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Once upon a time… No this isn't a fairytale so listen close, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a scary yet true tale one unlike the rest.“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” thought to have a source in a German folktale, tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a greedy school teacher from Connecticut who tries to win the hand of the flirtatious and very wealthy Katrina Van Tassel. Brom Bones, a neighborhood hero, is also in love with Katrina, and he has a tendency to play pranks on others, which will come to haunt Ichabod soon enough. Ichabod is especially fascinated by ghost stories and witches, and Sleepy Hollow is known for its supernatural activity especially its infamous ghost, the Headless Horseman. In this story of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” …show more content…
Irving’s metaphor of ghostly presences and forces as “a contagion in the very air” draws on the historical context of his writing. When Washington Irving was a teenager, there were occasional outbreaks of yellow fever in his hometown of Manhattan. As a result, his parents sent him up to spend the summers in Tarrytown, where he discovered Sleepy Hollow, its ghost stories and Dutch settlements. Contagion and witchly hauntings were intertwined in Irving’s mind. Before we learned how diseases spread, popular belief held that there could be areas of bad air that caused disease and pestilence. Since bad air could cause disease and death, many attributed “the powers of air” to the work of the devil and evil spirits. Inside the legend itself we are told a lot of myths and tales by the inhabitants of the Sleepy Hollow. For instance the Sleepy Hollow was believed to be a place that was 'bewitched by a High German doctor, during the early days of the settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the prophet or wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Besides the 'drowsy, dreamy influence' that seemed 'to hang over the land', the 'witchful air' of it, there are other cases in the legend when the supernatural forces appear. The Headless Horseman is the embodiment of the evil and supernatural power. He is depicted very vividly but seemed gathered up …show more content…
Since Irving was a young boy not only did he grow up in a time where the supernatural was huge but he was sent to live in a town where it was more prominent and had one of the most famous myths or legends in today’s society. The headless horseman the main focus when reading “the legend of sleepy hollow,” and it’s all based of the revolutionary war. Irving was a sickly little boy and he began to write about his experiences and the things he seen and heard about. In the 1700’s life was or seems to be dark and gloomy and that is where this story gets its mood and tone. The historical aspect is the reasons why the headless horseman is an old war soldier, the setting of the story dates back to the 1700’s, and the superstitions of ghosts and mythical creatures were more and more believed during that time
The story, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, was written by Washington Irving, and the story is about a man name Ichabod Crane who was trying to win Katherina Van Tassel’s hand in marriage, but he is failing. The small town named Sleepy Hollow has a folklore about the Headless Horseman, who rides through the town at night to find his head. Irving explains that Sleepy Hollow has many ghost stories, but the Headless Horseman is the most popular in the town. Ichabod Crane was a school master, and he was killed by the town’s ghost. The townspeople believed Crane was taken by the Galloping Hessian, so the story of the Headless Horseman would not be associated with Crane’s disappearance. As the news about Ichabod’s disappearance rummage through the town, the Brom Bones’ reaction to the news made people question the Galloping Hessian’s part
The readings “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving and The Monster by Stephen Crane are to amazing readings. However, these two texts represent violence and conflicts in different ways, which shows that although they have the same concept their tactic for this same concept is used in a different approach.
...rbidden love, whereas Irving’s tale is a tale of possible unrequited love. The characters are vaguely similar in both the written story and the movie, but the glaring difference is that while Ichabod possibly flees from Sleepy Hollow because he was frightened beyond his limits, the movie allows him to denounce any superstition in order to wed his beloved.
