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Supernatural elements in novels
The legend of sleepy hollow introduction essay
The legend of sleepy hollow introduction essay
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Recommended: Supernatural elements in novels
Supernatural is defined as attributed to some force beyond scientific understand of the laws of nature. Many people are afraid of these supposed “higher beings”. Gothic stories were created to appeal to human senses and wanting the reader to know the mysterious and unpleasant event that will happen next. Washington Irving, in his stories created characters that battle with nature or the supernatural. He leaves the reader creating their own story because hardly ever does Irving tell the reader what actually happened to the character after encountering these creatures. Washington Irving’s use of picayune character creates man vs. nature stories to show the triumph between man and supernatural figures. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving created two characters that are complete opposites of …show more content…
No one knows if the legend is real, but towards the end of the story, the reader can debate whether it is a myth or it is in fact real life. Ichabod Crane is well educated, so the reader can assume he reads many types of literature. Therefore, Ichabod has a highly imaginative brain. “Then, as he wended his way, by swamp and stream and awful woodland, to the farmhouse where he happened to be quartered, every sound of nature, at that witching hour, fluttered his excited imagination.” Although it seems like he enjoys these situations, he’s actually terrified of them. Hearing about these supernatural phenomenas lets him decide what the creature will look like, actually experiencing it on the other hand is a whole different story. Brom saw that Ichabod was very superstitious so he decided to make his move. When started to tell the legend of Sleepy Hollow, Ichabod couldn’t help but to worry about how he was going to get home and pass the headless horseman. “The old country wives, however, who are the best judges of these matters,
Throughout Irving’s story, he used characterization, irony, the dreams, and other literacy devices to bring The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to life for Irving’s audience.
When we compare Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow to the 1980 television movie The Legend of Sleepy Hollow starring Meg Foster, Dick Butkus, and Jeff Goldblum, we find that while there are several similarities between the two, there are also some key differences. When we look at various characters as well as the storyline, we see those similarities and differences.
Many of the boys even thought he was "batty" because he left the group to spend time alone. He did not fear the jungle, and he did not fear the beast. "Maybe,' he said hesitantly,'maybe there is a beast. . . maybe it's only us" (89). The Beast takes many forms in the boys' imaginations; once, they saw a strange shape moving at the top of a mountain, and they were afraid that it was the Beast....
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 prosperous landowners. Ichabod Crane was a local pedagogue, who taught at the local schoolhouse. He was known for his strict ways and yet he was very popular amongst the families of his students- especially the ones who had ?pretty sisters.? Ichabod enjoyed spending fall evenings with the old widows as they sat by a fire and told stories of ghosts and demons and other supernatural beings. One story that was always told was one of the legendary Headless Horsemen. The tale tells of a soldier who had his head shot off with a cannon ball. His ghost now roamed Sleepy Hollow on his horse, looking for his lost head. In place of his head, sits a jack-o-lantern, which had a fiery glow.
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...
...lf-confidence. The Scarecrow was the one who believed that he had no brain even with him coming up with brilliant and clever solutions to the many problems that they faced on their journey. The tin man believed that he didn’t have a heart, but cries when bad things are brought upon the creatures they come to encounter. The lion believed that he had no courage even though he was the one brave enough to continue the journey, he always stated how brave he was and pushed forward even when the others did not want to. A famous quote from Carl L. Bankston III of Salem Press stated that "These three characters embody the classical human virtues of intelligence, caring, and courage, but their self-doubts keep them from being reduced to mere symbols of these qualities” (). This is an important quote because it highlights the self-confidence that Baum explored in his story.
Gothic texts are typically characterized by a horrifying and haunting mood, in a world of isolation and despair. Most stories also include some type of supernatural events and/or superstitious aspects. Specifically, vampires, villains, heroes and heroines, and mysterious architecture are standard in a gothic text. Depending upon the author, a gothic text can also take on violent and grotesque attributes. As an overall outlook, “gothic literature is an outlet for the ancient fears of humanity in an age of reason” (Sacred-Texts). Following closely to this type of literature, Edgar Allan Poe uses a gloomy setting, isolation, and supernatural occurrences throughout “The Fall of the House of Usher”.
One of the most interesting things about these characters is that Ichabod makes himself in-disposable to the people, and the people make themselves in-disposable to Brom, in a way. Ichabod, as a schoolteacher to a small town, must rotate where he lives each week. Because he does not want his pupil’s families to get tired of him staying at there place each week, he provides gossip and frightening stories. He helps out, but he never does anything to make them resent him. He wants to be rich and marry Katrina so he can finally stop smiling at everyone and can stop acting like nothing bothers him. Brom is seems wants Katrina because it is such a challenge to keep a country
Edgar Allen Poe was an English short-story writer whose work reflects the traditional Gothic conventions of the time that subverted the ambivalence of the grotesque and arabesque. Through thematic conventions of the Gothic genre, literary devices and his own auteur, Edgar Allan Poe’s texts are considered sublime examples of Gothic fiction. The Gothic genre within Poe’s work such as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, and The Raven, arouse the pervasive nature of the dark side of individualism and the resulting encroachment of insanity. Gothic tales are dominated by fear and terror and explore the themes of death and decay. The Gothic crosses boundaries into the realm of the unknown, arousing extremes of emotion through the catalyst of disassociation and subversion of presence. Gothic literature utilises themes of the supernatural to create a brooding setting and an atmosphere of fear.
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
To please him and give him and incentive to beleieve in himself, the Wizard produces a brain made out of “bran, pins, and needles” to make him look “sharp” (Baum 160). The Wizard made a physical represntation of a percieved “brain” for the Scarecrow and it gave the self-assurance of his own intelligence that he needed to feel
Irving uses imagery to help readers imagine the past and also impact the theme of supernatural. Irving writes, “The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions; star shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole ninefold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols. The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback, without a head” (Irving 3-4). Once again, Irving makes a reference to the hessian soldier, the Headless Horseman, which brings back the past of the revolutionary war, he does this by using imagery in explaining what he looks like.
American Gothic stories also wrote about the supernatural such as ghosts, monsters, women in distress,
While Irving may poke fun at the idea of a simplistic moral, a clear maxim that one can easily digest, he nevertheless infuses his work with a message. If any “moral” could be taken from “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” it is that there are some places where reason cannot guide us. The possibility of a place where reason and rationality are no longer useful is a direct and sharp critique of the ideals of the Enlightenment. Through his “tools of the trade” as a storyteller, Irving effectively denounces the limits of Enlightenment thinking, and opens the door for the possibilities of Romanticism and the Gothic.
Irving, Washington. "Washington Irving, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."" The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Ed. Paul Lauter. Sixth. Vol. B. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009. 2321-40. Print. 2 vols. The Heath Anthology of American Literature.