Sandy Hobbs | Letters to Ambrose Morten # 17, 1999

My four year old grandson, Owen McLaughlin, recently told me that it is the devil who makes you do bad things. He sits on one of your shoulders, while an angel sits on the other. What are the origins of this concept? Biblical devils and angels seem to me to be human size. Biblical devils may be inside people (and hence can be cast out) but I can find no reference to one sitting on a shoulder.

Yet, the concept is a fairly familiar one to me. It can be found in popular culture. In the film, National Lampoon’s Animal House (directed by John Landis, 1978), Larry Kroger (Thomas Hulce) is in a bedroom with a girl who passes out drunk. A small devil figure (red, carrying a trident) appears on one side of the screen, encouraging him to have sex with her. An angel (with halo and harp) appears on the other side of the screen encouraging him to stop. Neither is strictly speaking “on his shoulder” but both could be said to be at his shoulder.

In the Oor Wullie comic strip annual (published by D.. C. Thomson, 1976) there is a story in which the schoolboy hero, Wullie, finds the answers to a forthcoming exam. His “Bad Self” and “Better Self” appear hovering in “clouds”, respectively inducing him to use and not use the answers. Although not called a devil and an angel, these figures are protrayed as such. “Bad Self” has horns, pointed ears and horns. “Better Self” has wings and a halo. As in the previous example, they are not actually on the hero’s shoulders.

There is film called Angel On My Shoulder (directed by Archie Mayo, 1946) which I have not seen. Although the title suggests a link with the concept Owen mentioned, this may be misleading. Synopses in reference books indicate that the story concerns a dead gangster given a “second life” on earth by the Devil.

Is there a connection with lines which occur near the end of Shakespeare’s Othello? Gratiano, seeing the body of the murdered Desdemona, expresses his satisfaction that her father is already dead. If the father had seen her, he would have cursed “his better Angel from his side” and committed suicide. If he had a “better Angel” by his side, does that imply he also had a “worse Angel”?

Can any reader more familiar with religious lore provide more background?