Throughout history, there have been multiple eras that have influenced the views on humanity; Dark Romanticism is one of those eras. Dark Romanticism was a period in time where exploration of the conflict between good and evil in the human mind was being conducted. Before the Romantic era became the new focus of the nineteenth century the Puritanism era held the eyes of the people. The idea that Puritanism focused on is the belief that God had formed an agreement with the people and wanted them to live by scripture. Puritanism and Romanticism both believed that each person has to be self-reliant, meaning that each person has everything they need in themselves. With Puritanism as an influence, Romanticism was brought into the light of the people …show more content…
and many authors and poets. A famous romantic author during this time was Washington Irving, a man well known for his short stories that described characteristics of romanticism. A short story written by Washington Irving is "The Devil and Tom Walker". This story holds Irving's developed romantic themes through its symbolism of nature, having an evil supernatural influence on people, and sin and guilt. Therefore, a few of the romantic elements present in "The Devil and Tom Walker are nature, the influence of evil supernatural beings on humans, and sin and guilt. In the story, “ The Devil and Tom Walker” nature is used as the setting, which displays the mood of the story.
This use of nature can be seen in the author’s description of the setting in the beginning of the story where it states, “A few miles from Boston in Massachusetts, there is a deep inlet, winding several miles into the interior of the country from Charles Bay, and terminating in a thickly wooded swamp or morass. On one side of this inlet is a beautiful dark grove; on the opposite side the land rises abruptly from the water’s edge into a high ridge, on which grow a few scattered oaks of great age and immense size…”(Irving 320). This quote shows the separation between good and evil that is presented in the story and throughout the Dark Romantic era. This use of nature in the story is not the only one, for there are many other examples that are present in “The Devil and Tom Walker.” Another use of nature as the setting would include Irving’s description of the swamp when he states, “The swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high, which made it dark at noonday, and a retreat for all the owls of the neighborhood…” (Irving 322). This quote from the story gives the reader the idea that the mood and setting are unsettling and dark. Nature is not the only romantic element in “The Devil and Tom Walker”. There is another element present, which is the influence of an evil supernatural being on
humans. When Tom Walker learns about the Devil’s offer he is unable to make a decision at first, but after finding his wife’s heart and liver in her apron he was drawn into the Devil’s scheme. The Devil had influenced Tom’s wife to obtain all of their family’s finest possessions and bring them to him in exchange for Kidd the Pirate’s treasure in the swamp. Tom’s wife fell for this lie due to the Devil making her believe she would be rich. Tom fell into the trap due the Devil offering an opportunity that explored his desires. With the couple the Devil offered answers to their problems in a way that made it seem as if they were able to gain something from his answers.This is an example of an evil supernatural being influencing humans.
To this day, there are a lot of people that sell their soul to the devil. It all started a long time ago, when people soul 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 America, the period of Romanticism brought up many depictions of society that held their place in America many decades ago. This society was made up of Puritans who held a strong belief system and was even their form of governing. Romantic authors like Washington Irving, who wrote “The Devil and Tom Walker”, and Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote The Scarlet Letter included Puritans in their stories to convey a message. In both works, the authors focus on Puritans in their stories to convey an image of who Puritans were and what they did, though not in a positive light through the use of the devil and the setting of a forest. This is because of how Romanticism generally satirized Puritans and tried to portray them as completely contradictory
In Washington Irving’s story, The Devil and Tom Walker, Irving uses his imagination to convey his thoughts about the truth of life through symbols and characterization. In one specific instance in the story, the main character, Tom Walker, is walking home and “he took what he considered a shortcut homeward, through the swamp. Like most shortcuts, it was an ill-chosen route.” The path being “thickly grown with great gloomy pines” symbolizes the path of wrongdoings, bad decisions, and darkness. By taking this path, one then strays off the path of
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.
"About the year 1727, just at the time when earthquakes were prevalent in New England, and shook many tall sinners down upon their knees, there lived near this place a meager miserly fellow of the name of Tom Walker." (Irving) “The Devil and Tom Walker” is a short story written by Washington Irving in about 1824. The story is about a man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for Pirate Kidd’s hidden treasure. The man, named Tom Walker, is a greedy, selfish man who thinks money is more important than his wife. “The Devil and Tom Walker” is the best short story example of Romanticism. The story uses escapism, nature as a form of spirituality, and imagination, which are all tenets of Romanticism.
