The Devil and Daniel Webster

Unlike other Faustian figures, including Irving’s Tom Walker, Jabez Stone does not feature in the story’s title and only emerges as its main character after the narrator spends a few paragraphs solidifying the myth of Daniel Webster. There is very little depth to Stone’s character. He is described as “a religious man” but enters into his deal with Scratch with little to no objection (2), suggesting a degree of hypocrisy; the idea that he accepts Scratch’s terms out of a sense of honor, having “passed his word” (2), rings hollow in light of his later attempts to renege on the deal. These attempts instigate the story’s main conflict, as Stone seeks the guidance of Webster, who becomes the driving narrative force from that point onward as he faces Scratch on Stone’s behalf.

Nevertheless, Stone is not merely a vessel to connect the Devil and Daniel Webster. Stone is described as almost cosmically unlucky:

If [Stone] planted corn, he got borers; if he planted potatoes, he got blight. He had good enough land, but it didn’t prosper him; he had a decent wife and children, but the more children he had, the less there was to feed them.