Entry 22: The Devil and Tom Walker

What characteristics of this story make it an example of American Romanticism? What sort of genre would you classify it in? How do you think a contemporary author might handle the same plot? How would the story (or its details) be the same? How would they be different? How would a modern treatment affect the tone? Do you think the ending would be different? Explain.

•  The characteristics that make the story "The Devil and Tom Walker" an example of Dark Romanticism literature include the dark atmosphere induced by the setting, the sinister acts an interactions of Tm, Tom's wife, and the devil, and the descriptive details of sinister and mean acts. I believe that a contemporary author would write it in a way that would be more optimistic. For example, the ending might be that Tom and his wife successfully tricked the devil and got the money, and finally, that they lived happily ever after. It would still be the same in the sense that there is the deal between Tom and the Devil, and all the conflicts between Tom ad his wife. The ending and the resolution would be different from the original story in the sense that it is more optimistic. The wife would not have died, and the both the wife and Tom would be happy, in a sense, money and wealth provide them the sense of happiness. If a modern tone is applied to the story, it would be said in a different point of view. For example, it may be more narrative, and I believe that there would be more direct influences instead of inferences.