Themes In The Devil And Tom Walker By Edgar Allan Poe

Truc Vy Ho Coach Bevins American Literature Honors 9 December 2016 Alternative Essay on The Devil and Tom Walker In the short story of The Devil and Tom Walker written by Washington Irving, religion played some parts throughout the story but didn’t have a very huge impact on the protagonist, Tom himself. Tom’s character only turned to religion near the end of the story to ask for help from God in reverse for what he has done to the innocent people of Boston.

Poe and Byron are masterful at using vivid, descriptive language to develop the elements of Gothic literature and instill a sense of fear in the reader.

Gothic writers are well known for their works that induce grotesque and demented images to enter a reader’s brain. However, blood and gore is not the only way that Gothic writers can make your skin crawl, and the hair on the back of your neck rise. Gothic literary works contain themes of supernatural occurrences, and entrapment to induce feelings of fear, and mystery into the reader.

Gothic literature is a style of writing dating back to 1764, some of the most important elements of this writing style are of an eerie setting and mental decay, stories that made great use of these elements are: “The Raven”, “Black Cat”, “The House of Usher”, and “The Devil and Tom Walker”. The authors use the gothic element of eerie setting so that they can enhance the mood of the story and of mental decay to highlight what the conflict in the characters’ lives is causing.

Gothic literature uses wide ranging themes and gothic elements to convey its story. Gothic literature short stories can range from romance to horror to supernatural occurrences. Horacio Quiroga’s “The Feather Pillow,” Richard Matheson’s “Prey,” and Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” all incorporate the following gothic elements: violence, revenge, hallucinations, nightmares, and psychological issues.

Gothic Literature includes a gloomy mood and a dramatic description throughout the story. Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a good example of Gothic Literature because it has a gloomy mood which helps the story feel more eerie and also contains a dramatic description which makes the reader feel as if they are in the moment and living the event. For example, in Poe’s story,”...but the first glimpse of the building a sense of insufferable gloom prevademy spirit.”(13). He sets a gloomy and dark mood which is one of the requirements for Gothic Literature and describes it in a way that makes everything sound like a crucial event. He explains the building using words such as “spirit”

Gothic literature contains many thematic elements such as horror, death, and even at times romanticism. This type of literature incorporates various different elements, in order to evoke the emotions of terror. There are many authors who are extremely talented and are still remembered and read in classrooms today. These are authors like Edgar Allan Poe, best known for his mysterious poems and short stories, Richard Matheson and Horacio Quiroga, who have all incorporated psychological problems and violence themes in their short stories in order to fascinate the readers and add suspense to the story. These three gothic authors correlate the themes of violence and the psychological/ mental issues in order to depict anticipation and terror

“The Devil and Tom Walker” and the “The Devil and Daniel Webster” have many differences along with several similarities. A few examples would be the different depiction of the Devil and the similarities of the role of religion. Some points may be larger than others, but one can see the relationship between both of the books in many different aspects of he was dressed in a “rude, half Indian garb, and had a red belt or sash swathed round his body, but 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, p. 2-3)

Richard Matheson, Edgar Allen Poe, and Washington Irving all take advantage of the metaphoric and literal meanings of entrapment and violence in each piece of their gothic literature. In “Prey”, “Black Cat”, and “The Devil and Tom Walker” the authors use entrapment to show how evil finds and can hold us one way or another. Similarly violence is incorporated to portray the dangers of what horror can inflict on one and those associated.

Most people have never heard of the Rationalist and Romantic movements. They are a major part in today’s literature. The story The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving is a story about a man who is conflicted with the devil and he and his wife search for wealth. The Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Allen Poe is a short but mind twisting story about the plague of the Red Death, and people trying to use wealth to hide themselves from it. Another amazing short story would be The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benét which is inspired by Irving’s story, and it has to do with Jabez Stone who is stuck in a predicament with the Devil and needs to be saved. All of the stories are Romantic movements from various different authors.

Washington Irving is an American writer in the era of Romanticism who mainly focused on dark romantics. One of his popular works, The Devil and Tom Walker, written in 1824, is a short story based on the legend of Tom Walker , the main character, who exchanged their soul to the devil for Pirate Kidd’s treasure. Irving depicts the main character as a miserly and greedy person who cares for nothing more, but himself, the tone of the story is dark and gloomy, which portrays the daunting and bone-chilling imagery of the story.

One of the spookiest experiences in Harley’s life was on a cold, dark Halloween night when Harley and her friends, Lauryn and Heidi, got chased by a clown for 3 blocks on a gloomy narrow road. This scenario relates to traits  of Gothic Literature and Magical Realism because, that experience was in a dark setting and contained weird incidents and a disturbing plot. Those two genres are similar because they both usually have unrealistic characters and scary plots. However, in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Fall of the House of Usher” is an example of Gothic Literature because, the story’s setting is in an isolated, creepy, and large house with odd characters and a frightening plot line, while Julio Cortazar’s “House Taken Over” is an example of  Magical Realism because the realistic characters are accepting the unimpressed narrative tone in an ordinary way of life. Gothic Literature is a style of writing that is characterized by elements of fear, horror, death, and gloom. Settings are usually in a isolated and haunted location in a big house or castle with trap doors, dark rooms, and secret passages. Characters are usually supernatural beings or monsters.

Gothic literature has a different way of captivating the reader. Page by Page, gothic themes are present that create mystery and evoke suspense. The Night Circus, a novel by Eric Morgenstern, “The Devil and Tom Walker”, by Washington Irving, and “The Oval Portrait”, by Edgar Allan Poe share two important themes: eerie setting and isolation. All the stories connect through a lesson that passion can become harmful.

Edgar Allan Poe, renowned as the foremost master of the short-story form of writing, chiefly tales of the mysterious and macabre, has established his short stories as leading proponents of “Gothic” literature. Although the term “Gothic” originally referred only to literature set in the Gothic (or medieval) period, its meaning has since been extended to include a particular style of writing. In order for literature to be “Gothic,” it must fulfill some specific requirements. Firstly, it must set a tone that is dark, somber, and foreboding. Next, throughout the development of the story, the events that occur must be strange, melodramatic, or often sinister. Poe’s short stories are

The term gothic fiction implies a British literary genre from the late eighteenth, and early nineteenth century. The modernized term seems to have been generalized into anything that is dark, gloomy, or depressing. Gothic novels often time posses an emphasis on portraying the terror, a prominent use of supernatural circumstances, the presence of highly stereotyped characters, and the attempt to display techniques of literary suspense. There are also other parallels among this vastly popular genre. Gothic novels often time describe the city of London in corresponding ways. Also a common theme amongst gothic literary works is the duality of human nature, or the quality or characteristic of being twofold. These mutual themes are apparent in