An Analysis of American Romanticism
The romantic period,1735 to 1830, for writers is a dark and confusing time, it is a time when dark things are made to seem better than they are. Many great literary works come from this period, but at the price of confusing the population. People believe that “emotions and relationships were not just important, but were the very currency of life.” Three romantic era pieces stand out, The Pit and The Pendulum by Edgar Allen Poe, Thanatopsis by William Cullen Bryant and The Devil and Tom Walker By Washington Irving. These stories resemble the best qualities of the romantic era and maybe even some of the worst. Romanticism itself is a way of turning even the worst of topics into a more emotional sounding one or emphasizing a different emotion. Many romantic authors choose to write about death in a way that makes it sound like a person, so maybe it doesn’t seem as scary anymore. Others may write about war, or personal experience in a way that is not like the original story. In a nutshell Romanticism is taking something and twisting it into something completely different.
In The Devil and Tom Walker Irving writes about the Devil in a way that makes him seem like an eerie lumberjack or even a seedy salesman, he represents the tempter. He even skims over the fact that Walker sells his soul to the devil and focuses on the man Walker becomes after he gets what he wants from the Devil. Tom Walker is a greedy man who cared little for
Washington Irving was an American short story author during the 19th century. Some of his most famous works are “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “A History of New York.” In addition, one of his most influential pieces was “Devil and Tom Walker.” There are three themes portrayed in the short story. The first theme is greed. Tom Walker and his wife often fight about money and possessions. Whenever his wife obtains new things, she hides them from Tom and goes out to search for more. Tom is greedy as well. He made a deal with the devil so that he could obtain a large amount of treasure that was left behind many years ago. In exchange, the devil would get Tom’s soul. The old stories suggest that the devil guards the treasure left by Kidd the pirate.
In “The Devil and Tom Walker” they use literary archetypes that represents universal patterns of human behavior or commonly-held beliefs. This story takes place in 1727 in Boston Massachusetts. There are three main characters who are very similar but a little different. Tom Walker is small, greedy, overly confident, and miserly. Tom Walker’s wife Mrs. Walker is selfish, verbally abusive towards Tom, and she is known as a termagant because she nags and complains all of the time. Last but not least old scratch has many other names that have been given to him by his personality, but he is the devil.
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.
In the nineteenth century, growing industrialization led people to impersonal, greedy, and selfish lives. As a reaction against this situation, romanticism emerged; this artistic movement offered people the place away from the corrupted society. During this era, people favored untamed nature instead of unscrupulous society. Upon a people’s encounter with Romanticism, they enjoyed an enthusiastic burst of feelings. This era is characterized by not only an outpouring of emotions but also themes of imagination, fantasy, emotion, nature, superstition, individuality, mystery and the supernatural. Among them, nature, imagination, and superstition theme were the most beloved theme during this period, particularly demonstrated by give stories of The Most Sublime Spectacle on Earth, Nature, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Devil and Tom Walker.
In the story, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” there is a humorous way of looking at serious topics. Washington Irving shows his thoughts on these topics through the characters in this story. He attacks ways of living and social ideas that he thinks people should live without. In this story, Irving criticizes violence, greed, and false piety.
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.
Walker later finds himself rich, but trying to cheat the devil out of his own conditions. Walker ultimately ends up surrendering to the devil. This story was a tough but pleasant reading experience for me. I did have to re-read it a lot to make sure I understand everything fully, but once you understand it fully, the message you get is awesome and interesting.
Tom Walker is a man who sold his soul to devil for wealth. As Tom gets older, he starts to think of ways to get out the deal he made with the devil. Part of the deal with the devil was that Tom had to work for the devil his whole life.I believe Tom Walker’s turn to religion was for selfish and greedy reasons.
