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Setting
Situational Irony
Explanation and Analysis—The Household Silver :
Tom grows anxious as his wife fails to return from her visit with Old Scratch, though, as Irving reveals with great irony, the real object of Tom’s concern is the household silver that she took with her.
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, especially as he found she had carried off in her apron the silver tea-pot and spoons, and every portable article of value.
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Explanation and Analysis—Tom's Bible :
Irving employs some pointed irony for the final scene of the story, in which Tom is carried away by Old Scratch despite his vain attempts to protect himself.
Unlock with LitCharts A+"Tom, you're come for," said the black fellow, gruffly. Tom shrank back, but too late. He had left his little Bible at the bottom of his coat-pocket and his big Bible on the desk buried under the mortgage he was about to foreclose: never was sinner taken more unawares. The black man whisked him like a child into the saddle, gave the horse the lash, and away he galloped, with Tom on his back, in the midst of the thunder-storm.
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Explanation and Analysis—Friend to the Needy :
Irving employs situational irony when exposing the gulf between Tom’s attempts to pass himself off as a kind benefactor, and his truly selfish, unsympathetic nature.
Unlock with LitCharts A+Thus Tom was the universal friend to the needy, and acted like "a friend in need"; that is to say, he always exacted good pay and security. In proportion to the distress of the applicant was the hardness of his terms. He accumulated bonds and mortgages, gradually squeezed his customers closer and closer, and sent them at length, dry as a sponge, from his door.
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