English
The story is a critique of the hypocrisy of the Puritan society and focused on the materialist nature of the people. The incarnation of the Devil and the gloomy setting made the story a classic of the romantic era. Irvin used mythological touch and satire to denounce materialist and greedy trends of the society.
The place of the story was set a few miles away from the city of Boston in the State of Massachusetts. The setting of the main story is a forest, a dark and gloomy place. The woods were abundant in swamps, to quote from the original story, “he took what he considered a short cut homewards through the swamp.” After his deal with the Devil and the death of his wife, he moved to the city of Boston.
Moreover, the main theme of the story is greed, "While Irving's characters are exaggerated for comic effect, he exposes elements of miserliness, greed, hypocrisy, and spiritual decay that existed in early eighteenth-century New England." It was Tom’s greed that compelled him to make a deal with the Devil. He was blinded by his temptation of wealth and didn’t see the cost of his actions.
In addition, the lead character of the story Tom Walker is a classic manifestation of a “miserly” personality, “there lived near this place a meager miserly fellow of the name of Tom Walker.” Kindness doesn’t even touch his heart; he mistreats his animals and dislikes his wife. His wife also is of bad disposition, has abusive nature and all the traits of an extreme materialist. The plot revolves around the deal Tom made with the Devil and the events that unfolded after the deal as its consequence.
The dark and gloomy setting of the story, the presence of the Devil, usage of one of the seven major sins as a central theme, and the melancholy tone, and ending of the story, all points towards the romantic style of writing. “ The revolution of romanticism in the time period that Irving wrote his short story greatly attributes to the plot, setting, and meaning behind the story.” Irving wrote most of his stories in the spirit of romanticism and this story is not an exception. Irving in this story used satire and irony to depict the religious hypocrisy of the society. He used beautiful symbolism to portray the moral deterioration and spiritual decay of the whole society.
Works Cited
Irving, Washington. "The Devil And Tom Walker." n.d. pagebypagebooks.com. Web. 25 October 2014.
Moss, Joyce and Geroge Wilson. "Washington Irving: `The Devil and Tom Walker'." Literature and Its Times: Profiles of 300 Notable Literary Works and the Historical Events that Influenced Them (2012). Web.
Ward, Kendall. "Literary Criticism." n.d. http://walkingwiththedevil.weebly.com/. 25 October 2014.
