Villains In Benét's The Devil And Daniel Webster

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. Daniel agrees to help him in a court case against the Devil; letting him choose to jury and

Everywhere Blackbeard went, he brought mayhem with him. Went he went to fight, legend has it that “He looked like a devil who had stepped right out of hell and onto a pirate ship” (Minster). People said this because Blackbeard would put little candles or pieces of fuse in his hair and light those. Those would give off smoke, giving the pirate a fearsome, demonic appearance. While he would fight, this intimidation worked: his foes were terrified of him. Edward was so fierce, that legend states his “… headless body swam around one of Lieutenant Robert Maynard’s ships three times after it was cast into the water” (James). This statement says that when Blackbeard was beheaded, his body did not fully die when cut off from his head. This shows that he was evil because his body continued to swim around after it has been detached from his head. As one could see, Blackbeard was a perfect pick to be on the Devil’s

Nero is so violent that he killed just about everybody in his family. From his executing his own mother to poisoning his brother, he is truly an evil soul. Nero committed many terrible things, but the Great Fire of Rome was probably the worst thing he did: “The great fire killed many of Rome’s citizens and left hundreds of thousands destitute. Though Nero probably started the fire, he blamed it on the Christians” (Knowles). Nero targeted Christians often. He made them starve to death, he burned them, crucified them, he even used Christians as torches. He was so purely evil that many of the Christians thought he was the Antichrist himself. Nero was responsible for the Great Fire of Rome, but he continued to blame it on the Christians. Many historians give Nero the spot of the most violent villain of all time because of his interest in violence since a kid: “Nero was, in fact, a very bloodthirsty and violent man. As a child, he liked to put on a disguise and then kill people who argued with him” (“Nero”). Even from a young age, Nero was considered a violent person. This proves that Nero has the heart of a villain and is perhaps the most evil being to ever live. The Devil in “The Devil and Daniel Webster” short story should have chosen Nero’s soul to be on the Jury because he is considered the most villainous person to ever live. Daniel Webster would have