Food consumption is used as a symbol for social status in the play. The more food is consumed by a person, the higher is his social status and the more prominent people he knows. Oscar Wilde uses the play to show that excessive society.
In "The Devil and Tom Walker," Washington Irving criticizes the selfish and heartless sections of American society, especially usurers, by satirizing them through Tom Walker’s character. He also criticizes the hypocrisy of American religious groups through his satirical description of Tom’s churchgoing and through his mention of the Salem witch trials and the persecution of Quakers and Anabaptists. He also seems to suggest that American society was founded on violence and inequality:
"Since the red men have been exterminated by you white savages, I amuse myself by presiding at the persecutions of Quakers and Anabaptists; I am the great patron and prompter of slave dealers, and the grandmaster of the Salem witches."
From Plato
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