Goliath
Daniel Webster owns a ram named Goliath that is not once, but twice described as being capable of butting through an iron door. The Biblically-inspired name of the ram becomes a symbol laden with ironic foreshadowing, as it hints at a showdown between what seems like an overwhelming opponent. The very naming of the animal undercuts the foreshadowing that the devil would seem to be an unbeatable opponent with just enough irony to allow it to suggest the outcome without being allegorical enough to signal it.
An American Devil
Upon being accused by Daniel Webster of being a foreign prince, the devil takes much offense and asserts that that he is an American as they come. This assertion is made by indirect references to the inhumane treatment of Native Americans and the institution of slavery. Thus, the devil becomes a symbol for the dark side of America as well as a reminder that it make take responsibility for its own sins rather than blaming foreigners.
We the Jury
The jury judging Jabez is comprised of pirates, traitors and various other men acting with villainy from the American historical record. They are potential symbols for the assertion that if America is to be judged, it must be judged by the worst of its excesses. The unspoken intimation here is that Jabez—in making a deal with the devil and reaping the fruit of that decision—belongs to this group and is a fair test by which to judge the entire nation.
Justice Hathorne
The presiding Judge overseeing the suit brought by Jabez is another historical figure of import; he links this courtroom proceeding to the notorious Salem witch trials. In response to the suggestion that Hathorne should repent for his part in those proceedings, his reply suggests that such a miscarriage of justice is instead a source of pride. Hathorne is thus positioned very distinctly as a symbol of American history in which justice has been perverted. This becomes another symbol of ironic foreshadowing since justice is actually perverted in this trial, but at the expensive of the devil who is on the losing end of justice despite being on the right side by any standard of legal measurement.
Cross Corners, New Hampshire
Stories of pacts made with the devil have a rich history of taking place at a crossroads as a symbolic incarnation of the place where the natural world crosses paths with the supernatural world. In Benet’s story, the small Yankee hamlet of Cross Corner is a symbolically apt location as the place where the sudden presence of an unnatural stranger crosses paths with Jabez Stone who will, in the kind of ironic turn that permeates this story, dare to double-cross the devil.
