The Devil and Tom Walker

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…

In the short story “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Tom makes the poor decision to deal with the devil so he can become wealthy (Irving 9). However, the devil has a hefty price for Tom’s fortune, his soul. Now, at first Tom puts the consequences of his deal on the back burner of his mind, but as he starts to age Tom attempts to become religious in order to thwart the devil (Irving 11). Nevertheless, Tom’s plan fails and the devil collects his payment, “The black man whisked him [Tom] like a child…

A man guilty of one of the world's deadliest sins. Greed. In the story The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving a man, Tom Walker displays the Dark Romantics beliefs in wickedness in humanity. He exhibits this through his actions and lust for money. In the story The Devil and Tom Walker, Tom Walker was an ill-fed rascal that lived in Massachusetts and was ever so greedy. He and his wife were very poor and both "squabbled over the spending of a penny and each grudged food to the other."…

lonely atmosphere and influence the reader's way of looking at Tom. Moreover, Irving describes Tom's horse using adjectives that gives feeling to the sentence: " A miserable horse, whose ribs were as articulate as the bars of a gridiron, stalked about a field where a thin carpet of moss, scarcely covering the ragged beds of pudding stone, tantalized and balked his hunger; and sometimes he would lean his head over the fence, look piteously at the passer by, and seem to petition deliverance from…

The Perfect Example of a Folktale Now, one may wonder to his or herself, how exactly is “The Devil and Tom Walker” a folktale. To begin, the story is composed by a writer by the name of Washington Irving. The story contains the three necessities of a folktale. The first of the three criteria is the inclusion of stereotypes within the text; which one can evidently spot out whilst reading through the folktale. Following the inclusion of stereotypes, the use of unlikely events further…

Isaiah Castro The Devil of Tom Walker The initial segment of this story sets up the setting, acquaints us with our principle characters, and gives the inducing occurrence that will lead into whatever is left of the story. The underlying portrayal of Tom Walker concentrates intensely on his stingy inclinations, which shows immediately that these are what will bring about inconvenience for him. The negative connection amongst him and his significant other is an essential variable of their…

Similar in many ways, every story read has a lesson learned at the end. For instance, Ebeneezer Scrooge is one of the wealthiest men in town, but his greed and grumpy attitude causes him to encounter the three ghosts of Christmas, that change his personality into a more loving and caring man. Without a doubt, Mr. Scrooge is an example of a character that changes throughout the story for the better. In other words, he is an archetype. An archetype is a prototype or model. Literary characters are…

The archetypal theme of selling your soul to the devil has been in practice for centuries back. The willingness for someone to sell their soul in exchange for something they desire or what they most want in life and not always do they have another choice and that’s when they decide to not work for what they want and go the easy way to having fame, power, revenge and beauty. Both Tom Walker from “The Devil and Tom Walker” and Queen Ravenna from “Snow White and the Huntsmen” thought they had no…

“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…

In the Christian faith "Greed" is considered to be one of the "Seven Deadly Sins", but regardless of your religious affiliation, it is commonly believed that it is immoral to be greedy. In Dark Romantic literature, it is typically believed that humans are naturally wicked and will tend to succumb to the evil temptations in the world, Greed being a common one. Through the use of metaphor, Washington Irving is able to describe the Dark Romantic's belief in the wickedness of humanity in his short…