Premium Essay

Washington Irving's Tone In The Devil And Tom Walker

Submitted By
Words 634
Pages 3
Washington Irving has many distinct characteristics in his pieces of writing. He gets his inspiration from European fables, usually by just rewriting these stories. Also known for his light and humorous tone, he exemplifies this characteristic in his short story, “The Devil and Tom Walker," despite dark subject material. In “The Devil and Tom Walker” Washington Irving creates and adds to his light tone many times throughout the story, including his characterizations, the satirical reference to Puritans, and the death of the main character.
The characters of the short story, “The Devil and Tom Walker,” introduce the mood of the literary piece, in their descriptions and actions. A miserly, flawed man, the reader only feels amusement at Tom Walker’s many mistakes. Tom and his wife’s relationship also exemplifies Irving’s humor. Although they have a bad relationship the audience receives it as a funny situation as they fight over silly things, such as eggs. Another addition to the …show more content…
Towards the end of his life, Tom turns to religion to save himself from the fate he chose at the beginning of the story. The author depicts a scandalous group of this time and era, the Puritans. This type of humor called satire mocks topical issues. Irving applies it to his literature when Tom becomes a “devout” Puritan. He attends church all the time and screams his prayers. Tom also starts keeping track of his neighbors’ actions and sins. He begins carrying around a small bible everywhere he goes, as a sort of charm. He even, in his later life, buries his horse upside down because of his belief that at the end of the world everything flips upside-down. These and many more of Tom’s ridiculous, “religious” actions are all meant to ridicule the Puritans and their faith. This shows the public opinion of Puritans at that time and adds to the comical atmosphere of the

Similar Documents

Free Essay

Foot

...“The Devil and Tom Walker” by Washington Irving Part I. Anticipation Guide Read each statement and check the column that represents your response. Be ready to defend your answer. |Yes |No |Statement | |  |  |1. There is a devil who tries to trick people. | | | |  | |  |  |2. Money is the number one goal for most people in today’s society. | | | |  | |  |  |3. Integrity is more important than money. | | | |  | |  |  |4. When you marry, what is yours should become your spouse’s and vice versa. | | | |  | |  |  |5. It is okay to lie to your spouse if the lie will not hurt them. ...

Words: 435 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

British Short Fictions

...BRITISH SHORT FICTION IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY This page intentionally left blank British Short Fiction in the Early Nineteenth Century The Rise of the Tale TIM KILLICK Cardiff University, UK © Tim Killick 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Tim Killick has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Gower House Croft Road Aldershot Hampshire GU11 3HR England Ashgate Publishing Company Suite 420 101 Cherry Street Burlington, VT 05401-4405 USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Killick, Tim British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale 1. Short stories, English – History and criticism 2. English fiction – 19th century – History and criticism 3. Short story 4. Literary form – History – 19th century I. Title 823’.0109 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Killick, Tim. British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale / by Tim Killick. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-6413-0 (alk. paper) 1. Short stories, English—History and criticism. 2. English fiction—19th...

Words: 98420 - Pages: 394

Premium Essay

The Rise of the Tale

...BRITISH SHORT FICTION IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY This page intentionally left blank British Short Fiction in the Early Nineteenth Century The Rise of the Tale TIM KILLICK Cardiff University, UK © Tim Killick 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Tim Killick has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Gower House Croft Road Aldershot Hampshire GU11 3HR England Ashgate Publishing Company Suite 420 101 Cherry Street Burlington, VT 05401-4405 USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Killick, Tim British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale 1. Short stories, English – History and criticism 2. English fiction – 19th century – History and criticism 3. Short story 4. Literary form – History – 19th century I. Title 823’.0109 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Killick, Tim. British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale / by Tim Killick. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-6413-0 (alk. paper) 1. Short stories, English—History and criticism. 2. English fiction—19th...

Words: 98420 - Pages: 394

Premium Essay

Marxist

...BRITISH SHORT FICTION IN THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY This page intentionally left blank British Short Fiction in the Early Nineteenth Century The Rise of the Tale TIM KILLICK Cardiff University, UK © Tim Killick 2008 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the publisher. Tim Killick has asserted his moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work. Published by Ashgate Publishing Limited Gower House Croft Road Aldershot Hampshire GU11 3HR England Ashgate Publishing Company Suite 420 101 Cherry Street Burlington, VT 05401-4405 USA www.ashgate.com British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Killick, Tim British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale 1. Short stories, English – History and criticism 2. English fiction – 19th century – History and criticism 3. Short story 4. Literary form – History – 19th century I. Title 823’.0109 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Killick, Tim. British short fiction in the early nineteenth century : the rise of the tale / by Tim Killick. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7546-6413-0 (alk. paper) 1. Short stories, English—History and criticism. 2. English fiction—19th...