In "The Devil and Tom Walker," Washington Irving appears to be criticizing greed, materialism, and the corrupting influence of wealth. Throughout the story, Irving portrays the character of Tom Walker as a miserly and morally bankrupt individual who prioritizes personal gain over ethical considerations. Tom's decision to make a Faustian bargain with the devil in exchange for wealth and power symbolizes the moral decay and spiritual emptiness that can result from unchecked greed and ambition. Additionally, Irving's portrayal of the wealthy individuals in the story, such as Tom's wife, as morally bankrupt and morally bankrupt, suggests a critique of the wealthy elite who prioritize wealth accumulation at the expense of their humanity and moral
Of the Dark Romantic stories that we read, “The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving provided the strongest theme. The theme in the “The Devil and Tom Walker” is, just because someone looks good on the outside does not mean that he or she is truly a good person. Irving displays this theme through a heavy use of symbolism, “Tom looked in the direction that the stranger pointed, and beheld one of the great trees, fair and flourishing, but rotten at the core” (Irving 325). The trees in the story represented people that had sold their souls to the devil and we now wealthy and powerful, but they were dead inside. Another way this theme is shown in the story is through the describing of Tom Walker’s house, “He built himself, as usual, a vast
Romanticism. Romanticism is characterized by its impressive expressiveness in harmonic and thematic process with an increasing weight of chromatic and dissonant elements. There is a new tendency to give a particular importance to timber, texture and rhythm. Like the Renaissance after the Middle Ages, Romantic composers want to express the new-found independence of the humanity that is no longer under the constraining influence of the strict model that classical composers follow. Some Romantic compositions express a powerful individualism while others express the beauties and terrors of nature, but the most common theme is nationalism.
The Romantic Period is characterized as an artistic and intellectually stimulating literary movement. Writers of this genre and time are considered to be those who fused the elements of romance in their writings to enhance the human experience. Edgar Allan Poe, known as the father of the modern short story, epitomizes this notion in his writings. In “Annabel Lee,” and “The Oval Portrait,” Edgar Allan Poe uses romance to illustrate the essence of death and misery and to illustrate elements in which the reader can actually feel that was is happening in the story is happening to them.
Washington Irving also shows the theme of greed by how Tom Walker was a very cheap and greedy moneylender. During the time of this setting in “The Devil and Tom Walker,” people tried to do anything to make money. Joyce states, “while many had a keen sense of business, pothers were unethical in their dogged pursuit of riches (102).” This statement illustrates Tom Walker very. When Tom was discussing the terms of the deal with the devil, Tom wanted to make his interest rate even higher then what the devil origianally planned. Then devil said, “ You shall
Imagine a candle-lit dinner on a starry night in Paris, the Eiffel Tower just in view with dazzling lights shining into the night. This image is probably what you think of when you hear the word “romantic,” correct. However, this image is a stumbling block when people think of the “Romanticism Period” in literature. Where “romantic” means having a lovely time with the person you love the most, “Romanticism” is a piece of literature written with key themes in mind. Those themes tend to be a strong emotion, imagery or worship of nature, and individuality and subjectivity. The peak of inspiration for these pieces was in the years 1800-1850, and there are famous poems that are well loved today from this period. Many of the poets that you enjoy reading and know are, in actuality, Romanticism writers, and instill the themes above in our minds.
The Devil and Tom Walker is a short story written by Washington Irving. The story is about a legend of a pirates treasure hidden in a swamp and how a miserly man named Tom Walker finds it on his way home through a swamp. When Tom is in the swamp a dark tall man, Old Scratch, who Tom recognizes as the Devil, offers Tom a deal for the treasure. Tom goes home and tells his wife about the deal the Devil gave him, her greedy made her to take all their valuable possessions and go bargain with the Devil for the treasure. When she didn’t return Tom Walker decided to go look for his wife. When Tom was looking for her, he found her apron, liver, and her heart tied up to a tree. After seeing this Tom decided to make the deal with the Devil. The Devil tells Tom that he must do services to the devil for the treasure. He first tells Tom to become a slaver trader; however Tom refuses to become one. Finally the Devil tells Tom to become a corrupted money-loaner, which he agrees to, so he moves to Boston and becomes a moneylender. While at Boston Tom regrets doing the deal with the Devil and tries going to zealous church in a hope to redeem his soul for what has he done; however it was too late for Tom Walker. One afternoon while Tom’s victims were begging him for a delay, Tom lost his patience and his pity and yelled “The Devil take me… if I have made a farthing!" (Irving, The Devil and Tom Walker). Immediately after this statement Tom hears three knocks on his door and the Devil comes for Tom and rides away with him on his horse. The next day Tom’s house and all his belongings are burnt down, and Tom is never seen ever again.