The Devil’s Role in Paradise Lost, The Bible, Faust, and The Devil and Tom Walker The devil's role as the inspiration for rock-and-roll is already well documented and commonly understood. Perhaps less well documented is the role of the Devil as inspiration for literature. The Devil has played an active role in literature for quite a while with his name appearing in stories for centuries. The historical devil has not always been personified. Initially, in religious settings, he was represented as a feeling or power, in attendance as the force of evil, an antagonist to goodness and divinity, and temptation for humans. Although not always represented as human, he has always been represented. In fact, demonstrating that he has always been an uneraseable threatening force, early religious accounts show that his existence actually "precedes the worship of a benign and morally good Deity."1 Much later, certainly by the time of the blues of the 1920s and 1930s, songwriters were repeating the tradition of representing the devil as a person. Perhaps the most famous example is Robert Johnson's "Cross Road Blues," in which the singer describes a dangerous meeting with the devil while hitchhiking. In southern literature, Flannery O'Connor drew from Poe and Hawthorne to illustrate this, as well.2 A few centuries of literary evolution have not only reconfigured the devil, they have shifted the site of his battles from the heavens to the earth. Essentially, his battles changed arenas three times.3 First, the devil battled God in their once-shared home -- the arena of Heaven. After this falling out, the devil and God competed for the hearts of men in parables, as in the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The third, mo... ... middle of paper ... ... Rudwin, p. xi: "[W]hen Satan was asked to explain the cause of God's enmity...he replied: 'I wanted to be an author.'" 16 Carus, p. 407. 17 Russell, p. 12. 18 Revard, Stella Purce, The War in Heaven (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1980), p. 234. 19 Levine, p. 403. 20 Saxon, Lyle and Robert Tallant, Gumbo Ya-Ya (Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 1987), p. 80. 21 Irving, in Rudwin, p. 31. 22 Werblowski, p. 96. 23 Caballero, in Rudwin, p. 154. 24 Caballero, in Rudwin, p. 161. 25 Werblowski, p. 219. 26 Baudelaire, Charles Pierre, in Rudwin, p. 222. 27 Thackeray, William Makepeace, in Rudwin, p. 79. 28 Poe, p. 482 29 Caballero, in Rudwin, p. 157. 30 Carus, pp. 407. 31 Carus, p. 7. Also, "...there seems to be no exception to the rule that fear is always the first incentive to religious worship." Carus, p. 6. 32 Russell, p. 12. 33 Rudwin, p. xi.
Tom Walker’s devil is a dark-skinned man with red eyes, red sash, and an axe. Tom was a malicious, greedy person who dealt with the devil in order to gain some wealth. He and his wife would fight constantly day after day. Tom was not a wealthy person
In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” written by Washington Irving’s, Tom Walker gives his soul to the devil for greediest. 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.” This shows how greedy and selfish he was for not caring about what anyone else feels,
Perhaps in both stories the role of the devil, whether truly present in the plot or only mentioned as figure of evil, is very central to portraying the Puritans. In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” the devil is simply a large man covered in soot. Irving describes him as, “a great black man” and “his face was neither black nor copper color, but swarthy and dingy, and begrimed in soot (Irving, 179).” Most Puritans would believe the devil is a fiery, red, horned man with a pointed tell and trident, but this is not the case. The devil is further established when he himself states, “I amuse myself by presiding at the persecutions of Quakers and Anabaptists; I am the great patron and prompter of slave dealers…(Irving, 180).
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.
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
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.
Washington Irving the author of the tale “The Devil and Tom Walker” uses stories from literatures past, to make a compelling tale, The Devil and Tom walker represents the importance of processing morals and the problems associated when virtue fails to exist. He also creates the right tone for the story and gives details throughout the story, so the readers figure out the topic of the story and how it will change their perspective on the temptation of greed. “Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.”-Erich Fromm. He describes each character in a way that you can assume who they are, their character, and the decisions that they might make throughout the story. However, he provides a background for each character to understand their choses and their ultimate demise.
How would one feel if one came face to face with the Devil himself? Would one run away screaming or would one let the Devil change their views of the world? Gary and Goodman Brown both had different experiences with the Devil resulting in some of the best works of fiction ever wrote. Gary met the Devil as a young boy who feared him unrelentingly, but Goodman Brown talked to the Devil and let the Devil change his life and the viewpoints of people he knows. I plan to discuss on how Gary, from the short story “The Man in the Black Suit”, and Goodman Brown, from “Young Goodman Brown”, dealt with the Devil and compare their encounters together.
"Flappers in the Roaring Twenties." About.com 20th Century History. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2014.
Lupus influences an alternate group of individuals; however, it is more commonly diagnosed in women. Women are nine times more vulnerable to Lupus than men are. Normally lupus happens in individuals who are between 15 to 45 years of age. While lupus does influence women more, Caucasian women are less inclined to advance lupus than Asian, Hispanic, and Native American women. There is not a definite explanation for why Lupus develops; even so, there are...
A unanimous decision should be made on when to consider an embryo a human being that has morality. Until then I believe that the embryo is not close to a human life unless it has made it past the fourteen day period in which it is passed the twinning stage. So with this information I come to the conclusion that under specific regulations and laws, including the ones I mentioned in the summary, the cloning of embryos for biomedical research and obtaining stem cells should be deemed acceptable.
Irving, Washington. “The Devil and Tom Walker”. Elements of Literature: Fifth Course. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2008. 175-185. Print.
Satan, or the Devil, plays various evil roles in ancient and modern literature and in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim religious traditions. Satan is seen as the opponent of God. "He" is often described as an angel named Lucifer who was cast out of heaven for rebelling against God. "He" was also condemned to roam the earth and rule hell. That legend is not found as such in the Bible but is based on interpretations of scattered Bible passages and later literary portrayals. Satan is also variously seen as a supernatural force that really exists as a scriptural figure that can be read symbolically represent evil in the world. In the essay Pagel describes the three different versions of Satan's creation.
Milton's introduction of Satan shows the reader how significant Satan is to Paradise Lost. He uses Satan's heroic qualities to his followers, and his ability to corrupt to show the thin line between good and evil. Satan was one of the highest angels in Heaven and was know as Lucifer, meaning, light bearer. This shows he was once a good angel. Milton makes the reader see him as a leader and a strong influence to all in his presence. He best describes Satan's ways when stating, "His pride/ had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host. / Of rebel angels, by whose aspiring/ To set himself in glory above his peers" (Milton Book I). Satan's pride was the main reason that God banned him from heaven. Satan always tried to be number one and a leader, instead of following in God's shadow. He would of lived a life in Paradise forever, but he had to follow his feelings as he states, "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven" (Milton 31). This shows how strongly he felt about not being above everybody else.
There has always been controversy about raising or lowering the minimum wage. The minimum wage should be raised. Raising the minimum wage has the benefits of raising family incomes, may get the economy back on track and allows families to pay their debts; however lowering the minimum wage has a downside, because families don't have enough money, it has not kept pace with cost of living and families earning minimum wage still need government assistance to survive.