A Literary Analysis of the Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet Essay

The Devil and Daniel Webster, by Stephen Vincent Benet is truly an exemplary short story which instills upon the reader the very difficult struggle between good and evil, heaven and hell. The purpose for writing this piece was to convey the message that, at times, it is necessary to gamble everything one has in order to improve his or her life and that of their families. Benet manages to convey this message in the story through his many uses of literary techniques such as foreshadowing and characterization. He also uses the element of plot to develop the climax and turning point of the story.The characters in this story each play a significant role in developing the story as a whole. As stated by David Peck, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" has a wide array of characters, each with a distinguished personality, yet an overall temperament that would be fitting of a New England community. The main character is Jabez Stone, a poor washed up farmer recently turned into senator of New Hampshire. He had started out as a farmer, but moved up in life and, when he was about thirty years old, he married a woman by the name of Mary Stone. The fiddler, who, for the most part was not that important in this story, was a key character in that he provided foreshadowing. When he said, "But the very devil's got into that fiddle of mine," he was foreshadowing the coming of the devil to disturb the good times . A very key character in this story is the devil himself, which took the name of Scratch (that was what he was called in New England communities). He had come to steal the soul of Jabez Stone, claiming that he had a right to Jabez because of a legal contract. Last but most certainly not least in this story is the great Governor of New Hampshire, Daniel Webster. Daniel Webster was not only...

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