The Devil And Tom Walker Satire

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“The Devil and Tom Walker” Essay In “The Devil and Tom Walker”, Washington Irving uses humor as a weapon to criticize elements of society. The different aspects of society that are being criticized in this story includes; organized religion and religious types, the “white establishment” or those in charge and respected and lastly, the institution of marriage. Irving used satire to contempt this European tale in the mid 1800’s. One aspect of society that Irving criticizes is organized religion and religious types. First, Irving uses Deacon Peabody as a character to represent irony. Deacon Peabody is a minister just below the priest in a Catholic church, yet, he still sold his soul to the devil. The devil uncovered how Deacon Peabody made bargains with the Indians. “On the bark of the tree was scored the name of Deacon Peabody, an eminent man, who had waxed wealthy by driving shrewd bargains with the …show more content…
Irving makes humor of how marriage is like between Walker and his wife. They are constantly arguing with each other and they never get along. They even would cheat with each other. If his wife had something worth of value, or even him, they would keep it to themselves. One point in the story where Irving really showed how much Walker loved his wife is when she left into the woods and never returned. When he did worry about his wife being gone for that long, he thought more of the valuables she took with her more than her own safety. “He leaped with joy; for he recognized his wife’s apron , and supposed it to contain the household valuables (25).” Instead of wondering why his wife’s apron is in the tree with her nowhere found, he automatically thinks of the household valuables. Another example is when Tom didn’t want to sell his soul because his wife wanted him to. “However Tom might have felt disposed to sell himself to the Devil, he was determined not to do so to oblige his wife; so he flatly refused
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