Washington Irving

Both of Washington Irving's short stories, "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Devil and Tom Walker" are examples of Romantic writing. Romanticism is not just defined as a piece of literature with romance and realism, but with an individual at the "center of life" with high regard for "individual thought and response" and includes a sympathetic view on the "past, primitivism, sensibility, nature, mysticism, and the grotesque" (Werlock). "Rip Van Winkle" has a protagonist who lives a charitable life, aiding others and helping out whenever he can, except at home (Irving, "Rip"). He sets a bad example for his two children because he does not do as his wife says and his farm and home are faltering. A "sympathetic" view of the past and mysticism are exemplified in this short story when Rip Van Winkle falls asleep after drinking from a keg of liquor and wakes up twenty years later (Irving, "Rip" paragraph 25). Rip Van Winkle slept through the Revolution in America! When he went up to the highest peak in the Catskill Mountain, "his majesty", George the third, was king and ruler of the colonies in America (Irving, "Rip" paragraph 13 line 6). When Rip woke up and went back into town, he saw a poster of General George Washington in the place of King George III (Irving, "Rip" paragraph 33). That time period of American history was very important and changed many things in everyday life, as Rip Van Winkle experienced by the barrage of questions that the townsfolk asked of him when he ventured down from the mountains (Irving, "Rip" paragraph 35). The mysticism of the short story is how Rip Van Winkle slept for twenty years because he drank some sort of mysterious liquid that was given to him by a stranger who knew him by name (Irving, "Rip" paragraph 19).

"The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving is another example of a Romanticism piece of literature, but for different reasons than "Rip Van Winkle". "The Devil and Tom Walker" centers around a man who is not very "romantic" with his wife and shows a lot of individual thought and responses for the situations that he is put in. There is a "sympathetic" view of human nature in this short story. Tom Walker made a deal with the devil that he will give his services if the devil gives him riches (Irving, "Devil" 247). But Tom has enough of a moral compass and ethics to say no to running a slave ship. While being an usurer is still bad and hurts people, the job still comes with less guilt and self remorse and regret then being a slave trader. Tom could not bring himself to do that which shows that he has a set of morals and sticks to it, no matter how much riches he could have earned (Irving, "Devil" 247). Until one poor land jobber finally broke Tom's resolve when he was an old man, Tom lived out his life with the constant struggle of trying to make himself feel better about cheating people out of their money, when they do not have any to spare. When that poor land jobber begged for an extension, Tom cried out "The devil take me if I have made a farthing" (Irving, "Devil" 249). As Tom has made a lot of money from the man, the devil came and took his life. The character of Tom Walker showed Washington Irving's view of human nature when it came to how far a man would go for riches. "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Devil and Tom Walker" are both Romanticism pieces, but are told with different characteristics of a Romantic story.



Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle." Bartleby.com. Web. 06 Dec. 2011.

Irving, Washington. "The Devil and Tom Walker." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 240-250. Print.

Werlock, Abby H. P. "Romanticism." The Facts On File Companion to the American Short Story, Second Edition. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2009. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 06 Dec. 2011.