The Devil in the Belfry

"The Devil in the Belfry"
Illustration for "Tales and poems - vol.2" published in 1800s
Author	Edgar Allan Poe
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Satirical Short story
Published in	Saturday Chronicle and Mirror of the Times
Media type	Print (newspaper)
Publication date	1839

"The Devil in the Belfry" is a satirical short story by Edgar Allan Poe. It was first published in 1839.

In an isolated town called Vondervotteimittiss (wonder-what-time-it-is), the punctilious inhabitants seem to be concerned with nothing but clocks and cabbage. This methodical, boring and quiet little borough is devastated by the arrival of a devilish figure playing a big fiddle who comes straight down from a hill, goes into the belltower, brutally attacks the belfry-man and rings thirteen o'clock, to the horror of the town's inhabitants.

The devil character can be seen as the bringer of chaos to an ordered system. In the context of the story, the devil is a troublemaker who destroys the serenity of tradition. However, in that Poe mocks the town's ridiculous traditions, it can be interpreted that the devil is a violent force of change, originality and creativity in an otherwise stagnant environment.

Some have claimed the story to be political satire making fun of the United States President Martin Van Buren who was of Dutch descent like the inhabitants of Vondervotteimittis. However, aside from Dutch caricatures used for humor, the story does not seem to mock any particular target. In A Companion to Poe Studies it is noted, "Poe introduced numerous details to make contemporaries think of the president. But the story is not therefore a political satire, for Poe said such stories hit out in all directions ... Moreover, Poe's literary play, his pleasure at creating connections, seems more important than is any single 'target' of satire."

Critics often compare the tale to another New York satire, A History of New-York written by Washington Irving under the pseudonym "Diedrich Knickerbocker."

There are many famous illustrations for this short tale, including one is by the Italian engraver Alberto Martini, which is very accurate in describing the final moment, and another by the Belgian artist James Ensor, which illustrates the moment when the stranger arrives in town.