“The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” are both brilliant literary works that present the danger of greed and the misuse of wealth. Through the main characters’ follies and rash decisions, it sets up the story to give the readers an idea on how quickly wealth can become bad. Both short stories include the Devil and views of wealth; however, there are numerous differences within the text. Alongside the differences, there are also many similarities. Throughout the story many of the similarities and contrasts takes place in the resolution of the story, the devil’s illustration, and religion or a saving grace’s role.
The resolutions in “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” are one of the contrasts between the stories. Both men were able to acquire wealth through a deal with Old Scratch, but they both had different wind-ups. After they made their bargains, both lives changed to the better, but it was only a matter of time until the Devil closed the deal. In “The Devil …show more content…
In “The Devil and Tom Walker” Old Scratch is depicted as a man who looked liked he worked in fire, wearing half Indian garments and a red belt, had darker skin, and had coarse black hair (Irving, 1824, pp. 3-4). In “The Devil and Daniel Webster” Old Scratch is described as a “soft-spoken, dark-dressed stranger” and he had teeth that “were white teeth, and plentiful” (Benét, 1936, p. 12). Similarly, in both instances he has some kind of dark element to his appearance. They were depicted in this manner to give different feelings about the Devil. Old Scratch had more of a common person or a worker when he made a deal with Tom. When the Devil appeared to Jabez, his appearance gave more of a businessman type feeling. Both descriptions gave the readers different images and feelings to help better show how the men in the story felt when meeting the Devil’s
The resolutions in “The Devil and Tom Walker” and “The Devil and Daniel Webster” are one of the contrasts between the stories. Both men were able to acquire wealth through a deal with Old Scratch, but they both had different wind-ups. After they made their bargains, both lives changed to the better, but it was only a matter of time until the Devil closed the deal. In “The Devil …show more content…
In “The Devil and Tom Walker” Old Scratch is depicted as a man who looked liked he worked in fire, wearing half Indian garments and a red belt, had darker skin, and had coarse black hair (Irving, 1824, pp. 3-4). In “The Devil and Daniel Webster” Old Scratch is described as a “soft-spoken, dark-dressed stranger” and he had teeth that “were white teeth, and plentiful” (Benét, 1936, p. 12). Similarly, in both instances he has some kind of dark element to his appearance. They were depicted in this manner to give different feelings about the Devil. Old Scratch had more of a common person or a worker when he made a deal with Tom. When the Devil appeared to Jabez, his appearance gave more of a businessman type feeling. Both descriptions gave the readers different images and feelings to help better show how the men in the story felt when meeting the Devil’s