The major theme of this story by Washington Irving is greed. Other themes include storytelling, usury, religion and hypocrisy. Set in early eighteenth century America, a miserly, poverty-stricken man (Tom Webster) meets “Old Scratch” (the Devil) as he takes a short-cut home through a swamp. Tom initially declines an offer of riches for his soul, but later agrees after the Devil unknowingly does him a favor by disposing of his shrew-like wife. Upon becoming extremely wealthy by making and foreclosing on usurious loans, he tries to change his fate through “violent” religious piety. It doesn’t work!
The story can be interpreted as an allegory of the times. The great speculating fever which breaks out every now and then in the country had raged to an alarming degree, and everybody was dreaming of making sudden fortunes from nothing. … The needy and the adventurous; the gambling speculator; the dreaming land jobber; the thriftless tradesman; the merchant with cracked credit; in short, every one driven to raise money by desperate means and desperate sacrifices, hurried to Tom Walker. The borrowers sold their soul to Tom in the same way he sold his soul to the Devil. In the same way that Tom foreclosed on his customers, the Devil foreclosed on him.
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