The devil is in New Hampshire and is intently ready to take his prize. Jabez stone is a very unlucky farmer with no chance of prosperity. He is so delusional he makes a deal with the devil himself. If granted, the devil can have his soul if he would grant Jabez a prosperous four years of elegance and good fortune . This all takes place in the short story “ The Devil and Daniel Webster”. This story was written by a famous author and writer , Stephen Vincent Benet. Jabez is in need of some extreme help. The four years are not as long as some might think; especially for Jabez stone, because it flew by and now the devil is back to regain his part of the agreement. Jabez stone is a very hard working, devoted, caring man. He works from sunrise …show more content…
Jabez has the right intentions, but collapses under pressure. He attempted to continue pushing to try to prosper, but is was a constant struggle that overwhelmed him and drove him to delusion. He was fighting a incompetent battle nearly impossible to overcome. After the deal was made he became in debt and was foreshadowed as a beggar. He pleaded to the stranger to give him extra time. So Jabez was forced to seek out Daniel Webster, and that showed his incompetence to withhold his own problems. Although Jabez is quick to forfeit under pressure he is a very hard worker. He had struggled to feed his own family, but he sacrificed his very own meal so his family could eat. He is a very honorable father figure. One of his strengths is his relationship with God. As it says in the Bible,”All things are possible through christ”. If he would have kept this verse close and in his mind he may not have had to concede to the devil's evil works. Jabez is strong in spirit, but yet weak in his bodily …show more content…
He did not return to his faith , therefore he lost. Jabez started out with a maturity, but when he collapsed he lost all maturity as a man. He became puny and small compared to the devil's work. Jabez could regain his maturity of he would realize what he did, but he sold his soul and it was too late to turn back. The damage was already revealed. Maturity comes with dignity and pride. One must be an example to be mature, but Jabez is sure not. Matureness takes some time to acquire and also depends on experience. Jabez is a respected father figure and to his children he might be mature but he definitely learnt his lesson, but he is not matured as a
The layout of the "The Devil in Massachusetts" appears to be in more of a narrative form, with the elements of a fictional story. This is evident throug...
To this day, there are a lot of people that sell their souls to the devil. It all started a long time ago, when people sold their soul for money, beauty, long life, fame, power etc. In Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker,” and the movie “Snow White and the Huntsman,” there are people that sell their soul to the devil, like Tom Walker and Queen Ravenna. In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” written by Washington Irving’s, Tom Walker gives his soul to the devil for greed. For example, in the story, it was said, “He accumulated bonds and mortgages, gradually squeezed his customers closer and closer and sent them at length, dry as a sponge, from his door.”
(p. 44); "Who came to you with the devil?" and ".perhaps another person in the village?" (p. 45). A few of his faults are that he judges too much by appearances, ".you look as such a good soul should" (p. 37); ".a claim so weighty cannot be argued by a farmer," (p. 99); and he uses people to question other people.
The Devil is explaining to Tom who he is and he also describes himself. The Devil is often described as a man is disguises and here it is the same way. He describes himself as a woodsman, a black miner and a huntsman and all of these disguises can be related to dark and scary people, which is exactly what the devil is. “The devil” said he guards, Captain Kidd’s treasure, he said he guards all treasure. “The devil presided at the hiding of Captain Kidd’s money, and took it under his guardianship; but this, it is well known, he always does with buried treasure, particularly when it has been ill-gotten”. (Irving). He claims to own the swamp near Tom Walker and his wife’s home, where Tom met him during his first encounter where they were surrounded by trees with carved names of the living but soon to die and be fuel for hell’s fire. Old Scratch is the devil who knows when he’s got people right where he wants them, and tries to offer the deal of a lifetime. After Toms encounter with the devil he went to tell his wife about the
A Faustian legend is a story in which a character trades something of great personal value to the devil in order to receive personal gain. Since this type of literature originated in the Fourth Century it has spread throughout the world. Two relatively recent versions of this legend are “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” by Vincent Benét. These stories show many similarities as well as a few differences. While both Benét and Irving present similar themes in setting of the tales and motivation in the Faustian character, they do differ in the nature of that character and their visual presentation of the Devil.
