The Devil And Tom Walker 'And Minister's Black Veil'

In both short stories, “The Devil and Tom Walker”by, Washington Irving and “The Minister’s Black Veil”by, Nathaniel Hawthorne religion is used to expose the hypocrisy of Tom Walker who pretends to be Christian and the Puritan townspeople who judge the minister for exposing his secret sin while sinning themselves. Tom Walker decides to make a deal with the devil for financial gain. Once Tom Walker reaches old age he realizes he is going to hell and tries to figure out a way to cheat the devil. He begins going to church obnoxiously praying and judging the churchgoers for how they choose to practice their The “quiet Christians” would be praying modestly to themselves while Tom would be obnoxiously praying trying to one-up them. Irving compares Tom’s newfound Christianity to his job as a loan shark.

He also critiques other people on their sins while committing terrible sins such as cheating people out of their money and making a deal with the devil. He believed that the more he critiqued other people the more he validated himself and the mistakes he made in his life. While doing this he still continues to live a sinful life which exposes the hypocrisy of this character. He a terrible example of Christianity yet he criticizes how others practice it. The veil Mr. Hooper started wearing makes the townspeople extremely uncomfortable. The veil represents the ministers sin and the townspeople judge him for being so open with it. They begin acting differently around the pastor and treat him differently because of the veil. In the pastor’s sermon he talks about secret sin and how every sinner in their own right, which makes the clergy