Many evenings during the winter, Ichabod spent with the old Dutch wives. They would tell ghost stories as well as other super natural beings and demons while sitting by the fire. There was a certain story that was never left out, the legendary Headless Horseman, or sometimes known as the Hessian of the Hollow. The story went on that there was a soldier who with a cannon ball had gotten his head shot off and since roamed through Sleepy Hollow looking for his lost head while on his horse. The Headless Horseman has a jack-o-lantern that sits in replacement of his head. In addition, a love story is part of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” however many find it to be more of a pure lust or greed story. There was girl named Katrina Van Tassel who was
Fifteen years separate Washington Irving’s short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story, “Young Goodman Brown.” The two share an eerie connection because of the trepidation the two protagonists endure throughout the story. The style of writing between the two is not similar because of the different literary elements they choose to exploit. Irving’s “Sleepy Hollow” chronicles Ichabod Crane’s failed courtship of Katrina Van Tassel as well as his obsession over the legend of the Headless Horseman. Hawthorne’s story follows the spiritual journey of the protagonist, Young Goodman Brown, through the woods of Puritan New England where he looses his religious faith. However, Hawthorne’s work with “Young Goodman Brown” is of higher quality than Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” because Hawthorne succeeds in exploiting symbols, developing characters, and incorporating worthwhile themes.
?The Legend of Sleepy Hollow? is a short story by Washington Irving. Based on a well-known legend, this story tells the tale of the disappearance of the main character, Ichabod Crane. An effective ghost story, Irving leaves you guessing what the truth is behind the ending. The movie Sleepy Hollow is Hollywood?s portrayal of Irving?s original story. Although the movie is similar to the story in the beginning, the movie takes a twist that leads in another direction that strays far from the original plot.
Over time the language of the original text of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Irving has been reworked to accommodate the change in audience. The Heath Anthology of American Literature has an unabridged version of the original wording (1354-1373). A complete copy of the original text of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" can be found in the young adolescent classic section of a bookstore or the juvenile section in the library. A juvenile edition of the text adapted by Arthur Rackham from 1928 was a replicate of the original it is filled with seven colored illustrations and numerous sketching. A young adolescent version adapted by Bryan Brown from 2001 has been abridged to accommodate the current young reader. The format is changed in Brownâs edition. The yo...
For a long period of time the forest was the epitome of the unknown, so it was often the focus of American Gothic writing. This writing tried to demonstrate that the forest was where evil lived, and that entering would only lead to finding an unholy being and in turn being surrounded by everything that is evil. This was always set up by depicting the forest as dark and gloomy place, where evil would be at all times. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow the forest and many other areas, “were thickly shaded by overhanging trees, which cast a gloom about it, even in the daytime; but occasioned a fearful darkness at night” (Irving). These places were where the fabled Headless Horseman
Irving does this to help readers realize how caught up the society of Sleepy Hollow is with their past. Irving frequently brings up the Revolutionary war and how the headless horseman was a Hessian soldier from the war. When he writes, “The dominant spirit that haunts this enchanted region is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head. It is said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper, whose head had been carried away by a cannonball in some nameless battle during the Revolutionary War… The specter is known, at all the country firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow” (Irving 2). This is an allusion to the Revolutionary war because the headless horseman was a hessian soldier. This explains the theme of supernatural because the Headless Horseman haunts their town and the main character, Ichabod Crane, comes across the ghost of him. Another major allusion in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is Ichabod's belief in witches. The author supports this when saying, “He was, moreover, esteemed by the women as a man of great erudition, for he had read several books quite through, and was a perfect master of Cotton Mather's 'History of New England Witchcraft” (Irving 4). Ichabod also believes in the supernatural past. His belief in witches supports the theme of supernatural within the book. Referring to the past using allusion develops different themes within the
In the three stories, by Washington Irving, he shows acts of misogyny. Within the story, the character of Rip Van Winkle, a man sick of his wife wanders off into the wood, to disappear for 20 years. Throughout the story of The Devil and Tom Walker, the devil asks the man to sell his soul to him for money. Which the man was going to do until his wife convinced him not to. Also in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the man in the story likes a woman, but unfortunately the woman picks another man over him. All of these stories each of the male characters have to face a certain challenge whether it be internal or external.
Washington Irving and Edgar Allan Poe were both writers who exemplified the writing style of the Romantic era. Both writers used their great talents to take the reader into the story. For example, Irving, in “Rip Van Winkle”, starts the story by saying, “Whoever has made a courage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill Mountains.” He also involves the reader in the story by taking us into the everyday lives of the Van Winkles and goes into some detail describing Rip’s “business”. Poe also demonstrates his ability to pull the reader into the story. In “The Fall of the House Usher” he uses extensive descriptions of the settings to give the reader the feeling of being there while the story is developing around them. The writers are also similar in the use of tone in their works. Irving’s use of tone in his stories is typically lighthearted, yet dramatic. This is demonstrated in “Rip Van Winkle” when Rip comes back from the “Kaatskills” and is talking to all the people in the town. There, he finds his son and daughter and asks, “Where’s your mother?” By asking this question, Irving implies both curiosity and even fear if Dame Van Winkle is still around. This humorous approach to the subject of Rip’s wife, makes light of ...
Irving's main character, Icabod Crane, causes a stir and disrupts the female order in the Hollow when he arrives from Connecticut. Crane is not only a representative of bustling, practical New England who threatens rural America with his many talents and fortune of knowledge; he is also an intrusive male who threatens the stability of a decidedly female place. By taking a closer look at the stories that circulate though Sleepy Hollow, one can see that Crane's expulsion follows directly from women's cultivation of local folklore. Female-centered Sleepy Hollow, by means of tales revolving around the emasculated, headless "dominant spirit" of region, figuratively neuters threatening masculine invaders like Crane to restore order and ensure the continuance of the old Dutch domesticity and their old wives' tales.
The traveler goodman Brown encounters with the serpentine staff is one supernatural element Hawthorne includes in Brown’s quest. "He had cast up his eyes in astonishment, and looking down again, beheld neither goody Cloyse not the serpentine staff, but his fellow-traveler alone." (Hawthorne 390). Hawthorne’s use of the traveler with the serpentine staff suggests goodman Brown’s own subconscious debate of evil within man and his innocence. All the “witchy” encounters the traveler leads goodman Brown to on his quest seem to only lead him further from finding himself than he was at the start. Washington Irving also uses a supernatural element with the infamous headless horseman in “The Legend of Sleepy
Washington Irving’s short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” was adapted into a movie titled “Sleepy Hollow” directed by Tim Burton nearly two centuries after the original publication. When the story was adapted as a film, several extensive changes were made. A short story easily read in one sitting was turned into a nearly two-hour thriller, mystery, and horror movie by incorporating new details and modifying the original version of the story. The short story relates the failed courtship of Katrina Van Tassel by Ichabod Crane. His courtship is cut short by the classic romance antagonist-the bigger, stronger, and better looking Broom Bones. Ichabod wishes to marry Katrina because of her beauty but also because of the wealthy inheritance she will receive when her father, Baltus Van Tassel and stepmother, Lady Van Tassel die. However, the film tells the story of Ichabod Crane as an investigator who is sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate the recent decapitations that are occurring. These modifications alter the original story entirely, thus failing to capture the Irving’s true interpretation of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” The film and the original story have similarities and differences in the plot, characters, and setting.
The improbable plots and unlikely characterization showed how much they used creativity. According to a Romanticism article, “The Romantics tended to define and to present the imagination as our ultimate ‘shaping’ or creative power, the approximate human equivalent of the creative powers of nature or even deity” (“Romanticism”). They believe that imagination is an essential and amazing ability that humans possess. Romantic authors often included examples of imagination and creativity within their works. In the short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” the supernatural plot and improbable characters illustrate the imagination of Romanticism writers (Irving). Washington Irving must have used a significant amount of creativity to come up with a story that involves a headless ghost riding a horse. He thought outside of his reality and environment in order to create an impossible and fascinating character. The Romantics favored imagination and creativity because they realized how invaluable it truly