Maturity is not a fickle expression such as happiness or frustration, but rather an inherent quality one gains over time, such as courage or integrity. Before maturity can be expressed, the one who expresses it must have significant confidence in himself, since self-confidence is the root of maturity. Being flexible and formulating one's own opinions or ideas are aspects of maturity, but neither is possible without self-confidence. The greatest aspect of maturity is the ability to make decisions which society does not agree with. Whether or not one follows through with these ideas is not important. What is important is the ability to make the decision. These decisions represent the greatest measure of maturity.
In this short story, imagination is used in different ways. The act of speaking to the devil himself is highly unlikely. This is one of the imagination aspects of romanticism. Another example of imagination is at the end of the story when Tom was old and nearing the end of his life, he was working when a black man holding a black horse approached the doors and told Tom “You’re come for!” (Irving) Tom was taken away with the man down the streets. Tom’s wealth was gone after that. This event is as well, highly unlikely to happen in reality. Imagination is significant to Romantics because they believed that their imaginations, dreams and thoughts of what might be were the causes of life experiences. Imagination lets people see past reality into the world of what might
Many people have been questioning on whether maturity depends on one’s age. I believe that maturity isn’t dependant on someone’s age because one matures based on things they’ve undergo, and how their environment can be.
Written during the American Romanticism period, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” by William Irving, personifies the belief in the primacy of imagination. The period of Romanticism in America is often seen as the crucial period of American culture, as it was the central movement of the Renaissance period that moved into a more free-feeling and artistic approach to literature. American Gothic literature made its early appearance with William Irving, first with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in 1820, and carrying over to “The Devil and Tom Walker” in 1824, both of which use a macabre approach to establish a moral ending (Matterson). Told by a narrator known as Geoffrey Crayon, “The Devil and Tom Walker” takes on the tone of a legend or tall tale as the story describes the life of a greedy money lender by the name of Tom Walker, who sells his soul to the devil to gain wealth. Irving ultimately uses literary elements such as symbolism and character development, as well as themes such as greed and hypocrisy to establish a moral to the corrupt man’s tale.
Quote: “‘Here’s me that used to give all my fights against the devil ‘cause I figgered the devil was the enemy. But they’s somepin worse’n the devil got hold a the country, an’ it ain’t gonna let go till it’s chopped loose.” (129)
Brown begins the journey believing that his forefathers are innocent, good men, but the devil tells Brown that he has been, "…well acquainted with your family as with ever a one among the Puritans; and that’s no trifle to say" (Kelly, 192). Brown's forefathers become equated with the devil. The people of the town are also displaced as the devil. The devil tells Brown, "I have a very general acquaintance here in New England. The deacons of many a church have drunk the communion wince with me; the selectmen of divers towns make me their chairman; and a majority of the Great and General Court are firm supporters of my interest, The governor and I, too----But these are state secrets" (Kelly, 192-93).
We see that good vs. evil has been a theme that is ubiquitous in many writings. The story "The Devil and Tom Walker" is a story about a man who lives an immoral life of greed. Walker lives in a wooded area, where it is solemn, and quiet area of New England. Walker runs into the devil and sees that the devil is cutting down someone else's timber.
I believe had he not had the determination to succeed in his life, he would not be where he is today. We have learned that our own individual personality can drive our sense of direction. The choices James made during his childhood were not his fault, he did not have the parental guidance during his developmental stage. Amazingly, he conquered all obstacles to become successful. References Boeree, C. G. (1997).
How can a word our society uses so much have such a loose definition. Teacher’s and parents refer to their children as mature or immature. But maybe one teacher’s definition of maturity is the child, —or adult, can press on while a fellow student is in trouble, to ensure he himself does well. While another’s definition is that the child expressed maturity for stopping and helping the other child in his decisions to avoid trouble. A common idea is that to show maturity one must weigh out all the possible outcomes and then ...
Maturity is not something that happens overnight. Maturity comes through trial and error; it’s a process which has to be perfected. Life throws curveballs and there are always multiple ways to deal with the situations. Being mature is making the right choices and knowing right from wrong.