Words: 98420 - Pages: 394

Premium Essay

Harold Bloom

...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...

Words: 239932 - Pages: 960

Free Essay

Bloodlines of the Illuminati

...Bloodlines of Illuminati by: Fritz Springmeier, 1995 Introduction: I am pleased & honored to present this book to those in the world who love the truth. This is a book for lovers of the Truth. This is a book for those who are already familiar with my past writings. An Illuminati Grand Master once said that the world is a stage and we are all actors. Of course this was not an original thought, but it certainly is a way of describing the Illuminati view of how the world works. The people of the world are an audience to which the Illuminati entertain with propaganda. Just one of the thousands of recent examples of this type of acting done for the public was President Bill Clinton’s 1995 State of the Union address. The speech was designed to push all of the warm fuzzy buttons of his listening audience that he could. All the green lights for acceptance were systematically pushed by the President’s speech with the help of a controlled congressional audience. The truth on the other hand doesn’t always tickle the ear and warm the ego of its listeners. The light of truth in this book will be too bright for some people who will want to return to the safe comfort of their darkness. I am not a conspiracy theorist. I deal with real facts, not theory. Some of the people I write about, I have met. Some of the people I expose are alive and very dangerous. The darkness has never liked the light. Yet, many of the secrets of the Illuminati are locked up tightly simply because secrecy is a way...

Words: 206477 - Pages: 826

Free Essay

Philosophers Stone

...The Philosopher’s Stone by Colin Wilson PANTHER, GRANADA PUBLISHING London Toronto Sydney New York Published by Granada Publishing Limited in Panther Books 1974 Reprinted 1978 ISBN 0 586 03943 0 First published in Great Britain by Arthur Barker Limited 1969 Copyright © Colin Wilson 1969 Granada Publishing Limited Frogmore, St Albans, Herts, AL2 2NF and 3 Upper James Street, London, WIR 4BP 1221 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020, USA 117 York Street, Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia 100 Skyway Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Mgw 3A6 Trio City, Coventry Street, Johannesburg 2001, South Africa CML Centre, Queen & Wyndham, Auckland, New Zealand Made and printed in Great Britain by Hazell Watson & Viney Ltd Aylesbury, Bucks Set in Linotype Pilgrim This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Scanned : Mr Blue Sky Proofed : It’s Not Raining Date : 09 February 2002 PREFATORY NOTE Bernard Shaw concluded his preface to Back to Methuselah with the hope that ‘a hundred apter and more elegant parables by younger hands will soon leave mine... far behind’. Perhaps the thought of trying to leave Shaw far behind has scared off would-be competitors. Or perhaps - what is altogether...

Words: 112088 - Pages: 449

Premium Essay

The Intelligent Investor

...THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR A BOOK OF PRACTICAL COUNSEL REVISED EDITION B E NJAM I N G RAHAM Updated with New Commentary by Jason Zweig To E.M.G. Through chances various, through all vicissitudes, we make our way. . . . Aeneid Contents Epigraph iii Preface to the Fourth Edition, by Warren E. Buffett viii A Note About Benjamin Graham, by Jason Zweig x Introduction: What This Book Expects to Accomplish COMMENTARY ON THE INTRODUCTION 1. 1 12 35 The Investor and Inflation 47 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 2 3. 18 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 1 2. Investment versus Speculation: Results to Be Expected by the Intelligent Investor 58 65 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 3 4. A Century of Stock-Market History: The Level of Stock Prices in Early 1972 80 General Portfolio Policy: The Defensive Investor 88 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 4 5. 101 124 Portfolio Policy for the Enterprising Investor: Negative Approach 133 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 6 7. 112 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 5 6. The Defensive Investor and Common Stocks 145 iv 155 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 7 8. Portfolio Policy for the Enterprising Investor: The Positive Side 179 The Investor and Market Fluctuations 188 v Contents COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 8 9. Investing in Investment Funds COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 9 213 226 242 10. The Investor and His Advisers 257 COMMENTARY ON CHAPTER 10 272 11. Security...

Words: 224262 - Pages: 898