Corruption In The Devil And Tom Walker

Insignificant and meager traits could easily lead to despair and the demolition of inner goodness. In “The Devil and Tom Walker”, Washington Irving introduces the importance of possessing morality by exposing the omnipresence of moral corruption and signifying that excessive greed holds the power to eradicate the humanity of mankind.

The omnipresence of corruption throughout “The Devil and Tom Walker” plays a major role throughout the story. Set in colonial New England, this story brings about the past of the young country and its colonial past; the dark history of the murky swamp where Tom Walker struck a deal with the devil “hardly portrays a people proudly connected to their own noble heritage…this is a community content to bury and forget

old atrocities and, more broadly, that the nation, eager to bury its own history, is doomed to be haunted by it” (Piedmont-Marton). The bleak setting of the story provided the foundation to create the dismal character of Tom Walker, and it is successful in showing that he, in fact, was a philistine and a man of greed who fit into the description of the common population of colonial New England. Just like the society of that time, Tom Walker’s only intentions were to maintain the confidentiality of his true nature, which eventually condemned him to the elimination of the last remaining specks of his humanity and his life. Likewise, Cynthia Tucker, a literary journalist, explains that man “has wanted to have or to do something more than his human condition allowed, and these aspirations have tended to get him in trouble” (37). Tom Walker, a “meager miserly fellow” (Irving 177), showcases this explanation throughout the story. In order to get to his destination at a quicker pace, he makes a short-cut, which “represents the American tendency toward quick fixes and quick profits” (Piedmont-Marton). He was initially corrupt before his encounter with the devil; however, his overwhelming desires for quick and aesthetic wealth and ephemeral happiness inevitably demonstrated that the internal corruption of man is innate and that further self-imposed demoralization is conceivable. The repetition of immoral tactics, although they may be occasional, may amount to greater levels of perversion.
Furthermore, with the purpose of avoiding the consequences of rash decisions, extreme measures may be taken to mitigate the aftermath; Tom Walker yet again represents this scenario.

Tom Walker’s conversion to religion, “made specifically for the sake of his own personal interest rather than his faith in God, is a further act of moral corruption” (The Devil and Tom Walker 51) and reveals his true purpose of exonerating himself from the terrible deeds that he had executed. This pattern can be seen in modern society; if one had made a crucial mistake, that person would first think something along the lines of “What should I do?” and would inexorably be overcome with anxiety and unease. Such relentless trepidation would lead to clouded visions and unavoidable poor judgment skills. As stated earlier, this illustration portrays the well-repeated statement that moral corruption is inevitable and irrevocable when intentions are not true in

nature.
The desire for ephemeral happiness not only demonstrates a feature of moral corruption, but it also exhibits the trait of greed.

As the main theme and motif of the story, greed repeatedly appears throughout the story to illustrate the importance of righteous judgment. Irving uses the financial plot to describe “the state of affairs in colonial Boston, neatly delineating the avarice and religious hypocrisy of the inhabitants” (Zug 57). The inhabitants were plagued with false hope of “making sudden fortunes from nothing” but were left “in doleful plight” (Irving 178); the false hope had essentially stemmed from their intuitive acquisitiveness. This also provided the setting to construct the attributes of Tom Walker; he, like the other inhabitants of colonial Boston, strived to miraculously discover hidden wealth. However, his rapacity was greater than the others, and he went to the extent of striking a deal with the devil, “blinded by his own greed” (The Devil and Tom Walker 51). As a matter of fact, the character of Tom Walker was precisely built upon the concept of greediness. The parsimonious routine of Tom Walker is one consequence that was brought on by superfluous stinginess. Although the generality of Tom Walker’s capital comprised of corrupted money, the way that he neglected to furnish his ostentatiously vast house and to care for his carriage depicts the fact that he did things “in the fullness of his vain glory” (Irving 180). It also contributes to the aspect

that “greed and emotional barrenness are implicit in each other” (Tucker 40). Because Tom Walker’s cupidity took up majority of his perception, he only cared about his well-being and nothing else. The aesthetic impressions of his belongings did not matter at all; all that mattered to Tom Walker was his safety from the grasps of the devil and his uninterruptible affluence. Concerning the fate of the debauched money, satire was excessively utilized to epitomize the perpetual effect of greed. Once the devil’s money was turned to ashes, it can be perceived that “satire on the avarice and hypocrisy of colonial Boston” and the “final motif, Devil’s money becomes ashes, is so well chosen that it serves as a fitting epilogue to this tale” (Zug 58). Hence, the primary effect of avarice and penury is detrimental no matter what the interim is like.
If Tom Walker possessed any form of morality throughout the story, it is pretty conspicuous that it has failed to prevail. Therefore, there is great importance to the fact that the possession of ethics is pivotal