In the short story, Tom is shown to be corrupted by greed. He was shown trying to get more money from a poor land-jobber who was asking for more time. As quoted from the story, “He was on the point of foreclosing a mortgage, by which he would complete the ruin of an unlucky land-speculator”. (Irving, Washington. The Devil and Tom Walker.) The land-jobber was then forced to mortgage his land to Tom who was anxious to get it. This piece of evidence from the story shows how Tom was…
Washington Irving the author of The Devil and Tom Walker uses the setting of the story to convey that things with a good appearance can be deceiving and be putrid on the inside. He also creates the right atmosphere for the story, and gives precise details to the audience so they can predict the topic and how it will develop. In addition, he describes each character in a manner that the readers can infer who they are, their personal characteristics, and the decisions that they might make throughout the development of the story. Moreover, he provides a background for each character in order to understand their actions and their ending.…
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…
In "The Devil and Tom Walker" Irving uses color imagery to reveal aspects of his characters. An example of this is the devil is described as black, as though covered in soot, and red, like blood (lines 79-88, 319-320, and 329). These colors are associated with the fires of Hell and danger, and they reveal the identity of the strange man and emphasize his…
So to sum this up, the devil and Tom Walker is very different and similar to the devil and Daniel Webster. The stories are very similar in the way that both men are poor and both of the men makes a deal with the devil that they soon regret. Then the stories are very different in the personality of the two men. With Jabez not being a greedy and mean man man and Tom walker being greedy and mean who makes a deal with the…
While on the shortcut, Tom is met by the Devil because the Devil shows up when someone attempts to take the easy road. After Tom makes a deal with the Devil and becomes very rich his life ends by the Devil taking him…
Thest two stories were alike in very few ways, and different in many. "The Devil and Tom Walker" had a more abrupt ending with the death of Tom. "The Devil and Daniel Webster: had and unbelievably happy ending considering everyone ended up living even though someone signed their soul away to the devil. They were both moral stories to tell someone never to sell their soul to the devil, no matter how exquisite the life in mind may…
When Tom Walker meets the devil, he glances up at him and sees his image. He is described to be dark and devilish when the text says, “but his face was neither black nor copper-color, but swarthy and dingy, and begrimed with soot, as if he had been accustomed to toil among fires and forges.” This shows him in a murky approach . Some of the key words are “dingy”, “begrimed”, “fires”, and “forges” which tells that the devil is covered with ash and is very dirty as if he had never been clean.…
“The Devil and Tom Walker” and “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving are two very similar yet different stories. Both of these stories talk about the American Dream and how one can want it but be disappointed when one gets it. Tom and Rip both have wives that are turning points in the stories. They both nag so much that it drives them to crazy things. The imagery in these stories gives a real feel for the scenery and how it interacts with the stories. Van Winkle and Tom both get what they wanted but once they achieve it they find that it is not what they want and regret their decisions. The message in these stories is be careful who you interact with they may not be who one wants them to be.…
In the story “The Devil and Tom Walker” good vs evil is shown in Tom Walker. Tom is a man in the 18th century who was a very bad man who sold his soul to the devil for money. “The Devil and Tom Walker” was written by Washington Irving and the character I have chosen is Tom Walker. Tom Walker is a lonely man because he is greedy, miserly, and mean.…
“The Devil and Tom Walker” is a short story that revolves around supernatural events, nature, and challenges its own characters to change their pasts. For instance, the Devil in “The Devil and Tom Walker” is a supernatural entity who promises fortune if Tom sells his soul. The supernatural events displayed here display the emotional wishes of both Tom and his wife. He is miserable living with his wife and cannot stand her. The Devil ends up taking the soul of Tom’s wife, which prompts Tom to feel “…gratitude towards the black woodsman, who he considered had done him a kindness” (“Washington Irving”). The Devil is able to successfully take action on the inner emotions and desires of the others characters in a way only a supernatural entity could and reality could not. Furthermore, Nature is prevalent in “The Devil and Tom