Washington Irving

I would just like to say right off the bat that in both "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Devil and Tom Walker" the main character has an awful wife. That just seems a bit curious to me. Possibly this could relate to his real life? Hmm... Anyways the main character of " The Devil and Tom Walker" is of course Tom Walker. Some other important characters are the devil and Tom Walker's wife. Tom Walker does show the characteristics of romanticism. He uses his feelings over his intuition. I mean obviously it is not a smart idea to sell your soul to the devil but Tom did it anyways. But, Tom wanted to be rich so bad and wanted to stop struggling so he thought that it was a smart idea to become rich to help himself out. He was just thinking of his own feelings and wasn't really thinking of the smart thing to do. "There was one condition which need not be mentioned, being generally understood in all cases where the devil grants favours; but there were others about which, though of less importance, he was inflexibly obstinate. He insisted that the money found through his means should be employed in his service." (Irving) This is discussing the devil's bargain with Tom and it sounds a little sketchy to me. I would use my reasoning and think that, that was a bad idea. Both stories, Rip Van Winkle and The Devil and Tom Walker are very descriptive. They describe many things but mostly nature. The romanticism period is known for being descriptive and discussing nature. "In fact, he declared it was of no use to work on his farm; it was the most pestilent little piece of ground in the whole country; everything about it went wrong, and would go wrong, in spite of him. His fences were continually falling to pieces; his cow would either go astray or get among the cabbages; weeds were sure to grow quicker in his fields than anywhere else; the rain always made a point of setting in just as he had some outdoor work to do; so that though his patrimonial estate had dwindled away under his management, acre by acre, until there was little more left than a mere patch of Indian corn and potatoes, yet it was the worst-conditioned farm in the neighborhood." (Irving) This is an extremely descriptive paragraph about nature. It is a big part of the romanticism period.

Lombardi, Esther. "'The Devil and Tom Walker' Short Story." Books & Literature Classics. About.com. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. .

Matthews, Washington Irving. "4. Rip Van Winkle By Washington Irving. Matthews, Brander. 1907. The Short-Story." Bartleby.com: Great Books Online -- Quotes, Poems, Novels, Classics and Hundreds More. Bartleby. Web. 05 Dec. 2011. .