An analysis of Never bet the devil your head
An Analysis of "Never Bet the Devil Your Head"
In Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 short story of "Never Bet the Devil Your Head,” Edgar Allan Poe begins his tale by describing how he has been under criticism because his tales do not have morals. In response to his critics, who he refers to as "ignoramuses," Edgar Allan Poe writes "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" which is the story of a man who is offering to bet the devil his head that he can do this or that. One day, the narrator (presented as the author himself) is traveling with Toby Dammit and he bets the narrator he can leap over a turnstile in the distance, and bets the devil his head he can clear it. Suddenly, a "little lame old gentleman" appears and urges Toby Dammit to make the jump. Toby Dammit takes the jump, falls backwards, and the old man jumps up to retrieve Toby Dammit’s fallen figure and runs away with something. The narrator finds that Toby Dammit has been beheaded by a metal bar that was right over the turnstile, but his head is nowhere to be found. Have you very been concerned with whether or not you’re making the right decision on a certain situation? (Poe 486-93)
In the very beginning of the story "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" Don Thomas De Las Torres says “Con tal que las costumbres de un autor sean puras y castas, import muy poco que no sean ingualmente severas sus obras.” Which in plain English means that provided the morals of an author are pure, personally, it signifies nothing what are the morals of his books. This is an attack on Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories saying that they don’t have any morals to them at all and that they don’t make sense. So to get back at Don Thomas De Las Torres, Edgar Allan Poe writes "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" which clearly after reading it has a moral. (Poe 486-93)
On one hand the moral of the story is, naturally, “Never Bet the Devil Your Head.” This pretty much means that never plan to gamble something that you don’t plan to give up. Because Toby Dammit
In Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 short story of "Never Bet the Devil Your Head,” Edgar Allan Poe begins his tale by describing how he has been under criticism because his tales do not have morals. In response to his critics, who he refers to as "ignoramuses," Edgar Allan Poe writes "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" which is the story of a man who is offering to bet the devil his head that he can do this or that. One day, the narrator (presented as the author himself) is traveling with Toby Dammit and he bets the narrator he can leap over a turnstile in the distance, and bets the devil his head he can clear it. Suddenly, a "little lame old gentleman" appears and urges Toby Dammit to make the jump. Toby Dammit takes the jump, falls backwards, and the old man jumps up to retrieve Toby Dammit’s fallen figure and runs away with something. The narrator finds that Toby Dammit has been beheaded by a metal bar that was right over the turnstile, but his head is nowhere to be found. Have you very been concerned with whether or not you’re making the right decision on a certain situation? (Poe 486-93)
In the very beginning of the story "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" Don Thomas De Las Torres says “Con tal que las costumbres de un autor sean puras y castas, import muy poco que no sean ingualmente severas sus obras.” Which in plain English means that provided the morals of an author are pure, personally, it signifies nothing what are the morals of his books. This is an attack on Edgar Allan Poe’s short stories saying that they don’t have any morals to them at all and that they don’t make sense. So to get back at Don Thomas De Las Torres, Edgar Allan Poe writes "Never Bet the Devil Your Head" which clearly after reading it has a moral. (Poe 486-93)
On one hand the moral of the story is, naturally, “Never Bet the Devil Your Head.” This pretty much means that never plan to gamble something that you don’t plan to give up. Because Toby Dammit
Cited: Poe, Edgar Allan. Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe. New York, New York: Doubleday, 1984. 486-93. Print. Never Bet the Devil Your Head (Poe 486-93)