Washington Irving: "The Devil and Tom Walker" - Discuss

Question 1

note

Answer 1

• element 3: a ghostly legend, an unexplained occurrence, or a story about a horrible death or murder
• element 4: omens, foreshadowing, and dreams play a role in the mysterious air of the story
• element 7: damsels in distress are frequent
• element 8: words designed to evoke images of gloom and doom
• element 9: the death of a man or woman in the throes of some great passion, the obsessive nature of a man or woman in love, or excessive grief one feels upon the loss of a loved one

Question 2

which of the elements of gothic fiction does the following passage from the Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” contain
from paragraph 31: the next evening she set off again from the swamp, with her apron heavily laden. tom waited and waited for her, but in vain; midnight came, but she did not make her appearance; morning, noon, night returned, but still she did not come. Tom now grew uneasy for her safety

Answer 2

element 7 - damsels in distress

Question 3

which of the elements of gothic fiction does the following passage from the Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” contain
from paragraph 4: it was full of pits and quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses, where the green surface often betrayed the traveler into a gulf of black, smothering mud;

Answer 3

element 8 - words designed to evoke images of gloom and doom

Question 4

which of the elements of gothic fiction does the following passage from the Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” contain
from paragraph 4: …there were also dark and stagnant pools, the abodes of the tadpole, the bull-frog, and the water-snake, where the trunks of pines and hemlocks lay half-drowned, half-rotting…

Answer 4

element 8 - words designed to evoke images of gloom and doom

Question 5

which of the elements of gothic fiction does the following passage from the Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” contain
from paragraph 6: any one but he would have felt unwilling to linger in this melancholy place, for the common people had a bad opinion of it, from the stories handed down…when it was asserted that the savages held incantations here and made sacrifices to the Evil Spirit

Answer 5

element 3 - a ghostly legend, an unexplainable occurrence, or a story about a horrible death or murder

Question 6

which of the elements of gothic fiction does the following passage from the Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker” contain
from paragraph 33: …his attention was attracted by the clamor of carrion crows, hovering about a cypress-tree. he looked up and beheld a bundle tied in a check apron and hanging in the branches of the tree, with a great vulture perched hard by, as if keeping watch upon it

Answer 6

element 4 - omens, foreshadowing, and dreams

Question 7

answers

Answer 7

• paragraph 7: he reposed himself… (element 3 - a ghostly legend, an unexplainable occurrence)