Walker” because many Romantic writers believed that nature provided good emotions as compared to the ugly emotions caused by urbanization. Irving uses nature to connect the real world with the imaginative and supernatural world and adds human elements to nature to romanticize them. The devil presents himself to Tom as “… the Wild Huntsman in some countries; the Black Miner in others. In this neighbourhood I am known by the name of the Black Woodsman.” (“Washington Irving”). Irving uses nature to describe the Devil to blend in the supernatural entity of the Devil to the romantic aspects of nature. Finally, the Romantic tenet of challenging characters to change their own pasts is rampant throughout “The Devil and Tom Walker”. The Devil loved his reputation and sought to lengthen his legacy by seeking out individuals and taking their souls. Tom was a greedy man, who wanted money over anything else. When the oppurtunity of seizing this fortune presented itself to Tom, he took advantage of it, even if that meant taking money from poor, innocent farmers later in his…
She goes to the beach where Tom was first met with the black man. The Devil didn’t give her the time of day to even offer a deal he wouldn’t accept it. He told her that he will only talk of a deal once she brings him three hundred thousand dollars in cash. So Tom sets out to find his wife and to his bewilderment his wife was in the process of robbing a bank. Fleeing for her life from the town she makes it to the beach. When she turns the money over to the Devil he makes it clear that the deal is off with the table along with her head. After days of searching again Tom finally finds the remains, only being a head, on the beach of where they met with the Devil. Since nothing is there to hold Tom back he decides to make another deal with the Devil. Tom decides to sell his soul to the Devil if he can become a successful stockbroker. By draining clients of their money by being a fraud and selling useless stock for thousands on end he gained his wealth that was promised by the…
The short story “The Devil and Tom Walker” contains many elements of fiction. “The Devil and Tom Walker” is about a miserable man named Tom Walker who one day meets the devil. The devil…
In Washington Irving’s short story The Devil and Tom Walker, greed is shown to be a terrible trait that comes with many negative affects. Revealed by Irving when he introduced the setting, Tom Walker lived a miserable life isolated with his untrustworthy wife due to his miserly personality, and by this Irving was showing that living a life of greed will ultimately lead to misery. When decisions are being made based on greed and self benefit it will alter one thinking process and help you to make harmful and unintelligent decisions, as shown by Irving represented by greed based decisions both Tom and his wife made. Irvin also illustrated that you can be overwhelmed by greed and it can metaphorically turn you into a monster or a fiend. Overall, Irving tried to demonstrate in his short story that if one’s life in run by greed it will lead a misery and eventually to their downfall.…
Tom Walker makes a deal with the devil, turning him from rags to riches. He quickly becomes rich after opening a bank with the fortune he gathered from the devil. Tom buys everything he wants and before long “began to feel anxious about those of the next. He thought with regret on the bargain he had made with his black friend, and set his wits to work to cheat him out of the conditions. He became, therefore, all of the sudden, a violent churchgoer”(Irving 13). Tom no longer was content with his deal of selling his soul to the devil. He began to see that his freedom and his life was more important than his big house and money. The fact that Irving included this shows how his quality of life really did not improve as he was trying to. The romantic value of freedom over goods shines through with Tom’s realization that he wanted his life back. This trend of regret continues after Stephen Benet’s Jabez Stone gets fed up with all of the things that happen to him. He feels he is the most unlucky person in the world and makes a deal with the devil so that he can have good luck for (ultimately) ten years before the devil takes him. The deal makes Jabez have good crop turnout, strong horses, and good luck, but also extreme apprehensiveness “For every day, when he gets up, he thinks, ‘There’s one more night gone,’ and every night he lies down he thinks of the black pocketbook and the soul of Miser Stevens, and it makes him sick at heart”(Benet 310). Stone cannot bear the fact the he can count down the days until his death. The benefits of the deal with the devil no longer help Jabez and he realizes that his freedom is more important than having nice. He cannot enjoy his life no matter what while he knows his fate, showing romanticism’s emphasis on freedom for self realization. Jabez’s good luck is quickly overshadowed when he realizes he doesn’t have his life anymore,…