What Are The Characteristics Of The Devil And Tom Walker Romanticism

The short stories Washington Irving are examples of the literary movement of Romanticism and its characteristics which are evidenced in this author’s works. These characteristics are sometimes found in abundant qualities or limited amounts in each of his short stories. However no matter what short story Washington Irving wrote, the Age of Romanticism and its defining characteristics are found in each of his selections. So, too do each of the author’s short stories present a unique study about the author’s intentions for creating his work. In Washington Irving’s selection, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” the author symbolizes through the character, Tom Walker, human nature and people's hunger for wealth. This particular character loves wealth more

than his own significant other. He shows society’s true intentions of what they’ll do to have more money. This blend of both Romanticism and a significant particular one of the author’s many purposes for writing this work will enrich the reader's understanding of this selection. It will also make the reader aware of the author’s other works and their meanings / themes. Using both the characteristics of Romanticism and a significant idea about the story, Washington Irving creates an interesting and meaningful selection for his readers.
Romanticism contains of many different characteristics such as nature, individualism, intuition, emotion, and the past.

The characters in the short story represent the past in him such as, Tom Walker, the leading character. The Devil and Tom Walker was written during 1824 which is during the Romantic era. As well as that it is the period which the Puritan beliefs, which are being devoted to God, had changed and the need for personal wealth became more popular (Starr, 2016). “In the story, readers see the same change happen to Tom. Tom fights change at first, but he gives in to the greed that caused his wife's death.” (Starr, 2016). The article claims how in the story Tom’s personality has changed, it changed in a way that can say he began to revolve around wealth. Irving himself has been through situations which wealth began to become more of an obligation in his life such as said in the voyages of Christopher Columbus when Irving attacked the slave trade for money after he had personal experiences with the shame of bankruptcy and debt (May, 963). Romantic authors tend to use their own past experiences with life to put into the story. Irving used Tom Walker specifically to portray himself from his own history. The past is not the only romantic characteristic, Washington Irving uses in his short

stories.
Using nature shows how an author is from the romantic ages. Washington Irving showed romanticism through a nature-like characteristics which involves the symbolism for the trees which contains the pirates treasure, the sacred forest and the mysterious swamp (Starr, 2016). Irving stressed the admiration of nature and experienced the point through a connection with nature in his tale. The Devil and Tom Walker shows the importance of the tree, sacred forest and mysterious swamp. Irving gives them human-like characteristics. “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 is giving nature beauty and giving human qualities. Showing the romanticism for nature in his short stories. Not only does he show those qualities in just “The Devil and Tom Walker” but as well as in “The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow”. “Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles, there is a little valley or rather lap of land among high hills, which is one of the quietest places in the whole world. A small brook glides through it, with just murmur enough to lull one to repose; and the occasional whistle of a quail or tapping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquillity” (Irving, 1). It is common for Irving to use nature and make it seem more surreal to the readers. It helps give more of a visual idea, to make clear of what is happening in his stories. His connection with nature is one of the things Irving is known for such as his individualism as well.
Most critics or readers of Washington Irving tend to notice his individualism throughout all his stories. It is extremely common to point out his imaginative writing. Irving tends to use mostly supernatural objects / characters in all his pieces. In this case the Devil, represents his individualism. Irving had a certain love towards supernatural characters such as a devil. Stories Irving has written past tense from the Devil and Tom Walker also contain supernatural characters such as in his other short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “The Spectre Bridegroom”. The Spectre Bridegroom was written in 1819 about 8 years before “The Devil and Tom Walker” was written. As said in the Critical Survey of Short Fiction, “In ‘The Spectre Bridegroom,’ the title character triumphs not through strength, physical skills, or intelligence, but rather through manipulating the imaginations of those who would oppose his arms” (May, 1270). Likewise with his story “Rip Van Winkle”, authors have talked about his supernatural comical imagination he has in almost all of his writings. “‘The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow’ and ‘Rip Van Winkle’ the two stories that have entered the realm of American Myth. In both tales Irving employs the supernatural in a comic way yo achiever the resolution of the action, and used these techniques again in ‘The Specter Bridegroom,’ another well-know tale from “The Sketch Book” (Werlock, 229). Irving always showed imagination and supernatural events in his stories, to continue that same emotion for his enjoyment of imaginational characteristics represents Irving showing his past. Irving not only shows the past as a characteristic but as well as nature. He had a reputation with his writing which was his own type of style and individualism.
Washington Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker not only offers itself a document which gives evidence of the Romantic Period in American literature but also proposes a study of human nature and people’s hunger for wealth.

