The Devil And Tom Walker

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1824

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Tom Walker

Irving doesn’t reveal what Tom’s occupation is at the beginning of “The Devil and Tom Walker,” only that he is a “meagre, miserly fellow” who lives a few miles from Boston with his equally miserly wife. Tom is frequently at odds with his wife, and the couple fight constantly; the husband is often the victim of his wife’s physical abuse, as “his face sometimes showed signs that their conflicts were not confined to words” (221). Tom shows a measure of fearlessness and independence in taking the shortcut through the swamp despite the superstitions surrounding it. He also has a measure of self-awareness and recognizes the devil’s identity fairly quickly: “The upshot of all which is, that, if I mistake not,” said Tom, sturdily, “you are he commonly called Old Scratch.” (224)

Thus, Tom enters the deal with Old Scratch in full awareness of what he is doing. The narrator mentions that “Tom was a hard-minded fellow, not easily daunted, and he had lived so long with a termagant wife, that he did not eve fear the devil” (224). Tom’s pact with Old Scratch has been well prepared by many years of miserliness and domestic strife.

The desire for monetary gain motivates Tom almost entirely; his seeming generosity as a money lender—others consider him a “universal friend of the needy” (229)—is in fact another form of greed, since he charges high interest rates. Tom is heartless and nearly devoid of feeling, as seen in his reaction to his wife’s demise and to the land speculator’s financial woes when he comes to Tom for help. The only exception to his heartless attitude is his refusal to join the slave trade and his decision to share his experiences with his wife, both of which show some trace of conscience and normal feeling.

For the most part, Tom is characterized by a heedless, self-assured confidence. Because of his pact with the devil, Tom believes he can overpower and outwit the demon. The main reason that he begins to act as a devoutly religious man toward the end of his life is that he hopes to trick the devil in his own bargain and escape condemnation in Hell. That Tom boldly talks back to Old Scratch (“Your grounds!” said Tom, with a sneer [223]) illustrates that he has no fear of him. This attitude contributes to Tom’s downfall: Irving implies that not to take the devil seriously as a threat is to risk falling under his power.

Old Scratch

Irving uses a traditional nickname for the devil, attested in America from the mid-18th century and possibly deriving from a Middle English word for “goblin.” The devil appears in Irving’s story as a woodsman with an axe on his shoulder and face blackened with soot, “as if he had been accustomed to toil among fires and forges” (223). (Irving stresses that the character’s alternate nickname, “the black man,” refers not to his race—"the stranger was neither Negro nor Indian” (223)—but rather to this begrimed appearance.) In addition to the black soot on his face, Old Scratch has a shock of coarse black hair that stands out from his head in all directions. He speaks in a “hoarse, growling voice” (223) and, by way of exit, disappears into the mud of the swamp, here symbolizing Hell.

Irving’s depiction of the devil as a rough-hewn working man differs from other portrayals, some of which make him a polished gentleman (e.g., Stephen Vincent Benet’s story The Devil and Daniel Webster, partly inspired by Irving’s tale). Another original touch is that Irving’s devil is visible to people in general; other villagers see him coming out of the swamp after Tom’s wife’s demise, for example, and at the end of the story the citizens of Boston see him riding with Tom out to the swamp. Old Scratch alludes to the various guises he takes on in different places and societies—"I am the wild huntsman in some countries; the black miner in others” (224)—as well as presiding over evil on a mass scale in the form of slave dealing, witch hunting, and religious persecution.

“Gruff” and “growl” are among the words applied to Old Scratch in the story. With Tom, he displays a sinister jollity often associated with the devil in folklore; yet when by himself he “saunters along” and hums a tune (228), affecting “great indifference” with Tom to make him agree to the terms. Old Scratch insists that the money he gives Tom should be employed in his service—i.e., in evil practices like slavery or usury. This will in turn allow Tom to grow rich from doing evil. Thus, Old Scratch hopes to recruit new souls to his cause and in doing so drag more souls down to Hell.

Tom’s Wife

Tom’s wife is a less important character than Tom and Old Scratch, as seen from the fact that Irving never states her name. In many ways, she is a grotesque symbol of marital discord and moral nastiness rather than a fully rounded character. Irving, who was himself a lifelong bachelor, often portrays marriages that are dysfunctional and full of strife, and “The Devil and Tom Walker” presents a good example.

The story describes Tom’s wife as a “termagant,” which is defined as “a violent, turbulent, brawling woman” (Webster’s). She is further termed “fierce of temper, loud of tongue, and strong of arm” (221). In fact, passers-by can hear the couple’s brawls from outside their house. Tom’s wife is secretive and greedy, hoarding things without her husband’s knowledge. The poisonous relationship between Tom and his wife lays the groundwork for the evil that will come into full flowering when Tom meets Old Scratch. In fact, Tom’s wife seemingly instigates the main action by going out to meet Old Scratch after her husband had hesitated to do so. Tom’s wife’s fate turns out to be her husband’s as well, as the devil destroys him too. The story emphasizes the humorous and grotesque aspects of the character when Tom remarks that her “prowess” was altogether a good match for that of the devil. Tom views the remains of the woman’s gruesome demise without any feeling of pity; this emphasizes the moral insensitivity and indifference of her husband who now cares only about money.