The Importance Of Setting In The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

“Emptiness stretching for miles, the sense of space, the vastness of the sky above, passing no farm or cottage, no kind of dwelling house at all in three miles. All was emptiness.”

Unlike “The Tell-Tale Heart”, ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ plot is built around the main theme of superstition. Ichabod tends to be horrified and terrified with the Headless horseman stories. ‘Irving depicts a strong, controversial understanding between the supernatural superstitions the townspeople believed and the natural Sleepy Hollow setting ‘(Hoffman, 425). Despite the story describing in details the natural setting such as trees and birds of the area, there is also a vibrant understanding of privileging supernatural ideas. For instance, Irving believes that it is simply Brom Bones in disguise when finally, the headless horseman appeared.

(Page 1) “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” has different tones throughout the story. At the beginning the tone is somnolent yet peaceful, then the tone gets spooky slightly sarcastic, humorous, mocking and surreal.

At first glance, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving seems to be an innocent tale about a superstitious New England town threatened by a strange new comer, Icabod Crane. However, this descriptive narrative is more than just a simple tale because it addresses several gender issues that deserve attention. The pervasiveness of female influence in Sleepy Hollow and the conflict between male and female storytelling in this Dutch community are two pertinent gender issues that complicate Irving's work and ultimately enable the women of Sleepy Hollow to control the men and maintain order.

Washington Irving’s, the author of the story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, uses imagery throughout the story to interpret the setting and mood of the story. At the beginning of the story, Erving uses suspenseful imagery to describe the location of the valley that he lives in as one of the quietest places on earth . He ackno in the story “Not far from this village, perhaps about two miles down the road, there is a little valley or lap of land among the hills, which is one of the quietest places in the world.” The main character Ichabod Crane is a school teacher, Erving the author uses imagery in such a way to give the readers the full effect of what his classroom looks like. “His schoolhouse was a low building of one large room, rudely constructed of logs; the windows partly glazed, and partly patched with leaves of old copybooks,” he says this in such a way that the reader can imagine the school room as if they were there and it adds suspense to the rest of the story. Washington Irving set the mood of thrilling suspense and the spooky setting of a quiet town by using imagery throughout his story of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is short story of speculative fiction written by Washington Irving, published in 1820. It follows the journey of Ichabod Crane and Brom Bones in their attempt to win over Katrina Van Tassel. Many adaptions have been made of Irving’s original story with one of the most known being “Sleepy Hollow” a 1999 American horror film directed by Tim Burton. The movie follows a different but similar plot to the original story with the murders of the headless horseman being the main focus of the movie. In both versions it can be clearly seen how the setting has a huge impact on all aspects of the book and film particularly the themes, values and characterisation.

The setting is very joyful, graceful and inviting, but within the town hides much evil (mostly Miss Strangeworth) which one might also say is fairly ironic. The author is very skilled at making a well developed setting, which suits the themes of deception, secrets and incorrect first impression very well and makes the reader think more to conceive what is really happening or how the setting connects to theme, characters and other literary devices.

The townspeople looked upon Ichabod as a foreigner and responded with opposition to his notions. For example, almost immediately upon his arrival, he took a dead corpse and performed an autopsy, something that was unheard of during this time period. He remained dedicated to his work, but had a hostile, almost mysterious way about him.

The short story I have chosen to read by Washington Irving is 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.'; This story takes place in a little village on the Hudson River which by some is called Greensburgh, but which is more generally known as Tarry Town. The main character in the story, Ichabod Crane, who 'tarried'; in Sleepy Hollow came about for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity. The main point of the story began with the arrival of a Negro with an invitation to Ichabod to attend a party at the Van Tassel's mansion. After receiving the good news, Ichabod fixed up his best and only suit and borrowed a horse from Hans Van Ripper, in order to impress Mynheer Van Tassel's daughter, Katrina. He did so

The original story by Washington Irving starts out in a small town of Sleepy Hollow. Irving paints an image of bountiful crops, beautiful scenery, and

The town of Sleepy Hollow is isolated, dark and gloomy, it also has contains mostly gothic architecture. This is to support the spine chilling atmosphere that Tim Burton has intended in the film. This is to create a theme of fear and panic towards the viewer because the idea of gothic horror is to create a suspenseful, isolated and dark environment in the movie. An example of this is when Ichabod Crane arrives at sleepy hollow and is instantly greeted by a grave yard and a gloomy, foggy and gothic looking town. The setting of the place in this scene is an excellent example of how gothic horror differs from other styles of horror.

“In the dark shadow of the grove… [Ichabod] beheld something huge, misshapen, black and towering...up in the gloom...some gigantic monster” and “summoning up, [from his trembling body] a show of courage...he demanded in stammering accents- ‘Who are you?’”. In the short story, the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, Washington Irving, tells the adventures of a schoolteacher, Ichabod Crane, in the haunted town of Sleepy Hollow. There, he pursues the local beauty, Katrina van Tassel, competing with the town’s rowdy prankster, Brom Bones. As the plot intensifies, Ichabod’s superstition eventually leads to his downfall when he is chased by the legendary ghost of the Headless Horseman in a terrifying and vivid scene after a party at Katrina’s house. The next day, Ichabod has disappeared, his fate unknown. Throughout the story, Irving creates suspense with the use of imagery to build up a frightening scene in the reader’s mind and ambiguity to make them anxious as they feel a sense of mysteriousness as to what really happened.

The film Sleepy Hollow directed by Tim Burton, centres around a detective who is sent from the city to a small country town to investigate a series of bizarre murders. While he is in town he has to deal with love, past issues and also discover why the horseman has returned from the dead to kill townspeople. The story is based around the battle of good and evil with Ichabod Crane being good as he believes in finding the truth in everything and the Horseman being evil personified as he will not stop killing. Burton displays the constant battle between good and evil throughout the film through the characterization of Ichabod Crane and the Hessian. Burton also uses settings to show what each thing represents like the forest is the gateway to hell

In preparation for the party at the Van Tassel mansion, Ichabod takes extra time to get ready, wears his best clothes, and even borrows a horse in order to attempt a noble and valiant façade. But, Ichabod’s foolish and strange appearance can never be disguised. Not only was the broken-down horse a pathetic sight to be seen, but Ichabod’s clumsily large stature overtook it in the most ridiculous of ways. “He rode with short stirrups, which brought his knees nearly up to the pommel of the saddle; his sharp elbows stuck out like grasshoppers’…and, as his horse jogged on, the motion of his arms was not unlike the flapping of a pair of wings” (Irving 5). There is nothing glorious or particularly attractive about Ichabod’s physical presence, which is the initial indication of his incompetence to fulfill the role of hero. His physical appearance exudes weakness and vulnerability, and it should not come as a surprise that his personality matches his anti-heroic appearance.

Katrina initiates to uphold her agency by gaining Ichabod’s affections through her flirtatious conduct which parallels with the women of town who are looked upon by Ichabod due to their storytelling skills. The narrator uses diction to initially elicit Katrina as a modern independent lady who