A Comparison between the Devil and Tom Walker, and Macbeth Essays

A Comparison between the Devil and Tom Walker, and Macbeth Essays A Comparison between the Devil and Tom Walker, and Macbeth Paper A Comparison between the Devil and Tom Walker, and Macbeth Paper Comparison Essay As the reader or audience members read the book, â€Å"The Devil Tom Walker† and the play Macbeth , you tend to visualize the comparison between the two authors. The most common theme used by both Shakespeare and Irving is greed. In which Greed is the intense and selfish desire for something, such as wealth, food, power or excessively or inordinate desire for wealth, and profit. Throughout the book â€Å"The Devil Tom Walker† and in the play Macbeth you can see the theme of greed in which was the themes that both Irving and Shakespeare betrayed in their text. An example or display of greed was shown in the play Macbeth, William Shakespeare introduced the reader to this in act four, â€Å"And my more having would be as a sauce to make me hunger more: that I should forge Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal, destroying them for wealth†(Shakespeare 158). This piece of textual evidence from the play Macbeth was used to emphasize the theme of greed in the play, by basically stating that greed feeds on itself while in the process of achieving a certain desire. Malcolm is stating that he would become evil, and destroy the good and loyal to achieve success or wealth in life. Irving just like Shakespeare also used greed as a theme in his book entitled â€Å"The Devil Tom Walker. † Washington Irving presented the audience with the greedy character named Tom Walker, who showed signs of greed. The novel author states, â€Å"he had also a great folio bible on his counting house desk, and would frequently be found reading it when people came on business;occasions he would lay his green spectacles on the book, to mark the place, while he turned round to drive some usurious bargain† (Washington 5). Tom was a very greedy individual because he would read a bible and then in the process he would lay his green glasses down on the bible, so he could make a deal with a client. Tom Walker would close deals with the bible in his coat pocket. Also the green glasses used by Irving Washington symbolize the proper definition of the word greed, because green resembles money. He is trying to read the bible to find a loop hole in it so he can make a good bargain and that would allow him to make money, Tom would do just about anything to have the wealth of money. Even if that meant that he would have to be more evil or greedier than the Old Scratch. The theme greedy was very important to both authors Irving and Shakespeare, because it was used as a type of moral or theme throughout both the play and novel to portray the essential signs of greediness. As both authors demonstrate this, they also show how greed is an ongoing process that can’t be stopped, because it’s an uncontrollable desire for a particular want or need in life. In fact both authors defined the word greed very well in their pieces of work, by describing greed as a desire or want that an individual would forfeit all the good things in his or her life to commit to evil doings which in a sense is the process of being greedy.