Can you imagine yourself locked in a room without doors? Similar to a room without doors, there is no way out of hell if it were one's destiny. In the story "The Devil and Tom Walker" by Washington Irving, the fate of the main character is hell due to his bad decisions in life, accepting a deal with the devil for earthly benefits. Irving reinforces his message about not making decisions that could damn your soul with the use of literary elements and figurative language. Wisely, Irving combines characterization, mood, and point of view to perpetuate the theme of the story in the reader's mind. The author continually characterizes Tom in a way that makes readers laugh at him and not want to follow the example of his peers. For example, after Tom's wife takes all their valuables and tries to make a deal with the devil since Tom won't do it himself, Tom goes looking for her. The reader sees that he does not actually care so much about her as about the valuables: "He leapt for joy; for he recognized his wife's apron, and supposed it contained the valuables of the house" (263). This shows that he is really greedy and ruthless; no one wants to follow someone portrayed that way. Furthermore, Tom had evidence that his wife was fighting with the devil when she tried to make that deal. The passage that provides his reaction has a satirical tone: "He shrugged and looked at the marks of a ferocious clapper's claw." Hey,” he said to himself, “The old scratch must have had a hard time if so! “ Tom consoled himself for the loss of his estate, with the loss of his wife” (264). Contrasting words like ferocious and brave, which are serious words, with words like clapper claws, egad and old scratch, Irving points out… in the center of the paper… was the harshness of his terms. He accumulated bonds and mortgages; he gradually brought his clients closer and closer; and he sent them to the end, dry as a sponge from his door" ( ). The local problem is a springboard for presenting the universal; one, which is the object of greed, science all are tempted by greed. Furthermore , the narrator remains in an omniscient point of view to let readers know what others think of Tom: “Her voice was often heard during a verbal war with her husband; and his face sometimes showed signs that their conflicts were not limited to words. However, no one dared to interfere with each other; the solitary traveler shrank within himself at the hideous clamor and the beating of the clapper; he looked askance at the den of discord, and hastened on his way, rejoicing, if he were a bachelor, in his celibacy. After reading this passage, readers form a bad impression of Tom.