Main Plot
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Setting and Mood
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Setting and Mood
This is the setting of the story.
What is Boston, Massachusetts?
widely existing or occurring
What is prevalent?
This character is INDIRECTLY described as begrimed with soot and has red eyes.
Who is the devil?
This is the part of the deal that "need not be mentioned".
What is sell his soul to the devil?
Greed leads to misery and don't take shortcuts are examples of this.
What is the theme?
Who is Kidd the Pirate?
lack of harmony, conflict
What is discord?
"He's just ready for burning!" is this type of characterization.
What is indirect characterization?
Her heart and liver end up in a tree wrapped in her apron.
Who is Tom's wife?
When Tom said "let the devil take me if I've made a farthing" and then the devil knocks on the door to take him, this is demonstrated.
What is irony?
This is an example of a Gothic dark setting. It sets the tone and mood for the story.
What is the forest where Tom meets the devil?
Tom did this to steal money for his usurer business.
What is extort?
Tom never changes from the beginning of the story to the end of the story, he's stingy at the beginning and stingy at the end, making him this kind of character.
What is flat, static, or one-dimensional?
This is what happened to all of Tom's money, his house, and his horses.
What is burned or turned to cinders?
Who is God?
Tom, Mrs. Walker, The Devil
Who are the main characters?
Examples of this Gothic element are the skull with a tomahawk through it and Tom's wife's liver and heart tied in her apron in a tree.
What is grotesqueness?
These names were carved on the trees that had already been cut down in the forest.
Who are the other people that made the deal with the devil?
This was burned into Tom's head to indicate that the being he was talking to was the devil.
What is the devil's thumbprint?
By carrying a Bible in his pocket, praying loudly, and accusing his neighbors of sinning, Tom was trying to do this.
What is save himself from going to hell or get out of the deal with the devil?
This was so awful that even Tom Walker wouldn't do it to get the devil's money, and he is the greediest of them all. This reflects the beliefs of most transcendentalists and Washington Irving.
What is be a slave trader?
Tom decorated the outside of his house fancy with a boastful display of wealth, but the inside not being furnished at all demonstrated this.
What is parsimony?
Washington Irving has sympathy with this special interest group, demonstrated by characterizing Tom as being resolutely against slave trading.
Who are the abolitionists?
When Tom buried his horse upside-down, thinking that the day the devil came to take him, he'd be able to ride away faster, the town said he was this.
What is crackbrained?
We can infer the position of women in Washington Irving's time by this little bit of information.
Why doesn't Tom's wife have a name?