During the early 1700s, a traveler met a man in the Massachusetts forest. However, this was no mortal human, but the devil. “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Devil and Tom Walker,” two short stories, both start out this way. Washington Irving wrote the latter in 1824, which tells how Tom Walker profited by working for the devil. In 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown,” which describes Goodman Brown’s encounter with the devil. Despite minor deviations between their themes, the two stories share ideas regarding the devil, specifically his appearance and connection with man’s depravity. overpowering minor deviations between their themes. [MAYBE DELETE THE LAST HALF OF THE THESIS, AND ADD SPECIFICITY TO THE FIRST HALF (WHICH IDEAS OF THE DEVIL ARE SIMILAR?)]] Both authors describe the devil similarly. In the two stories, the devil craftily disguises himself as a nondescript individual, increasing the likeliness of a passerby plunging into treacherous conversation with him. Despite his efforts, the devil fails to hide some subtle clues to his identity. In “Young Goodman Brown,” “the only thing about him that could be fixed upon as remarkable was his staff, which bore the likeness of a great black snake, so curiously wrought that it might almost be seen to twist and wiggle itself like a living serpent,” (Hawthorne 8-9). Likewise, in “The Devil and Tom Walker,” the man’s appearance indicates the devil since “his face was neither black nor copper-color, but swarthy, and dingy and begrimed with soot, as if he had been accustomed to toil among fires and forges,” (Irving 4). Continually, the two stories refer to the devil as a certain color: grey in “Young Goodman Brown,” and black in “The Devil and Tom Walker.” Often, people associate these mournful colors with sin and corruption, which aptly describe the devil and his work. The stories analyze the devil’s connection with the fallenness of humankind. Both in “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “Young Goodman Brown,” the devil snatches the protagonists’ soul, though the victim first decides whether to turn to him, because the devil cannot force himself upon the unfortunate. Yet, their depravity causes Tom Walker and Goodman Brown to succumb to the
Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” illustrates how an individual’s corruption results from their ability to resist temptation, the virtue to act generously, and the self-discipline to perform genuinely. Temptation, symbolized by the Devil and characterized by desperation in this prose, is that catalyst that forces Tom’s proverbial ball to roll. First and foremost, Tom chooses a shortcut home out of ease and lack of time that “like most shortcuts... was an ill-chosen route (280);” along his path of “smothering mud (280)” and “half-drowned, half-rotting [hemlocks and pines] (280)” –likely representative of the comeuppances of giving into temptations–Tom confronts the Devil for the first time and eventually ends up selling his soul
During the early 1700s, a traveler met a man in the Massachusetts forest. However, this was no mortal man, but the devil. “Young Goodman Brown” and “The Devil and Tom Walker,” two short stories, both start out in this way. Washington Irving wrote the latter in 1824, which tells how Tom Walker profited through working for the devil. In 1835, Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote “Young Goodman Brown,” which describes Goodman Brown’s woodland encounter with the Devil. The two stories share specific ideas regarding the devil, overpowering minor deviations between each other.
The man that Goodman Brown encountered on his journey symbolized the devil in the text which strongly influenced him to just about give up his faith in God. The Devil disguised as a “fellow traveler” (266) tried to influence Goodman Brown by
“The Devil and Tom Walker” describes the devil in the following way: “he was dressed in a rude half-indian garb, and had a red belt...yet He had a shock of coarse black hair...and bore an ax on his shoulder.” Washington Irving wrote “The Devil and Tom Walker” in 1824, which tells how Tom Walker became rich by working for the devil. Another short story, “Young Goodman Brown,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne in1835, describes Goodman Brown’s woodland tramp with the Devil. The two stories share specific ideas regarding the devil, overpowering minor deviations between each other.
The story ‘‘The Devil and Tom Walker’’ presents the idea that greed is something which can lead to great loss in a person’s life. Washington Irving book’’ The Devil and Tom Walker’’ tells about a man name Tom Walker who is facing challenges with the devil. Tom Walker is a sinner and a hypocrite who is living life with his crazy wife, and being under leadership with the devil. Tom Walker is miserly, brave, parsimony. In the story Tom becomes friends with the devil. Tom Walker is stingy with his belongings. Tom is brave going through the darkest treacherous routes.
