“The Devil and Tom Walker”, perhaps Washington Irving’s most famous work, details a story about a man named Tom Walker and his deal with the Devil. Throughout the story, Irving makes heavy use of satire: the usage of irony or other humors with the intent to mock the vices of humanity. We first see his satirization demonstrated with matrimony, revolving around Tom’s hatred of his own wife to the extent of relishing in her death. Next, he pokes fun at the wealthy white establishment, particularly slave-owners, by portraying them as totally immoral and worse than even the Devil. The final subject of Irving’s satire, and by far his largest one, is the way in which he depicts the Christian community as fueling the Devil’s power, contrary to what they want to believe.
“The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne and “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” by Jonathan Edwards both convey their ideas on sin and staying true to beliefs. Both authors approach this in different ways. While Hawthorne approaches these ideas through the minister and his black veil in a less straightford way, Jonathan Edwards challenges the reader’s understanding of Puritan ideals of religion by creating a sense of fear amongst his congregation through his anger and directness. Edward was more effective in his methods because he creates a sense of fear and fear many times forces change.
Literature has been around for many ages. There are many different types of literature fro. many different times. The way people write has changed throughout the years. American literature is commonly talk about because it is well liked, although sometimes it can be hard to understand if you are currently a student.
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.
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 his short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil,” Nathaniel Hawthorne uses irony, symbolism, and stereotypical Puritan beliefs and behavior to expose humanity’s hypocrisy in an effort to create change. Irony is an extremely important literary element that Hawthorne uses in “The Minister’s Black Veil.” Throughout the story, many different examples of irony are evident. First off, the
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.
Although "The Minister's Black Veil," "The Raven," and "The Devil and Tom Walker" all have evidence of the dark romantic element symbolism, it is more abundantly found in "The Devil and Tom Walker." Washington
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.
Nathaniel Hawthorne uses the theme of the judgmental nature of humans to aid in the development of his short story, “The Minister’s Black Veil.” The main character is a reverend by the name of Mr. Hooper who decides to don a black veil which covers the entirety of his face except for his mouth and chin shortly after this work of literature begins. Because Mr. Hooper does not provide the people of his community with an explanation as to why he is wearing this veil, the townsfolk start to gossip excessively, constantly speculating his reason for putting on such a thing. An example of the inhabitants of his village spreading hearsay about him would be on the fourth page of this piece, “At the close of the services, the people hurried out with
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 conclusion of “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Tom’s time runs out, and the Devil takes him. The text also states, “On searching his coffers, all his bonds and mortgages were reduced to cinders. In place of gold and silver, his iron chest was filled with chips and shavings; two skeletons lay in his stable instead of his half-starved horses, and the very next day his great house took fire and was burned to the ground.” In contrast, “The Devil and Daniel Webster” results in Jabez Stone escaping the Devil’s grasp and keeping his soul. Daniel Webster says to the Devil, "For you 'll sit right down at that table and draw up a document, promising never to bother Jabez Stone nor his heirs or assigns nor any other New Hampshire man till doomsday!”
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’.
Imagine darkness, sin, and the desire to keep it all hidden from yourself and the outside world. Together Poe and Hawthorne paint this picture of traits which consist of suspense and darkness. Within the stories “Tell Tale Heart” and “Ministers Black Veil”, the two authors writing styles are vividly comparable. With the comparison of these short stories, it becomes more than feasible to feel the true emotion and movement that Poe and Hawthorne wished to give to their readers.
“ We magnify the flaws in others that we secretly see in ourselves” -Baylor Barbee. In “ The Minister’s Black Veil” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, the main character Reverend Hooper is alienated by his community because he is the wearer of a mysterious black veil. Reverend Hooper is the reverend of his community’s church and has always been well respected by his surrounding peers. One day, Hooper shows up to his church and preaches the sermon wearing a mysterious black veil causing his peers to alienate him. Throughout the story, Hooper’s actions portray just how judgmental our society really is.
