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Comparing Romanticism In The Devil And Tom Walker

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Romanticism is a type of story that finds inspiration in myth, legend, and folk culture. Following this principle, Washington Irving has written many stories about romanticism. These stories include, “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “Rip Van Winkle. Irving’s stories, “The Devil and Tom Walker, and “Rip Van Winkle” both show traits of romanticism because they both include the supernatural realm, youthful innocence over sophistication, shunning civilization, and folk culture. Washington Irving wrote many wonderful romanticism stories. One of these stories, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, involves a man, making a deal with the Devil. It begins when the elderly man, Tom Walker, walks through a marsh one day instead of his usual route home through the town. He walked in the marsh until water seeped into his shoe, and he sat down to drain the water, and saw a black man, who he later found out was the Devil, sitting on a stump, looking at him. They talked for a while, until Tom asked the Devil, “‘The upshot of all which is, that, if I'm not mistake not,’ said Tom, sturdily, ‘you are he commonly called Old Scratch’. ‘The same at your service!’ replied the black man, with a half civil nod” (Irving 3). The Devil finally made it known that the marsh belonged to him, and came to Tom for a deal. Furthermore, after the Devil made himself known, …show more content…

Tom Walker made a deal with the Devil, making himself the usurer for the Devil’s money. The Devil is part of a supernatural realm which is shown numerous times in romanticism stories. Rip Van Winkle helped a strange man carry a keg up a mountain, and then woke up on the mountain a few years later, after the Revolutionary a War had already occurred. This too is an example of romanticism because the man somehow made him sleep through a few years without realizing it. That is why Washington Irving’s stories are examples of

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The Devil and Tom Walker Retold Tom Walker was on his way to his home in the big city of Boston, MA. He was headed home from a busy and stressful day of work. On his way, Tom started feeling reluctant about going home. He knew as soon as he had gotten home, his wife would start whining and complaining. Tom was miserable with his wife because all they did was fight and argue.

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In each work of literature we’ve read this unit are all written by romantic writers. In “The Devil and Tom Walker”, the author Washington Irving, uses imagination, and nature that are traits of romanticism. The author displays nature as the setting of the story, and uses the nature to bring to story alive. He also uses imagination to bring the story alive, and emphasize of the description of the Devil. Another work of literature we read this unit was “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe.

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The short story “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving was a story based on Gothic Romanticism. Gothic Romanticism is a story written with horror and death with a magistical suspense. The Devil and Tom Walker has many characteristic pertaining gothic romanticism. The setting is medieval in a way that relates to gothic romanticism. The setting of the story “The Devil and Tom Walker “is described as a thick wooded swamp where there is a deep inlet that has two sides to it.

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“The Devil and Tom Walker”, perhaps Washington Irving’s most famous work, details a story about a man named Tom Walker and his deal with the Devil. Throughout the story, Irving makes heavy use of satire: the usage of irony or other humors with the intent to mock the vices of humanity. We first see his satirization demonstrated with matrimony, revolving around Tom’s hatred of his own wife to the extent of relishing in her death. Next, he pokes fun at the wealthy white establishment, particularly slave-owners, by portraying them as totally immoral and worse than even the Devil. The final subject of Irving’s satire, and by far his largest one, is the way in which he depicts the Christian community as fueling the Devil’s power, contrary to what they want to believe.

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In both “The Devil and Daniel Webster and “The Devil and Tom Walker, they both came face to face with the devil. They had different strategies on how to confront the devil. In the two short stories, the resolution, the depictions of the devil, and the role of religion or the saving grace are the similar and different things. The main idea of both stories is the resolution of what had happened to Daniel and Tom.