The theme of give your soul to the devil is very old. Most of the time someone would do this to get something very valuable to them. But a lot of the time it ends with someone losing all they have or losing someone they love. The characters in “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “Snow White and the Huntsman,” Were convinced to make a deal with “The Devil.”
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’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” includes great examples of Romanticism, such as symbols in nature having links to the supernatural, the importance of the inner nature, and the emphasis of the individual. In the story, Tom Walker is a selfish man who cares more about money than he does about anyone else, including his wife. One day, while he is walking through the woods, Tom Walker comes across the Devil, who makes a deal with him to exchange his soul for the treasure that is buried in those woods. Tom declines and returns back to his wife and tells her that he has passed on an opportunity that could bring them lots of money. Tom’s wife, outraged by his actions, decides to strike a deal of her own with the Devil and after several attempts, she never returns from the woods. The next time Tom goes to the woods he finds that his wife had been killed by the Devil. He finally agrees to make the deal with him, now that Tom doesn’t have to share anything with his wife. Tom ignores the Devil’s suggestion of becoming a slave-trader and becomes a moneylender instead. He gets wea...
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.
In Washington Irving’s short story, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Tom revolves his life around his own selfish wants. Tom and his wife were not a right match for each other. The trouble in their relationship is they would seek out the others stash of treasures to take as their own. In their mind they cannot be happy with what they already have, but imbedded in each other is the need for more. Greed overshadows Tom’s inner conscience, and he goes to great lengths to satisfy his wants. On one ordinary day Tom decides to take a shortcut home, “Like most shortcuts, it was an ill chosen route. The swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high, which made it dark at noonday… (Irving 4).” Any typical human being would have enough common sense not to take a route through a dark, frightening swap. While resting in the swap, Tom met a strange “black man.” Tom’s wife fell into the trap many do, the idea of wealth caused her to fall into the hands of the devil. With his wife gone, he made a deal with the devil to open up a broker’s shop in order to ob...
The Romantic period in American literature is different than what it initially sounds like. There is a lot of talk of evaluation and judgement of human life as we know it to be. In works like “The Devil and Tom Walker”, “Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment”, and “The Pit and the Pendulum” humanity seems to be put on trial and assessed to the fullest degree. This paper will further analyze humanity as a whole, based on the representations of these works above.
Writers have a way to make society take a double look at themselves and what is going on in life or even in nature is compared. It’s actually called satire it’s the use of humor, irony, it criticizes people’s stupidity or vices. “The Devil and Tom Walker” is written by Washington Irving. In his story, he uses satire to criticize the people and the actions they have taken among themselves in the 1720’s that lived in Boston.
The gain of Indulgence has no time or limit to its capaciousness. Tom Walker has a first hand experience with the price of voracity. A tight situation happens in order to warn readers not to let greed or hurdles blind them, for it can have a disastrous consequences. Washington Irving’s short story , “The Devil and Tom Walker” focuses on greed and its negative effects; this presents how self- indulgence is something that can lead to suffering in an individual’s life.
Can you imagine yourself locked up in a room with no doors? Similar to a room with no doors, there is no way out of hell if it was one's destiny. In the short story "The Devil & Tom Walker" by Washington Irving, the main character's fate is hell because of his wrong decisions in life, accepting a deal with the devil for earthly benefits. Irving reinforces his message about not making decisions that may damn your soul with the use of literary elements and figurative language. Wisely, Irving combines characterization, mood and point of view to perpetuate the theme of the story in the reader's mind.
Symbolism plays a vital role throughout Tom Walker’s tale. Set in the early to mid-18th century in the New England area, Irving uses the location’s landscape as a basis of symbolism throughout the story, as well as to represent the main character. The murky morass environment of the swamp in which Tom Walker meets the devil represents his soul which, like the swamp fog, is clouded and thick with greed. The swamp areas of the New England areas were also used as a stronghold by the Native Americans against the Europeans during the Indian battles. Ironically, this same area in the story is seen as the devil’s stronghold, which symbolizes the prejudice that was still prevalent in the...