An Analysis of Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Devil and Tom Walker"

Washington Irving was one of the first American writers to write any kind of fantasy story or writing. At first he tried to pass his stories as real life accounts found in a dead mans dresser. The start of one states that it is real and has been deemed so by collages and some museums. After he saw how much people liked his stories he published all of them in The Sketch Book of Godfred Crayon, Gent. This Collection became famous rapidly. They were also successful in England and Europe. Most of his stories have many similarities and differences. Rip VanWinkle and " The Devil and Tom Walker" are two good examples. To start off with there all around feeling and theme. Rip VanWinkle is set in a fantasy world right of the bat by the way Irving sort of zooms in on the scene, first he tells of the mountains and then the town and down till he's in the room with Tom and his wife. In The Devil and Tom Walker the author gives some info on the situation and the charters and then just jumps into the story. In both of the stories you get the feeling of something supernatural is going to happen. Also in both they take place in remote areas. Next we have the husband wife relationship in both cases. Now Rip was sort of a say nothing do nothing when it came to his house and wife. His wife would bad mouth him and yell at him, but Rip wouldn't do much anyway. He would just go off and sleep. Now Tom and his wife on the other hand would battle to the death. Tom would yell and scream and so would his wife. Tom would hide money and so would his wife. In both of the stories they wife husband relationship would be a turning point in both cases. And last the way they both got what they wanted. In Rips case he wanted to get rid of his wife and his jobs. He goes to the forest to escape from his wives verbal abuse. He gets his wish by getting a new life basically. In Tom case he wants money and doesn't want his wife. He meets the devil and the devil wants to make him a deal. Tom