The Devil and Tom Walker Outside Atlanta, Georgia in 2015, Tom Walker and his wife lives near the projects. One day, Tom takes a shortcut through the projects to go get some cigarettes from the liquor store for himself. When passing by the drug dealing house, Tom meets a mysterious stranger, who carries a gun in the back of his pants, and goes by the name Devil. Tom trips over Devil’s foot and says to Tom, “You need to watch where you’re going!
In Washington Irving's story "The Devil and Tom Walker," the narrator Geoffrey Crayon personifies both the romantic aspect of the poem's nature which is gloomy but has romantic qualities and the devil, who is evil and dark. Mid-nineteenth-century Transcendentalism sparked the development of Dark Romanticism as a reaction. Dark Romanticism has a strong emphasis on the supernatural, on dark decaying environments and animals, and on evil characters that are prone to committing sins that will ultimately lead to their own demise. The presence of the supernatural is the first aspect of Dark Romanticism that Irving included in "The Devil and Tom Walker. " The story as a whole shows evidence of the supernatural, but one phrase in particular stood
Washington Irving was the author of “The Devil and Tom Walker”, in his early life he began to study to be a lawyer, but soon falling away from that finding he had more interest in traveling and writing. Irving’s work including, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”, became known as an important part of American heritage today. The setting was in New England, the year 1727, just at the time that earthquakes were prevaled. Around the area of where Tom Walker had lived with his wife, Tom had found an old Indian fort which he chose to rest at on his way homeward. The main characters in “The Devil and Tom Walker” are obviously the Devil, “a great black man...neither Negro nor Indian” and Tom Walker who was a “miserly fellow”.
The decision making, process in accepting the money in ‘’The Devil & Tom Walker’’ is important in the story. The devil and Tom are the most important ones in the story. In the beginning of the story the greed of the kidd the pirate had brought him a deal that involved with death with no use for the money that the devil was to protect. Tom Walker therefore stumbles upon the devil, in the form of ‘’Old scratch’’ who makes him an offer that he couldn’t refuse to do. Tom had to give up his soul for the treasures of Kidd the pirate.
In the story, “The Devil and Daniel Webster” the main character is Daniel Webster, and he is a lawyer who helped Jabez Stone from the hands of the devil. He and the devil held the trial in Stone’s kitchen with dead jury and judge. At the end of the story, Daniel appealed to jury and the judge as men who contributed to mankind, and he saved Jabez Stone from the devil. At the same time, he saved himself from the devil. On the contrary, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, the main character, realized that his deal with the devil was bad for him, he tried to deceive the devil.
In The Devil and Tom Walker the author portrays archetypes in the characters Tom Walker, Mrs. Walker, and the Devil. Initially, archetypes can be found in Tom Walker. The archetype that Tom portrays is that of greed. The narrator explains, “… there once lived near this place a meagre miserly fellow of the name of Tom Walker.” (Irving online).
In all three novels “The Feather Pillow” by Horacio Quiroga, “Prey” by Richard Matherson, and “ The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving all have an eloquent amount of elements all including Mystery/ambiguity: and a supernatural force included in their short stories. The authors purpose for these elements are to give the reader a thrill of mystery and supernatural forces that defy the nature of our world and fill the story with action, all wile keeping the reader reading to the end wile keeping them on the edge of their seat waiting to see what happens next. Each novel has supernatural forces teeming inside it ,effecting the novel and also adding -a so called- villain for the novel. First the short story “prey” by Matherson, has a supernatural
Joseph B. Wirthlin quoted “Honesty is of God and dishonesty of the devil; the devil was a liar from the beginning”. The devil and Daniel Webster and The devil and Tom walker were both great stories. They were similar in some ways and different in other ways. Although both stories are about bargaining with the devil, they are different in what happens.
Have you ever called something, one thing while your friend calls it another? Have you ever heard of the Devil being called Hell-Boy or Satan? In both of these stories the Devil is called Scratch. The supporting characters in “The Devil and Tom Walker”,written by Washington Irving, differ from the supporting characters in “The Devil and Daniel Webster”, written by Stephen Vincent Benet. First, let’s talk about the supporting characters.
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.
Through the actions of each character, more specifically, Tom and his wife. Both Tom and his wife show extreme greed when they show they do not care for one another, but for the idea of gaining more wealth. When Tom tells his wife of Kidd’s treasure and his encounter with the Black Man, his wife urges him to accept the deal, however, “...the more she talked, the more resolute was Tom not to be damned to please her. At length she determined to drive the bargain on her own account, and, if she succeeded, to keep all the gain to herself” (Irving 3). This quote alone gives a detailed look into the greed filled character that Tom’s wife is; later on when she goes off to make a deal with the devil, she never returns.
In the short story titled The Devil And Tom Walker,Washington Irving explains that no matter how hard life is going to never sell our soul. For instance, Tom wanted to save his wife but in ordinary to save her Tom had to sell his soul. Irving’s asserts that walker had to sell his store to save his wife from dying. The author’s purpose is to convince that the audience should should never sell their soul no matter the situation. The author writes in an serious tone for the audience to realize that selling out isn’t the right thing to do.
Selling your soul to The Devil is an old and classic archetype. When an individual sells his soul, is in exchange for something big. Tom, from Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” and Queen Ravenna from “Snow White and the Huntsman” had their own, but similar reason or motivation to make a deal with The Devil, and they ended up in a very bad way. First, Tom from “The Devil and Tom Walker” wanted a selfish richness because according to the story, he didn’t care when his wife was killed by The Devil:
The selling of one’s soul to the devil is caused by one’s goal to obtain something of great value like, fame, fortune and power. Which leads one to getting hurt or losing everything. The story and the movie had various motivations, by dealing with the consequences. Foremost, In Washington Irving's “The Devil and Tom Walker” demonstrates his motivation of greed by dealing with the devil.
Over the course of the Romanticism period, many ideas were expressed throughout art but one of the common concepts was death and humanity. “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving and “Dr Heidegger's Experiment” by Edgar Allan Poe both use imagination, idealism, and the notion of life and death in their writing. Writers during the Dark Romanticism era use death into their writing by using symbolism and irony to show that death and aging is inescapable. Symbolism during the Romantic period was predominantly used to show the main character’s possible future. When it’s first shown, the trees in the forest that Tom Walker walks into in “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving are meant to represent the great men of the town.
