After Tom returns home from his meeting with Old Scratch, he tells his wife about the devil's proposition, and she immediately argues that he should accept the offer. However, Tom flatly refuses to accept the devil's offer simply to contradict his wife and make her upset. Tom's wife then takes it upon herself to make a deal with the devil but is unable to come to an agreement. After taking her valuable possessions to meet with the devil a second time, Tom's wife mysteriously disappears. The only remnants of his wife that Tom finds is her heart and liver wrapped in her handkerchief, which implies that Old Scratch killed her. While Tom searches for his wife, he finds many hoofprints deeply stamped into the ground, as well as handfuls of dark hair, which look like they were plucked from the black woodsman. Tom is familiar with his wife's termagant nature and says, "Old Scratch must have had a tough time of it!" (Irving 3). The hoofprints indicate that Old Scratch must have fought with Tom's wife, and the handfuls of black hair reveal that Tom's wife was a tough fighter.
In "The Devil and Tom Walker," Tom thinks that the Devil must have had a tough time with his wife based on his observations of the Indian fort when he goes to look for her. Tom finds a number of cloven hoof prints, which belong to the Devil, for example, as well as clumps of black hair strewn around the site.
For Tom, these findings suggest that his wife gave as good as she got. She fought back against the Devil and experienced some success, given that she was able to rip out his hair and chase him around.
It is the Devil, however, who was ultimately victorious. All that remains of Tom's wife is her apron, which contains her heart and liver. Tom never finds out what really happened to his wife, but is certain that, no matter what, she gave the Devil a good fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment