The Devil And Tom Walker

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1824

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Themes

Greed Leads to Moral Ruin

Greed is the motivating force behind the characters in “The Devil and Tom Walker,” including arguably Old Scratch himself, who desires to gather new souls for Hell. Throughout the story, Irving makes explicit the fact that it is Tom’s greed that destroys him, and the idea that greed is a moral evil. He achieves this particularly through his use of language that implies a link between greed and a bad life. When the Walkers first appear, the word “miserly” is used three times in quick succession (220), complemented by such terms as “prying,” “lay hands on,” “hid away,” “starvation,” “miserable,” and “avarice.” Later, Tom must seriously think about whether he would sell his soul to get money (225). His wife has no qualms at all; she wants above all to be “wealthy for life” (225). Particularly damning is the fact that Old Scratch considers usurers, who are motivated by greed, to be “his peculiar people” (228).

The motivating factor of greed may extend even to the ruined speculator who comes to Tom for help at the end of the story. His financial ruin, caused by his greed for land and money, prefigures Tom’s moral ruin. Tom, however, is too morally blind to see this, and his fate takes the logical course laid out by his actions.

Through the pervasiveness of greed in the lives of these characters, Irving suggests that the vice is a particular danger to citizens of the young American Republic. “The Devil and Tom Walker” thus serves a cautionary purpose, clothed in a moralistic and religious framework that would appeal to many Americans of the day.

A Bad Home Life Has Evil Consequences

The story portrays Tom’s evil tendencies as growing out of his broken home life, where the inherent marital discord frequently turns noisy and violent (221). The Walkers’s home is the “school” in which they become habituated to an evil life. In this way, Tom’s downfall at the hands of Old Scratch is made all the easier. After first meeting Old Scratch, he hesitates to share this with his wife as he “was not prone to let his wife into his confidence” (225); thus, the Walkers have a loveless marriage, behaving as strangers to each other. However, Tom does finally share the news because he feels it to be “an uneasy secret” (225). Along with his reluctance to join the slave trade, this is a place in which Irving gives Tom some believable human qualities. This action turns out to be a mistake, however: Tom’s wife takes the deal with Old Scratch to the next level, sealing her own fate as well as that of her husband.

The Walkers’s marriage thus illustrates a corruption of the ideal cherished by Puritans and other Christian believers: Instead of the ideal helping each other “Zionward” (to heaven), the Walkers literally help secure each other’s damnation.

America Has a Flawed Past

Irving presents a strong undercurrent of social criticism in the story relating to American history and its morally compromising episodes: slavery, the unjust treatment of the Indians, and persecution of religious minorities by the Puritans. The devil speaks of himself as presiding over these activities, thus branding them as unequivocally evil. Irving implies that the colonists that participated in these practices did a deal with the devil to satisfy their own material desires. As well, these episodes would ideally make Irving’s contemporaries ponder moral flaws that may have persisted in their own time—for example, hasty land speculation in the west, which was still an issue following the Land Act of 1820.

At the same time, Irving presents episodes from the American past as having redeeming value, teaching moral lessons to readers of his generation. He exploits American places, characters, and historical events for their mythic associations; for example, the swamp and Indian fort, Boston, William Kidd, and the Crowninshield clan. (See also Literary Devices.)

The Pervasiveness of Moral Hypocrisy

The story implies a negative evaluation of the New England Puritans, their belief system and practices. The Puritans’ moral hypocrisy and blindness are shown in the fact that they consider Absalom Crowninshield, a pirate, to be a “great man” (225), and from the fact that Deacon Peabody, although himself morally compromised in his dealings with the Indians, is overly preoccupied with finding fault in others. In fact, in the “rotting trees” scene, many of the leading citizens of Boston have been condemned by the devil (233). A specifically religious hypocrisy is evident in Tom’s behavior after becoming a usurer. Now a “violent church-goer” (230), he uses his religion purely for show. His co-religionists in turn are “struck with self-reproach at seeing themselves suddenly outstripped in their career by this new-made convert” (230). Irving’s portrayal critiques the Puritan system as insincere and corrupt. Irving, however, does not make this critique from an irreligious perspective. Rather, the story presupposes a Judeo-Christian framework of moral values, in which evil (inspired by the devil) is met with retribution.