Irving noticed a huge way of people's lives before others. Tom Walker and his wife in “The Devil and Tom Walker” show and portray the change in a human’s personality for the wealth. Money are dangerous bills, it can harm and alter someone's personality in a second. “How do you feel about money? Most people would say they love money, but if they don’t have enough, they don’t feel good about it at all. If a person has all the money they need, they most certainly they feel good about money. So you can tell how you feel about money, because if you don't have all you need, then you don’t feel good about money” (Byrne, 149). The quote shows that with money or without it will affect someone and their feelings towards it. Tom Walker and his wife did not have all the money in the world, when being offered and finding wealth they even went against each other and changed who they were for the treasure. Such as Tom went against his own religion, this shows how human nature is today. People tend change how they treat others and their own selves because of wealth. “You can see the law of attraction working when people win the lottery. They spoke about when they win the litter, not if they win the lottery, and they planned and imagined what they would so when they won.

And they won! But the statistics on lottery winner show the real evidence of money sticking or no. Within a few years of winning the lottery, the majority of people have lost the money and are in more debt that before they won the lottery” (Byrne, 152). Law of attraction is what is being used when wanting to win the lottery, the opinion on money hasn’t changed because once all the money had came it was gone like that and there is still a feeling of ashamed from the money. The law of attraction is exactly what got Tom to sell his soul for the pirates treasure in the end Tom realized he wanted his religion back and did not want to continue sticking with the money, exactly how lottery winners today act.
Society now is economy based world. It is all about who has what, how much wealth a person has, and “the shinier the better”. Irving portrays society though Tom, through the lust for wealth can be seen in everyday people today. “As my fellow choir members and I sang on that cold street corner, though, and cheered when his beloved accepted, I could not help but ponder the other half of this young man’s statement. When you think about it, it is strange to hand over such a large chunk of one’s saving for a rock” (Vanderkam, 15-16). Humans take the money and spend it on gifts that do not matter to one's lives. The world has been corrupted that money had taken over the planet. Wealth changes how people think, and react. Irving had this shown when Tom was okay with the death of his wife. “You can buy a lot of things for $5,392, but I like this question because it highlights the concept of opportunity cost and what it means to use our resources wisely. This is a line of thought that has become increasingly prevalent as the economy limps out of the doldrums of the past few years” (Vanderkam, 16-17). Money was created to help our resources, to pay and be safe. Sadly society and human nature have lost what money was all about and Irving saw it happening before we all could.
The short stories of Washington Irving offer to the student of the author a study in the characteristics of the early nineteenth century movement of Romanticism. These characteristics helped shape the identity of the American people of that time and defined their national character - not only who they were but also what they would become. As the rest of the world looked on, American writers established in their art an identity of who we were as a people - a nation linked to its young past and a people of emotions, youthful innocence and imagination and truth, and a country aware of its beauty in its Nature, individualism and its folk culture. These characteristics of Romanticism were the benchmarks of the age. As a writer of this time period, Washington Irving shared in creating this literary chapter of our history. In his short story “The Devil and Tom Walker” he clearly expressed the Romantic Age’s defining characteristics. He also in this short story placed before the reader an expression of the idea that In Washington Irving’s selection, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” the author symbolizes through the character Tom Walker human nature and people's hunger for wealth. USing both the literary characteristics of the age and emphasizing a significant idea for the reader’s attention in his selection, Washington Irving provided not only a representation of his early nineteenth century in his short story but also a timely topic for the modern reader to understand about his / her life today in the twenty-first century.