this month we will charge them a 1/4 more than usual" said Erik. "But sir the harvest means the people don't have…

“The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Stephen Benét and “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving are classic short stories which provide commentary on spirituality, religion, traditions, and more. They provide insight into the way people from the respective eras of their publications viewed issues such as the devil and redemption. Despite these similarities, some key differences exist between “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster.” These differences chiefly lie in…

Both The Devil and Tom Walker and The Devil and Daniel Webster are examples of stories in which men sell their souls to the devil. Despite their similarities, they show differences in areas including the way the devil is portrayed, the motivations of the men, the actions the men took to regain their souls, and the resolution. The devils in the two stories are portrayed very differently by the authors. In the Devil and Daniel Webster, the devil is portrayed as a well-dressed, persuasive man.…

Two stories written years apart both focused on the same concept but went different directions. Both stories had had a different portrayal of the Devil, function of faith, and ending. The Faust Legend, which has been used in many stories, played a big role in “The Devil and Daniel Webster” and “The Devil and Tom Walker.” A large portion of the similarities between the two stories stem from their roots in the Faust legend. The Faust Legend is basically the prospect of someone selling their soul…

In the tall tales "The Devil and Daniel Webster" by Stephen Vincent Benet and "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irvine the authors use the devil as an archetype but both use it in different ways. I believe the authors use this archetype as a means to support the main character and teach us lessons we shouldn't forget. Without this archetype there would be no story or the story would turn out differently. The archetype contributes to the main characters lives and changes them completely. …

run away. If you treat them nice, they would run away. The way you would need to treat your slave was to beat the devil out of him then treat him good (Diseases and Peculiarities of the Nergo Race). The reason why he wrote this book, was to give advice to the southerns. Beating the devil out of a slave, was beating the evil God had left in him for him being a slave. This plays a role in religion in Christianity because in the Bible there were slaves. The south thought owning slaves was good,…