The Devil and Tom Walker Analysis

Washington Irving wrote both "The Devil and Tom Walker" and "Rip Van Winkle," and both stories shared many similarities and differences. Both stories were written in the style of a short story, even though they were written during the Romanticism period, where poetry was a popular writing style. Both stories also used great detail in describing aspects of the story, which was a characteristic of Romantic writing. In the story "The Devil and Tom Walker," there were a few paragraphs that described the swamp, which used great detail, a characteristic of Romanticism writing.

The swamp was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high, which made it dark at noonday, and a retreat for all the owls of the neighborhood. It was full of pits and quagmire, partly covered with weeds and mosses, where the green surface often betrayed the traveler into a gulf of black, smothering mud.

The paragraph would continue on to describe the nature present in the swamp, and nature was a big part of Romanticism writing.  Another reference to romanticism writing is the use of innocence in the writing. Tom Walker was an immature, innocent person who fell into the trap of the devil trying to corrupt Tom. Innocence is used in Romantic writing, and it is present in this story. The Devil tempted the husband in the story, and he told his wife, who then tempted him to do the task. Tom did not want to do it, so his wife made a deal with both people (Irving). The story has a slight similarity to the story in the Book of Genesis, where Adam and Eve are tempted by the Devil to eat the forbidden fruit.

While both stories were written by the same author during the same literary period, the stories do have their differences. "The Devil and Tom Walker" had a moral to the story, but "Rip Van Winkle" really did not. The story was somewhat scary, and it was probably written during the time shift between Romanticism and Dark Romanticism. It wasn't really considered Dark Romanticism because while it was a story involving the Devil, it was still a short story used for the purpose of entertaining people.

"Rip Van Winkle" was a story on the opposite spectrum of short stories compared to "The Devil and Tom Walker." In the story, Rip helps a man carry a keg, and then proceeds to take a drink from it, which ends up being a lot more than he thought he was taking, which caused him to fall into a deep sleep (Matthews). This aspect of the story helps to relate to the characteristics of Romanticism writing similar to the characteristics in "The Devil and Tom Walker." Rip stood for innocence, since he was a character who fell victim to alcohol that caused him to "fall asleep" for a very long period of time. Young people. along with innocence, are key aspects of Romanticism writing. The two short stories, while not poems, are great examples of Romanticism writing.

D'Ammassa, Don. "'Rip Van Winkle'." Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2006. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. http://www.fofweb.com/activelink2.asp?ItemID=WE54&SID=5&iPin= EFHF0432&SingleRecord=True (accessed December 7, 2011).


Matthews, Brander, ed. The Short-Story: Specimens Illustrating Its Development. New York: American Book Company, 1907; Bartleby.com, 2000.www.bartleby.com/195/. [Date of Printout].