The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving

About the Author

• Washington Irving, the author of The Devil and Tom Walker, was the first American writer to achieve an international reputation.
• His characters include the Headless Horseman and Rip Van Winkle.
• He studied law but didn't like it, so he turned to writing in 1807, when he started publishing satire about New York politics, culture, and theater.
• In 1809, he wrote A History of New York from the Beginning of Time Through the End of the Dutch Dunasty, which is a satire (parody) of history and politics.
• The manuscript was left at an inn by a lodger called Diedrich Knickerbocker, one of the narrators invented by Irving, who didn't sign his works until age 40.
• In 1815, he began traveling to Europe and was there for 17 years.
• Sir Walter Scott encouraged him to write stories that blend European and American legends. These appeared in 1820 as The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. It was well received.
• In 1824, he published Tales of a Traveller, which contained The Devil and Tom Walker, and it was not well received at all, so he stopped writing fiction.
• He returned to America in 1832 to live with his brother at Sunnyside, and died at age 76, near where the Headless Horseman haunts, New York's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

Summary

• The story of Tom Walker is a variation on the legend of Faust, a 16th century magician and astrologer who sold his soul to the devil for wisdom, money, and power.
• Washington Irving changed the setting to 1720s in New England, which was settled by Quakers and Puritans. He satirizes people who "present a pious public image as they 'sell their soul' for money" (fake people).
• The story begins with a description of an inlet that's a wooded swamp, a few miles from Boston and Charles Bay.
• On one side of it, there's a beautiful dark grove.
• On the other side, there's a high ridge with a few scattered old and huge oaks.
• The stories said that here, Kidd the pirate buried his treasure because the trees and high ridge allowed it to be guarded. However, one day, the devil took the money and Kidd was sent to England to be hanged. Some say, the devil still lives here.
• It goes on to set the year, 1727. There was a forlorn-looking house that had an air of starvation in which two miserly (stingy, "macetas") fellows lived: Tom Walker and his wife.
• They would conspire to cheat each other, stealing and hoarding for themselves.
• The trees by the house were dead and the land was one of famine.
• Tom's wife was:
• a tall termagant (quarrelsome, scolding)
• fierce of temper
• loud of tongue
• strong of arm (would hit Tom, physical fights)
• No one would get near them, the house and its "inmates" (as if the house were a prison) had "a bad name."
• When single men went by (bachelors), they'd be happy they were single (celibacy).
• One day, Tom went through the swamp as a "shortcut," but it was dangerous.
• He would get startled once upon a while by a quack or another noise.
• There was black, smothering mud.
• He arrived at an area he knew: a peninsula of land that had been one of the Indians's strongholds during the war with the first colonists. Here, there was a fort the Indians had used to refuge their squaws and children. Nothing remained of the fort but a few embankments.
• Tom reached the fort late and paused. A lot of people wouldn't have lingered in that lonely, melancholy place that had scary stories of sacrifices made to the evil spirit, but he was untroubled.
• Tom found a skull with an Indian tomahawk (axe) buried in it when he was turning up the soil.
• The tomahawk was rusty, so it was old.
• Tom gave it a kick, when a gruff voice said "Let that skull alone!"
• Tom saw the devil sitting directly opposite of him in the stump of a tree, a great black man with a gruff voice who:
• was neither Negro nor Indian
• dressed in a rude half-Indian grab with a red belt (or sash) around his body
• had a face that was neither black nor copper-color, but swarthy, dingy, and begrimed with soot, as if he were around fires a lot
• had a shock of coarse, black hair that stood out from his head in all directions
• bore an ax on his shoulder
• had great red eyes
• He didn't hear the devil approach him, he just appeared there.
• The devil told Tom to get off his land, but Tom said they belonged to "Deacon Peabody."
• Deacon Peabody was a wealthy man who go this money by driving shrewd bargains with the Indians (usurer).
• The devil says "Deacon Peabody be damned," and that he can damn him if he does not look more to his own sins and less to those of his neighbors (saying he has the power to send people to hell).
• The devil pointed to a tree that said "Deacon Peabody" that was about to be hewn (cut with an axe).
• Tom looked around and saw that all the trees had names of colonists, so the devil kept the trees as people. If the tree was cut, it would be burned (and the person sent to hell).
• The stump on which he was had the name of Absalom Crowninshield, a wealthy man he knew whose tree had been cut down. The devil said he was "ready for burning"
• Tom questions his right to use the land, but the devil said the land was his before it was Deacon Peabody's (prior claim).
• The devil says he goes by various names in different countries:
• the wild huntsman
• the black miner
• he to whom the red men consecrated this spot (in Tom's neighborhood, the "red men" were Indians)
• Old Scratch (what Tom calls him)
• He says since the white men exterminated the red men (Indians), he led the oppressions against Quakers and Anabaptists, was "the great patron and prompter of slave dealers" and "the grand master of the Salem witches."
• An average person would've been scared, but after living with his wife so many years, Tom didn't even fear the devil.
• The devil talks to Tom on his way home about Kidd's money and proposes a deal of a lot of money to him in exchange for his soul (can be surmised).
• Tom asks him how can he know if what he says is true. The devil puts his finger on Tom's forehead and says that's "his signature." Tom can't erase the burnt finger mark with anything.
• He comes home and his wife tells him about the sudden death of Absalom Crowninshield, the man whose tree the devil cut down, who was a rich buccaneer.
