Similarities Between The Devil And Tom Walker

The Devil and Tom Walker is a short story by Washington Irving, which shows the consequences and effects of greed and selfishness. The main character Tom starts off with little money, but he is very possessive of what he does have, so much so that he hides his and his wife’s shared items from her. Upon walking through the woods one day, he comes across a devilish character that offers him hidden treasure in exchange for Tom’s soul. Tom denies him at first, but then takes up his deal after the devil killed his wife. He makes his profit as an usurer, and converts to Christianity in attempts to avoid the devil coming for his soul. Regardless, the devil takes Tom away, and all of his wealth disintegrates into nothing.

I found this story very intriguing, as it presents a very strong moral intertwined with the suspense and action aspects of the story. It almost disguises trying to teach the reader something through its interesting plot line, but I felt as though the point of the story was very clear. The moral of the story is that people will do nearly anything for wealth and money, and that unhealthy desire can only lead to consequence. They will go to the greatest extent out of greed, even to

Many stories written around this time and earlier share a common eerie feel, with dark or demonic characters to get a message across. Many of the fairy tales such as the ones by the Brothers Grimms and Hans Christian Andersen all have very dark themes and characters in order to teach the reader a lesson. They oftentimes have witches or demons who strike a deal with the main character, tricking them into giving up more than they want, as well as underlying dark thoughts and ideas (The little Mermaid, Rumpelstiltskin, Hansel and Gretel, The Juniper Tree). These sorts of tales and stories are all meant to teach a lesson, and it was quite often done, at the time, through macabre