I think it is important to focus on what we are told about
Tom Walker before he meets the Devil. It is clear that Irving doesn't present him as a
paragon of goodness. Consider this description:
...there lived a meager, miserly fellow, of the
name of Tom Walker. He had a wife as miserly as himself: They were so miserly that they
even conspired to cheat each other... Her husband was continually prying about to detect
her secret hoards, and may and fierce were the conflicts that took place about what
ought to have been common
property.
Note also how their
plot of land and house is described - they live in a "forlorn looking house" which had
an air of "starvation." There are a few, wispy trees, which are "emblems of sterility"
and they have one "miserable" horse.
It is clear then that
Irving is setting us up with a character who is so miserly and tight-fisted that he even
tries to bargain with and trick the Devil - his attitude is very selfish and miserly,
and thus he seems to be a fitting character to have a tussle with the Devil and in the
end, lose, as he is dragged of by the Devil.
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