• He tells his wife about the deal, and her avarice is awakened. She urges Tom to make the deal, as it would make them rich forever, but he says no just to contradict her.
• His wife would do the deal herself, heading out on a summer night.
• She came back after several hours. She said she met the man, but he refused to make a deal unless she brought a "special offering" (she didn't say what it was).
• She headed out to the swamp again the next morning, carrying a lot of valuable items (silver teapot and spoons) on her apron.
• She didn't show up, after 2 days Tom became uneasy (especially for the valuables).
• She was never heard of again, but there were many theories.
• Some people said she lost her way through the swamp and sank into a pit.
• Others said she got her valuables and went to another province.
• Others said she was led to a quagmire (pit) by the tempter (devil), and that her hat was found of a quagmire.
• A black man with an ax on his shoulder was seen late that evening with a bundle tied in a check apron and a triumphant air.
• The most current story was that Tom went to look for his wife and property at the fort, screaming her name but only the bittern (birds) responded. He saw carrion crows (who feed on decaying flesh of dead) above a cypress tree, eating something that was hanging from a tree in an apron, as a vulture watched it.
• He thought the apron had his stuff, so he went to get it, but there was only a heart and a liver inside it (all that's left of his wife).
• Around the tree, he saw handfuls of the devil's hair, so he knew killing his wife must have been hard for him. He just said "Egad. Old Scratch must have had a touch time of it!"
• Tom consoled himself for the loss of his property (made him sad) with the loss of his wife (made him happy). He was grateful at the devil (old blacklegs) and eager to meet him again, but he wouldn't show (he picked his moments).
• The devil waited for Tom's eagerness to build up so he would agree to anything and met him again. The devil would give Tom the pirate's treasure in exchange for something. The money had to be use for the devil's work.
• The condition of his soul was not even mentioned, but obvious.
• First, the devil offered the money to be put towards a slave ship so Tom would become a slave trader. Tom said no!
• After this, the devil offered Tom to be a usurer. Tom was ok with this. The devil said he should charge 2% a month, but Tom insisted in charging 4% per month.
• He had to extort bonds, foreclose mortgages, and drive merchants to bankruptcy.
• He would get the money ("rhino") that same night.
• The narrator called the devil 'blacklegs.'
• Tom quickly got a reputation of a rich man who lent money. This was during the time of Governor Belcher, in which the economy was quite bad.
• Before this, there was a "bubble" because of:
• the government bills
• the Land Bank, which was outlawed and led many to lose money
• speculation of schemes for new settlements and building cities in the wilderness
• land jobbers (who sold and bought land for profit)
• After this, there were hard times, so he set up as a usurer in Boston.
• Some of his customers were:
• the needy and adventurous
• the gambling speculator
• the dreaming land-jobber
• the thriftless tradesman
• the merchant with cracked credit
• He made money by squeezing his customers' wallets, portraying himself as a "friend of the needy" but acting like a "friend in need."
• He was successful in the Stock Exchange.
• He built a house that looked impressive from the outside, but was unfinished and unfurnished on the inside, out of parsimony.
• Had a carriage, but nearly starved the horses that drew it, and the ungreased wheels screeched (like the sound of the souls of his debtors being squeezed).
• As Tom grew old, he became thoughtful. He had all the good things in this world, so he wanted to have the good ones in the next too.
• He became a violent churchgoer.
• Regretted his deal with the devil.
• He prayed loudly. When he sinned more in the week, he prayed even louder.
• He censured his neighbors when they sinned.
• Talked of reviving persecution of Quakers and Anabaptists.
• He always kept a small Bible in his coat pocket, and a great folio Bible in his countinghouse desk.
• When people came to the business, he marked the page he was one with his green spectacles (glasses).
• Tom had his horse shod, saddles, and bridled when he felt his final days were coming (to run from the devil).
• One hot summer afternoon, during a thunderstorm, a poor land-jobber and friend begged Tom for a few months indulgence. He said Tom had made a lot of money off him, but Tom didn't give him one more day. He said: "The devil take me, if I have made a farthing! (1/4 penny)".
• There were three knocks at the door, and the devil, with his black horse, was at the other side.
• Tom stepped back, but his Bibles were on his desk and at the bottom of his coat pocket.
• The devil said: "Tom, you're come for." and whisked him like a child into a saddle.
• "Never was a sinner taken more unaware." Tom was dressed in his India silk morning gown and a white linen cap.
• The horse struck fire out of the pavement at every bound.
• The people on the street saw, but there were so many witch and devil stories in Boston that they weren't as scared as it might've been expected.
• A man who lived near the swamp said he heard hooves and howling, and saw the man outside his window, galloping, at the peak of the thunderstorm.
• Trustees were appointed to manage Tom's assets, but there was nothing left.
• His bonds and mortgages were reduced to cinders (ashes).
• Instead of gold and silver, his iron chest was filled with chips and shavings (of wood).
• In his stable, there were 2 skeletons instead of his starving horses.
• The next day, his house took fire and burnt to the ground.
• Legend says the hole under the oak tree where he dug Kidd's money is still seen, and in stormy nights a figure on horseback with a morning gown and white cap (Tom's outfit) haunts the swamp.
• The story is now a proverb in New England, of "The Devil and Tom Walker."

Themes

• Greed and avarice can take you to the devil.
• Be careful with your choices.
• Greed is one of the worst sins (the worst of the 7 Deadly Sins).
• Money can break families and cause people to turn evil (money is the root of all evil).

Si saben más themes los pueden comment. No estoy super seguro de estos, son los que estaban en mis notes.