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As Tom kicks at the skull, he hears a voice and looks up to see a black man. This black man was wearing a red sash around his body and had a soot-stained face, which gave the impression that he worked in a fiery place. It doesn't take long before the stranger is identified as the devil, also known as Old Scratch. His nickname comes from his tendency of cutting down trees The devil confirms a story of buried treasure and offers it to Tom but only on a certain condition, It is assumed that the devil wants his soul (but it is not clearly known at this point). The devil makes a point of proving who he says he is by putting his finger print into Tom’s

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76 Words | 1 Pages

Washington Irving wrote “The Devil and Tom Walker” in 1824. The story is set in 1727 near Boston, Massachusetts and features Tom Walker, Mrs. Walker and a mysterious character known as Old Scratch. Tom Walker has many conflicts throughout the story with his wife, himself and the choices that he makes. Washington Irving uses this story to reflect on the superstitions and beliefs of the time period while also revealing the materialistic nature of the 1820s.

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American Romanticism were mostly written during the 1800’s. The use of American Romanticism was to get readers to read. The authors would exaggerate stories to get them attached and start reading them. American Romanticism were stories that were mostly gothic or dark stories. The death of a protagonist is usually over exaggerated.

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The Romantics wanted to create a sense of identity for Americans, often by exploring topics that had previously been avoided, such as human nature. In Washington Irving’s Dark Romantic short story, The Devil and Tom Walker Irving shows the five points of Romanticism; including focus on emotion, nature, youth, imagination and people themselves. During his unhappy marriage, Tom Walker decides to take a stroll through the woods where he meets the Devil who, in turn, offers to buy the man’s soul. Irving writes, “However Tom might have felt disposed to sell himself to the devil, he was determined not to do so to oblige his wife; so he flatly refused, out of the mere spirit of contradiction… Tom was not to be damned to please her” (Irving 295).

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Prince Prospero decides that to escape the sickness he and his friends will stay in a palace that has no way in or out with six beautiful rooms and one spine-chilling room. In this seventh room there is a big clock, one night when the clock strikes midnight a figure appears in the room, and everyone in the palace dies when the figure is revealed to be the red death. In “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Masque of Red Death”, Irving and Poe both use symbols and themes to establish their stories as traditional and dark romantic parts of literature. Symbols are a big part of the romanticism era with them often representing key factors that allows one to identify traditional and dark romantic works. The story “The Devil and Tom Walker” has a main character named Tom and one day he is in the woods and the devil yells at him, when he tries to tell the devil that land belongs to Deacon Peabody the devil laughs and points to a tree where “the bark of the tree was scored [with] the name of Deacon Peabody, an eminent man who had waxed wealthy by driving shrewd bargains and stealing from the Indians” (Irving, 2).

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1022 Words | 5 Pages

Washington Irving wrote two stories that have become profoundly popular over the decades. Some of the stories many stories he wrote were The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and The Devil and Tom Walker. Even though the stories were both good, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow was written better in my opinion. I’m going to prove that the Legend of Sleepy Hollow was better by comparing and contrasting common themes they shared. The themes I chose to compare and contrast are wealth, the supernatural, and karma.

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1431 Words | 6 Pages

The romanticism was the response to the Industrial Age. That movement began in America from 1820 ’s to 1870’s. Washington Irving was part of that movement which began in America after Revolutionary War. They tried to separate them from the rest of the world and create a country as a nation. They used their chance of individuality and creativity, and they addressed economic social and many other concerns by their writings.

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1214 Words | 5 Pages

American Romanticism American Romanticism is a concept that developed in the 17th century. Romanticism is all about emotions, the meaning of life, religion, society, the human form, death, and nature. Romanticism is very diverse and complex because each writer interprets the themes differently and each person who reads the poem can see something different and unique. Two famous and influential romantic poets were Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman. Although Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman were both romantic poets they interpreted society and death in two completely different ways.

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1153 Words | 5 Pages

When the Industrial Revolution took off, the people assumed that it was making man evil, so they rebelled against it. They changed how they wrote and also acted in ways that included focusing on emotions, the celebration of the individual, promotion of the imagination, chivalry, and a focus on the common man. All these attributes appeared in their writing and their actions, and are grouped into a time period now referred to as the Romantic period. Washington Irving makes fun of Romanticism with one of his stories called “The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow” through the ideas of the supernatural and emotion. “The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow” is one of

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462 Words | 2 Pages

This explains folk culture very well because of how the story includes a ghostly being. Another element in romanticism is individuality. Individuality is when a person is placed against a group or authority. Freedom is emphasized from tradition and

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