Comparing two similar stories by Washington Irving Many times in our lives we are compared to our siblings. On many occasions, I am compared to my brother. People say that we have the same physique facial features, and height. Although these traits run in the family, I truly only want to be my own person. Just the other day someone called me “Michael.” The burn from my anger showed on my face. “I am NOT Michael,” I screamed; I am my own person. Just as we see similarities in family members, people also see similarities in stories written by the same author. In “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “Rip Van Winkle” we see similarities in setting, male protagonist, a female antagonist, and a mystic character. Both of these stories are set …show more content…
Both men seem to be lazy. We know Tom was lazy because he did not take care of his “ miserable horse with ribs that stuck out like a gridiron.” We also know that Rip is lazy because his “estate dwindled away under his management.” To me the men just sit around and assume that their wives will do all the work. They do not really feel as if they have to help. The second stereotype that these men share is that they are both submissive. Both men allow their wives to make their lives constantly miserable. When Tom would argue with his wife you knew she won because “his face sometimes showed the conflicts.” We also know when Rip and his wife fought, he would relent and say whatever made her happy because we see that Rip was “apt to be obsequious and conciliating under discipline of shrews at home.” To me Tom and Rip are submissive to their wives when they just sit at home and the wives are tired of it. Their wives scream at them to help and they usually give in because of the constant nagging. Washington Irving used these male stereotypes because to him they were good examples of the way American men acted under British …show more content…
Both the Devil and the Dwarf Henrick Hudson share the same stereotypes, they are tricksters and deceivers. The Devil tricks Tom by getting him to sign his soul over to make him rich. The Devil deceives Tom by appearing when he says the wrong thing and taking his soul. In Rip Van Winkle the Dwarf shared the same stereotypes as the Devil. Rip liked to kill time and play games; the ghosts knew that he liked to play games, and were playing when he arrived and had him join in. The ghosts also knew that Rip liked to drink and so, provided him with a good tasting beverage. The drink they gave him the drink caused him to sleep twenty years of his life away. Irving probably chose these mystic character stereotypes to show how the British tricked colonists into providing them with the things they needed in exchange for rum and other idle
tell "Rip VanWinkle" is set in a fantasy world right of the bat by the way
Soon he falls asleep and when he wakes up, he finds that he is on a table and a scythe is being lowered from the ceiling. The scythe is another symbol of death. As the scythe is coming down, he tries to find a way to get away from it. At the end of the story, he is saved at the last moment by " an outstretched arm caught my own as I fell, fainting, into the abyss." Washington Irving also talks about death and the devil in his short story "The Devil and Tom Walker." He writes more about the devil than he does death and he does not put himself in the place of the main character like Poe did. Tom, the main character, is a greedy person along with his wife. As he comes home one night, he goes through some woods and meets the devil. "Tom might have felt disposed to sell himself to the devil," but he was afraid to. On the other hand, his wife was not afraid and she disappears. Then Tom makes a deal with the devil, but soon "he thought with regret of the bargain he had made with his black friend, and set his wits to work to cheat him out of the conditions." He turns to religion and carries Bibles with him to keep the devil away, but it does
However, the easily overlooked similarity is the concept of love. This emotion is merely overlooked. Through this similarity, it becomes evident that love not only is something yearned for by humanity, but also a temptation so strong it can blind us to reality. This blindness can cause the pain of death. Love can cause people to do crazy things, and if you are Lieutenant Cross, even make you treat a pebble as if it were a tongue. Frank’s love for Mary Ann, as innocent as it may seem, exists as a love for a married woman. Love and lust are dangerous beasts, ones that we as readers must be weary of, for if we are not, we may find ourselves sharing the same fate as Frank, death by
In Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” Tom Walker was convinced by the devil to make a deal to sell his soul to him. “The Black Man told him of great sums of money which had been buried by Kidd the Pirate, under the oak trees on the ridge not far from the morass.” That quote from Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker,” explains why Tom was interested in selling his soul to
works of literature have tremendous amounts of similarity especially in the characters. Each character is usually unique and symbolizes the quality of a person in the real world. But in both stories, each character was alike, they represented honor, loyalty, chivalry, strength and wisdom. Each character is faced with a difficult decision as well as a journey in which they have to determine how to save their own lives. Both these pieces of literatures are exquisite and extremely interesting in their own ways.
When comparing the characters in the book to real people, it is not hard to see the similarities.
Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” includes great examples of Romanticism, such as symbols in nature having links to the supernatural, the importance of the inner nature, and the emphasis of the individual. In the story, Tom Walker is a selfish man who cares more about money than he does about anyone else, including his wife. One day, while he is walking through the woods, Tom Walker comes across the Devil, who makes a deal with him to exchange his soul for the treasure that is buried in those woods. Tom declines and returns back to his wife and tells her that he has passed on an opportunity that could bring them lots of money. Tom’s wife, outraged by his actions, decides to strike a deal of her own with the Devil and after several attempts, she never returns from the woods. The next time Tom goes to the woods he finds that his wife had been killed by the Devil. He finally agrees to make the deal with him, now that Tom doesn’t have to share anything with his wife. Tom ignores the Devil’s suggestion of becoming a slave-trader and becomes a moneylender instead. He gets wea...
In Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle,” an allegorical reading can be seen. The genius of Irving shines through, in not only his representation in the story, but also in his ability to represent both sides of the hot political issues of the day. Because it was written during the revolutionary times, Irving had to cater to a mixed audience of Colonists and Tories. The reader’s political interest, whether British or Colonial, is mutually represented allegorically in “Rip Van Winkle,” depending on who is reading it. Irving uses Rip, Dame, and his setting to relate these allegorical images on both sides. Irving would achieve success in both England and America, in large part because his political satires had individual allegorical meanings.
In Washington Irving’s story, The Devil and Tom Walker, Irving uses his imagination to convey his thoughts about the truth of life through symbols and characterization. In one specific instance in the story, the main character, Tom Walker, is walking home and “he took what he considered a shortcut homeward, through the swamp. Like most shortcuts, it was an ill-chosen route.” The path being “thickly grown with great gloomy pines” symbolizes the path of wrongdoings, bad decisions, and darkness. By taking this path, one then strays off the path of
"The Devil and Tom Walker" is a short story by Washington Irving that many wonder about. It teaches a lesson and has many archetypes in the characters. In literature, an archetype is a typical character, a type of action, or a situation that leads to the representation of such universal patterns of human nature. An archetype may be a character, a theme, a symbol or it can even be a setting. Tom walker is the protagonist of the story he is the main character.
In "The Devil and Tom Walker" Irving plots the setting in a way that makes it so frightening and telling . From the beginning of the story the reader is put into the atmosphere that foreshadows the events :Destruction of great things, death and black times, a wood with high trees, mysterious places, frightening people, an atmosphere that suits very much the evil to occur . Irving borrows events from the German legend of Faust and applies it on the American frontier society .He goes deeply into imagining a relation between the Devil and Tom walker that takes Tom from his human characteristics, giving him the power that is against his nature in the first place. Taking such action which in itself is against nature, Tom had to pay back his bill for the fault he committed . Being Romantic, Irving associates modernization with Evil. Before even mentioning Tom and his story, Irving talks about earthquakes/nature that revenges from Buildings/modernization, which is the second face of man/natu...
Can you imagine yourself locked up in a room with no doors? Similar to a room with no doors, there is no way out of hell if it was one's destiny. In the short story "The Devil & Tom Walker" by Washington Irving, the main character's fate is hell because of his wrong decisions in life, accepting a deal with the devil for earthly benefits. Irving reinforces his message about not making decisions that may damn your soul with the use of literary elements and figurative language. Wisely, Irving combines characterization, mood and point of view to perpetuate the theme of the story in the reader's mind.
Question: Compare / Contrast the characterization of Satan/the Devil as he appears in the excerpts we’ve read of the Bible vs. the characterization of Satan as he appears in Book IV of Paradise Lost.
Paris, Bernard J. Imagined Human Beings: A Psychological Approach to Character and Conflict in Literature. New York: New York University Press. 1997.
Toward the end of the novel, Daisy chooses high class over her first love. Daisy makes the decision to stay with Tom even after she has love affairs with Gatsby. As the readers think about why Daisy would go back to Tom, the idea that she is trapped is a common thought. Daisy makes the decision to go back to Tom in fear. Daisy fears losing her wealth and the high social status that Tom brings to her. On page 84 Daisy says “Oh you want too much!” to Gatsby telling him that he expects to much of her. Daisy feels as if she isn’t the girl Gatsby wants her to be. It seems as if Tom and Daisy reunite after the crazy day in the city. Overall Daisy wants wealth and high class which Tom gives to her and Gatsby did not.