The Devil And Tom Walker Essay

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.

John was a well-respected man in the town of Salem and they thought that if John confessed, the others would follow in his footsteps. I also believe that Danforth knew that John was innocent and he thought that seeing his pregnant wife would make him want to confess.

As he goes door to door checking for evil spirits and eventually he ends up again with John, when there he admits how stressful this case has become and that he hates it. This continues on to the following day when John is in trial, and he breaks down and yells at Judge Danforth about how he has signed too many warrants. His final break, which makes him perhaps the most dynamic character, is when he quits the entire case. The whole reason he came to the town was to help them with their witch problem, but he ended up leaving after he realized he was helping sentence innocent people.

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.

In the stories the devil has been depicted in different forms. The devil looks and acts different in the stories. In the Daniel Webster story the devil 's name is Mr. Scratch. In the Tom walker story the devil 's name is old Scratch. In the Tom Walker story, the devil was scary.

“Traded my soul for rock and roll. I made a deal with the devil. Fortune and fame, fire and flames. I made a deal with the devil”. This lyric is a originates from the song “Deal With The Devil” by Winger.

The Condemnation of a Greedy Appetite “The Devil and Tom Walker,” written by Washington Irving, is a satirical account of the perils of greed and its effects on Tom Walker in the course of his life. This story is full of characters grotesquely pledged to little more than pursuing their insatiable greed, particularly though Tom Walker and his wife. It is especially through these characters that Irving depicts the moral harms of greed, which corrupt and harm the lives of the greedy

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).

John cheated on his wife with Abigail, which is like a capital crime back in Salem. No one knew about this affair except John, Abigail, and his wife. They kept this a secret from the community to save John’s reputation. Even when Abigail was basically committing murder, John refused to expose her of her jealous behavior. Eventually, he did confess his affair, but it was too late and the court didn’t believe him.

This shows that John is a merciful being and desires forgiveness from his wife and God, therefore demonstrating traits of a good man. Furthermore, John has a heated argument with his wife, due to his encounter with Abigail, alone. Although, he thinks his wife will doubt him, she states on the contrary, “I do not judge you. The magistrate sits in your heart that judges you. I never thought you but a good man, John - only somewhat bewildered” (55).

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 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.

Tom Walker was a very selfish, self centered man, and in a horrible marriage. Tom Walker was in a very unhealthy marriage and did not love his wife at all. In fact, he was actually very grateful that his wife had died in the middle of the story. In “The Devil and Daniel Webster” the devil was described as a white man, with blinding white teeth that were pointed like a vampire, and was a lawyer.

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’.

Near the end of the play, John signs a confession that he consorted with the devil, but he eventually tears it up because he realizes that his integrity is more important than keeping a good name. He publicly confesses and allies himself with others who refuse to confess. John came to realize that had he confessed to save his life, those who refused to confess would look even more guilty to the court. John says, “ I have three children – how may I teach them to walk like men in the world, and I sold my friends?”