Genre
Folk tale/modern fable/fantasy
Setting and Context
Cross Corners, New Hampshire some unspecified time in the early 1800’s.
Narrator and Point of View
The narration is actually a complex amalgam of first-person, second-person and third-person perspective. At times, the narrator self-references himself as “I” while in some sections he directly addresses the reader as “you.” The bulk of the story is written in standard third-person perspective.
Tone and Mood
The tone is conversational. The mood is profoundly and unabashedly patriotic.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Protagonist: Daniel Webster. Antagonist: Mr. Scratch, aka the Devil
Major Conflict
The conflict at the heart of the story is Jabez Stone, a local farmer, having entered into an agreement to enjoy several years of good fortune in exchange for Mr. Scratch owning his soul for eternity. Jabez has decided to renege on the contract and seeks the assistance of Daniel Webster in winning his case.
Climax
The story reaches its climax with the jury decided in favor of Jabez Stone.
Foreshadowing
Webster’s eventual court victory over the devil is foreshadowed in the opening paragraphs which tell his life story in retrospect from a point in the future after his death. His portrayal as a man whom thousands trusted only slightly less than God indicates his ability to outwit the devil.
Understatement
It is through the judicious and quite effective use of understatement that the story indicts several centuries of American (including colonial) historical treatment of non-Europeans when Mr. Scratch admits "When the first wrong was done to the first Indian, I was there. When the first slaver put out for the Congo, I stood on her deck.”
Allusions
In hinting at what lies in store for the future of Daniel Webster, the devil alludes to the Civil War and to his “Seventh of March” speech which would do much to tarnish his reputation and diminish his legacy.
Imagery
In the foreshadowing mentioned above, imagery is extensively utilized to paint a portrait of Daniel Webster a worthy mortal opponent to square off against the devil: “trout would jump out of the streams right into his pockets… chickens he raised were all white meat down through the drumsticks…a mouth like a mastiff, a brow like a mountain and eyes like burning anthracite—that was Dan'l Webster in his prime.”
Paradox
The dramatic tension of the story is constructed upon the paradox of a fair trial being conducted when the devil is allowed to choose the judge and all members of the jury.
Parallelism
A parallel structure is used to indicate the comprehensively hapless state of Jabez Stone as a permanent victim of bad luck before making the deal with the devil: “If he planted corn, he got borers; if he planted potatoes, he got blight… If stones cropped up in his neighbors' field, boulders boiled up in his.”
Metonymy and Synecdoche
In describing the turn of events in the life of Jabez Stone, an excerpt from the Biblical Book of Genesis is used as metonymy to describe the comprehensive experience of human mortality: “it's dust and ashes in his mouth.”
Personification
N/A
