ipl-logo

Similarities Between The Devil And Daniel Webster

519 Words3 Pages

Do you want to sell your soul? If so you might want to rethink your choice. In “The Devil and Tom Walker”, Tom Wa;ler is a miserable man who has troubles with his wife. One day, he is walking in the woods and comes upon Old Scratch who is able to make all of his problems go away. But he isn’t careful with his words and Scratch comes back for revenge. In The Devil and Daniel Webster, Jabez Stone is a newly wed but on his wedding day his past comes back to haunt him. Scratch comes to take him but Daniel Webster comes to his rescue by taking Old Scratch to court. Fortunately, Daniel wins the case and Scratch is banished. “The Devil and Tom Walker” and The Devil and Daniel Webster are similar in regards to Old Scratch and his ways and different because of their endings. …show more content…

One being how they display Old Scratch. In both tales, Old Scratch is displayed as his sinister man who wants nothing but your soul. He does everything in his power to get what he wants. A quote states, “These he offered to place within Tom Walker’s reach, having conceived an especial kindness for him; but they were to be had on certain conditions.”(Irving 317) This quote shows how willing he is to persuade Tom into making a deal with him. A similar quote says, “Sir, that is no fault of mine. Where I come from, we have always gotten pick from the Bar.”(Benet 427) Both of these quotes display Scratch’s ability to be persuasive and that he usually gets what he wants without issues. However, both neither Scratch had the same happy

Show More
Related
217 Words | 1 Pages

Webster won’t back down, which means he’s determined to defeat the devil. Webster is changing from here, he is going for a new case, a case against the devil. “ And by the great shade of Andrew Jackson, I’d fight ten thousand devils to

Read More
969 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More
619 Words | 3 Pages

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’.

Read More
870 Words | 4 Pages

Erik Larson writes “Beneath the gore and smoke and loom, this book is about the evanescence of life, and why some men choose to fill their brief allotment of time engaging in the impossible, others in the manufacture of sorrow”(Larson xi). In the book The Devil and the White City, Erik Larson tells a story of 2 very determined men, Daniel Burnham and H. Holmes, using their talents and determination to create good results, but also bad results; one being a very successful and good spirited architect, the other being a witty evil serial killer. It reveals how in every good act or intention, there is some kind of evil, and also the other way around. Erik Larson explores the underlying difference between good and evil, while telling 2 tales of Daniel Burnham, and Henry H. Holmes Daniel Burnham and Henry H. Holmes are alike in many ways, as explored throughout the novel. Both of these men used their determination and skills to accomplish many things, good or bad.

Read More
511 Words | 3 Pages

The Devil and Tom Walker and The Devil and Daniel Webster are two stories based on poor men who made a deal with the Devil by selling their souls. In both of the stories, the Devil appeared as a shady and intimidating man who made them sign the contract in their blood. Both of the men soon realized that the deal was completely and utterly immoral. The men both try to turn to God in all ways possible to get away from the Devil and find a way out of the contract. After the men make the deals with the Devil, the stories take two completely different points of view.

Read More
731 Words | 3 Pages

There are many evil people recorded within history, but some of them are truly villainous. In Stephen Vincent Benét’s short story, “The Devil and Daniel Webster”, a farmer by the name of Jabez Stone makes a deal with the Devil, but he is known as Mr. Scratch in this short story. Jabez Stone is tired of his repeated bad luck, which drives him to sell his soul to the Devil. He gets scared and regrets the deal after he recognizes his neighbor’s soul in the Devil’s pocket. After the Devil adds a three year extension to Jabez’ term, he begs for more time, but once he realizes that the Devil will not give him more time, he goes to Daniel Webster for help.

Read More
1320 Words | 6 Pages

A famous critic wrote about this allegory, “Irving certainly never intended “The Devil and Tom Walker” to be taken as a folktale. His purpose was to produce an entertaining fast-moving story based largely on German folk motifs and firmly rooted in an American locale.” (Elizabeth Marton 54). On the contrary to Irving's thoughts at the time, this story in modern day society is portrayed as not only a classic example of romanticism, but as a famous allegory showing how greed can corrupt someone’s life. In this story, “The Devil and Tom

Read More
1051 Words | 5 Pages

Tom declines the Devil’s offer to spite his wife, with whom he fights with constantly. She

Read More
810 Words | 4 Pages

“The Devil and Tom Walker” showcased a storyline that followed a man named Tom Walker who suffered from poverty, the abuse of his wife, and the fatal mistake of making a deal with the devil to become an usurer. It was in this storyline that the latter of the literary

Read More
794 Words | 4 Pages

“The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster”-- these Faust legends tell stories of ordinary men with thirsts for wealth and luck only in exchange for their very souls. Both were written in different time periods, where certain events and happenings influenced each of the stories and their conflicts. Washington Irving wrote “The Devil and Tom Walker” during a time of economic boom (1824). Stephen Vincent Benet wrote “The Devil and Daniel Webster” during a time of economic depression (1937). Despite the stories’ titles, both have different resolutions, depictions of the devil, and saving graces in the end.

Read More
819 Words | 4 Pages

The traveller put forth his staff and touched her withered neck with what seemed the serpent’s tail. “The devil!” screamed the pious old lady. “Then Goody Cloyse knows her old friend?” observed the traveller, confronting her and leaning on his writhing stick”(6). A serpent as represented in the bible is a symbol of evil and the devil. This enhances the meaning of the story by showing us that Goodman Brown is traveling not with any stranger but with the devil.

Read More
1704 Words | 7 Pages

The two continue to go into the forest when Brown hears his wife’s voice, he calls out to her but there is no answer. He runs deeper into the forest, upset that his wife is lost in the dark dangerous forest. He ends up meeting the devil which was the old man he was traveling with this whole time. The devil is talking about all the people he was able to influence them. After a long night in the forest, Brown arrives home unsure if what he did and saw was real or just a dream.

Read More
770 Words | 4 Pages

These two short stories both include elements of fear and doubt, care and protection, and elements of relief. However, these stories also have a few differences. Some of these differences are the different relationships between the characters, the way the characters conquer

Read More
844 Words | 4 Pages

Even though both of these stories include the theme of reaching for something you don’t quite have may be in place in totally different texts that use their imagery in different ways, you can still find similar themes in both pieces of

Read More
786 Words | 4 Pages

In the Stephen King short story, The Man in The Black Suit, the narrator Gary recounts an experience from his childhood that scared him permanently. When he was nine, Gary was tormented and stalked though the woods by the devil, who manifested himself after Gary wandered into the woods. During their interaction, the Devil lies to Gary and says that his mother just died at home. The Devil claimed that Gary’s mother was killed in a similar way that his brother, Dan, was also killed not too long ago, as she was apparently stung by a bee and is dead in his kitchen. Gary knows the Devil is a liar but finds it difficult to resist believing him.

Read More

More about Similarities Between The Devil And Daniel Webster

Related Topics

Open Document