In his story "The Devil and Tom Walker" Washington Irving revels in both America and its history and in the world of the supernatural. Both of these themes are frequently found in Irving's stories and this is no exception. The story is set in colonial America near Boston and contains much in the way of local American color. For example, the devil speaks in local American vernacular and refers to himself as "the prompter of...
In his story "The Devil and Tom Walker" Washington Irving revels in both America and its history and in the world of the supernatural. Both of these themes are frequently found in Irving's stories and this is no exception. The story is set in colonial America near Boston and contains much in the way of local American color. For example, the devil speaks in local American vernacular and refers to himself as "the prompter of slave dealers, and the grand master of the Salem witches." This gives Irving's story--an adaptation of the German legend of Faust--a distinctively American character and feeling. Along with this distinctly American setting and language "The Devil and Tom Walker" has many themes related to the supernatural. In particular, the story makes frequent reference to the devil who is regularly encountered by Tom and his wife. Irving weaves these supernatural encounters in with matter of fact historical narration as if they were established matters of fact. In fact, the narrator claims that:
The truth of it is not to be doubted. The very hole under the oak trees whence he dug Kidd’s money is to be seen to this day; and the neighboring swamp and old Indian fort are often haunted in stormy nights by a figure on horseback, in morning gown and white cap, which is doubtless the troubled spirit of the usurer.
Ultimately, this mixture of supernatural and fact gives Irving's story the air of the kind of story you might hear told on a porch or around a campfire on a dark and stormy night.
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