Early into the age of romantic writing, a wonderful passage was written by Washington Irving called “The Devil and Tom Walker.” The short story was about a man named Tom Walker who stumbles upon another man who changes his life. Irving took many ideas that are present in other romantic pieces, one of them being mystery. Mystery was an important part in many of the lives of romantics. One example in his story was when Tom meets a man in the forest who prints his signature, or fingerprint, on the forehead of Tom. Irving writes, “When Tom reached home, he found the black print of a finger burnt, as it were, into his forehead, which nothing could obliterate” (Irving 131). The mystery is present in this moment because Tom knows that it is the man 's