In this story we can see many interesting facts about the main character Tom Walker such as his relations with other characters and his own beliefs. In the story we can see how Tom doesn’t accept the deal with the Devil at first, but when his wife dies in hands of the Devil, Tom Walker now accepts to do the deal; however he doesn’t accept because he feels like he has lost everything but because now his wife can’t take away any part of the treasure and now he will do the things he wants for his own good and not to please
Tom Walker lived in Puritan, New England, a place that is very religious and criticizes wrong doings. Tom Walker worked for the devil, which in Puritan, New England is against their religion. If the people in the town found out that Tom worked for the devil they would have him killed or sent away. Because of these reasons and because the people of the town are quick to judge, Tom worked very secluded. So, in The Devil and Tom Walker, Washington Irving uses detail to portray that Tom is not who others make him out to be, reveal that Tom is gullible, and to convey that Tom worked for the Devil.
The main focus of the story “Young Goodman Brown” by Nathaniel Hawthorne is the triumph of evil over good. A supposedly good man is tempted by evil and allows himself to be converted into a man of evil. This is much like the situation that arises in Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, where two people are tempted to sin and give in thus submitting themselves to the power of the devil. In this novel, the area where the devil resides is strictly parallel to that in “Young Goodman Brown”.
The appearance of the devil’s in the two stories are quite different, for example, the devil in the Hawthorne story has black eyes, natty clothes, and a staff. He looks like anyone else and is “about fifty years old”; he is similar to Brown and is no different from him (Hawthorne 2). The devil’s staff has a black snake appearance and looked as if it was twisting and wriggling “like a live serpent”(2). Appearance is a large portion of how people are perceived. If the devil wasn’t dressed nicely; people wouldn’t trust him as much or believe him. When dressed nicely; people are more likely to trust them and associate with them. In the King story the devil represents fire, for instance, he has orange eyes. His mouth was as big as a sharks and when it opened you’d see fierce orange just like his eyes. He also wore natty
As people grow up, it is made apparent to them that the Devil is an evil and rather a clever person. The greatest example of the devil in action is when the devil tempts Jesus. As most know, the devil fails to get Jesus to do evil. Jesus is both human and divine while the main character of The Devil and Tom Walker, Tom Walker, is a “meager, miserly fellow”. Unfortunately, Tom Walker is not Jesus so the reader must focus in on Washington Irving’s The Devil and Tom Walker to see just exactly how and when the Devil won his game. Irving portrays to the reader that the devil cannot be beaten at his own game through setting, characters, and plot. As people have seen in sports, the setting of a game (where, when, weather, etc.) can have a big impact on the game. The same goes for The Devil and Tom Walker.
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 the short story "The Devil & Tom Walker" by Washington Irving, the main character's fate is going to hell because of his wrong decisions in life when he sold his soul to the Devil for wealth. Washington Irving reinforces his message about why you shouldn’t make decisions that may damn your soul with the use of romantic literary elements and satire. Religion was widely written about during 1824, the year “The Devil and Tom Walker” was written, due to the large religious population and the fascination with the Devil as an evil wandering spirit. When writing, Irving combines characterization with mood/setting to perpetuate the theme of romanticism in the story for the reader's mind.
To begin, in the short story “The Devil and Tom Walker”, awe of nature is used to
In "Young Goodman Brown" Goodman Brown is a Puritan husband who lets his individualistic impulses lead him into a personal encounter with the devil himself. Goodman Brown: 1. According to Levy, he “is Everyman. The bargain he has struck with Satan is the universal one . . . . Initially, he is a naive and immature young man who fails to understand the gravity of the step he has taken . . . [which is] succeeded by a presumably adult determination to resist his own evil impulses” (117). 2. Fogle writes that he is “a naive young man who accepts both society in general and his fellow men as individuals at their own valuation, [who] is in one terrible night confronted with the vision of human evil . . . ” (15).
In both The Devil and Tom Walker, written by American short story writer, Washington Irving, and Young Goodman Brown composed by American novelist, Nathaniel Hawthorne, there is various things that can be interpreted as similar or different in the roles of the devil of each of these short stories. Both stories experiences changes in attitudes and beliefs of the collective people of the day and provoctes the roles the devils play in exposing these beliefs. In both The Devil and Tom Walker and Young Goodman Brown, the devil appears to be an ordinary man, which suggests that every person, including the main characters known as "Tom walker" and "Goodman Brown", of both short stories to have the capacity for evil. The Devil in both stories also