How Does Washington Irving Present The Imagination In The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

“They are given to all kinds of marvelous beliefs; are subject to trances and visions; and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air.” The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a short story by an American author named, Washington Irving. This short story is one of 34 essays and short stories Irving wrote in his collection called “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.” The story is set in 1790 in the countryside around the Dutch settlement of Tarry Tow. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was the longest one published as part of The Sketch Book. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is the best example of Romanticism. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” demonstrates the tenets of Romanticism by imagination, individuality, and fairies, witches,

angels, all the fantastic creatures of the medieval popular. There are two male characters in the story dying for Katrina Van Tassel’s attention and love, Brom Bones and Ichabod Crane.
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” shows a lot of imagination in the story.

One example is, Ichabod’s primary enjoyment is reading stories about ghosts, demons and witches; yet, because his imagination is so strong and powerful, he pays for this dearly. The little things frighten him, and he can convince himself that almost anything is supernatural. Another example of imagination is, Ichabod’s imagination makes his life more difficult, but it does not seem to affect his behavior. His imagination leads him to think supernatural things are real. Ichabod’s imagination is so powerful he believes that he is already the owner of the Van Tassel farm. Because he gets so much joy and excitement out of this fantasy, he does not remember to put forth an effort to make it into reality, so he does not. He is living in a fantasy land. Lastly, Ichabod also tries to always get Katrina’s attention. He is always trying to impress her. For example, he does not take Brom seriously enough to rival with him for Katrina. Also Ichabod’s imagination distracts him from reality; therefore Katrina may not want him. Ichabod’s imagination and all of his love for supernatural things make him a very unique person. He shows a lot of

individuality.
There are a lot of examples of individuality in this short story.

Some examples are, Ichabod is known to be ugly because he has a long nose and lanky figure. “He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms, and legs. His head was small and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose.” Another example of individuality is, Ichabod is not like everyone else in the town. He is well educated and liked by the women of the town. Ichabod is very unique with his imagination and stories. For a final example, you would think that for a guy that adores scary stories, he wouldn’t be afraid of the dark. That’s different for Ichabod. Ichabod is scared of everything, mostly and specifically the supernatural. He is constantly reading scary stories, telling them to others, and listening to people’s tales. But once he is alone in the dark, he is afraid of his own footsteps. Now all of these stories Ichabod reads to himself and to others show and explain a lot of fairies, witches, and

angels.
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” shows and talks about a lot of interesting things like, fairies, witches, angels, all the fantastic creatures of the medieval popular. For example, the character Ichabod reads stories about supernatural, ghosts, demons, and a lot of imagination things. He loves to read scary stories, especially supernatural. Another example is, there is a lot of death in the story. For example, Ichabod realizes the richest guy in town has an only daughter who’s pretty good looking. He decides that he’s going to hit on her so hard that she will end up falling in love with him. Brom, the other guy finds this all out and wants to kill Ichabod for taking his lady. The final example is, Ichabod’s “lady” has a party and invites him. He goes and when it is over, she dumps him. On Ichabod’s way home, he is crying and going crazy and runs into the Headless Horseman which represents a ghost. Ichabod tries to get away from him and when he thinks he’s finally safe, the horseman throws his head at him and knocks Ichabod off of his horse onto the ground.
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” has so many examples of romanticism in it. This story shows romanticism by involving things like imagination, individuality, and fairies, witches, supernatural, demons, ghosts, etc.
“Another of his sources of fearful pleasure was, to pass long winter evenings with the old Dutch wives, as they sat spinning by the fire, with a row of apples roasting and spluttering along the hearth, and listen to their marvelous tales of ghosts and goblins, and haunted fields, and haunted brooks, and haunted bridges, and haunted houses, and particularly of the headless horseman, or galloping Hessian of the Hollow, as they sometimes called him.”