Devil And Tom Walker Character Analysis

The duality of human nature between the characters; Tom Walker, Young Goodman Brown, and Connie are revealed vastly contrarily and similarly throughout the each short stories. Tom Walker, a greedy, lazy, materialistic man throughout the short story “Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving as he makes his way through the muddy unpleasant swamp. Young Goodman Brown, an innocent, guilty, follower who is a victim of the Devil, in the story “Young Goodman Brown” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne. He has a harsh time when he is tempted by the Devil in the woods. Lastly, Connie, a neglected, verballed abused, attention seeking young girl from “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates has been constantly compared and internally diminished by her mother from jealous for years. Each character while having similar experience all seem to also have similar personality traits as well.
As he made his journey through the forest however he was tempted by the “Devil” named Old Scratch, who offers him riches, shortcuts etc. in exchange for his soul. Tom who once was not foolish, falls to this trap and instead goes to the Devil. He is also a very materialistic and lazy unmotivated individual, as stated in the story, “Tom was a hard-minded fellow, not easily daunted, and he had lived so long with a termagant wife, that he did not fear the Devil” (Irving 183). The devious devil had successfully tempted Tom in so many ways that he had left in him by the end of the story and felt that he “might have felt disposed to sell himself to the Devil” (Irving 183). Similarly Young Goodman Brown went through a similar experience as he made his way through the forest as the devil tempted him as