Comparing Symbolism In The Devil And Tom Walker

In gothic literature, symbolism is a strong tool in order to convey a message or a deeper meaning. “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allan Poe and “The Devil & Tom Walker” by Washington Irving are two stories that include vast amounts of symbolism in order to deliver profound ideas. In both pieces, the most apparent symbol used is a character. Although Poe and Irving both use symbolism in the form of characters, they do it in different ways. The narrator is sent a letter from his old friend, Roderick Usher, which “spoke of acute bodily illness—of a mental disorder which oppressed him”. Early on, it is revealed that Usher has an illness, and the degree to which it affects him is soon apparent. When the narrator finds Usher in his current

The change that Usher underwent is vast and sets up the remainder of the story. In “The Devil & Tom Walker”, the devil is described as “the wild huntsman in some countries; the black miner in others. In this neighborhood [he is] he to whom the red men consecrated this spot, and in honor of whom they now and then roasted a white man, by way of sweet-smelling sacrifice.”. The devil is described as a symbol of many things, all of which are negative. Washington Irving uses the devil as a symbol of consequences. In “The Devil & Tom Walker”, the Devil tells Tom “‘Deacon Peabody be d—d,’ said the stranger, ‘as [he] flatter[s] [himself] he will be, if he does not look more to his own sins and less to those of his neighbors. Look yonder, and see how Deacon Peabody is faring.’”. Here, the devil is describing to Tom Walker the fate of Deacon Peabody. The irony of a deacon dealing with the devil delivers a strong message about

When the narrator sees Usher for the first time in years, he “gazed upon him with a feeling half of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terribly altered, in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher!”. From the moment Roderick is introduced, he is described with ominous tones. Although the reader has no idea what Usher had looked like before his illness, the thoughts of the narrator invoke an unsure and suspenseful mood. After spending more time with him, the narrator had also come to learn that “He was enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured forth—in regard to an influence whose supposititious force was conveyed in terms too shadowy here to be re-stated—an influence which some peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion had, by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit—an effect which the physique of the gray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the morale of his existence.”. Roderick Usher was clearly not in his right mind, and the cause of this can be attributed to his illness and age. The narrator had known Roderick as a nice and normal guy in his youth, but being isolated with his illness had driven the man to