Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a magnificent short story, with action, superstition, and a little humor all rolled into one. The story of the headless horseman has scared little children of Sleepy Hollow for many years. Then along came Hollywood and decided that Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” needed something more. Hollywood needed a more exciting main character in Ichabod Crane and story line to appeal to the twentieth century. Washington Irving had to write in a way that the reader could visualize Ichabod Crane and how utterly terrified he was of everything, whereas, Hollywood could use its own Jonny Depp to deliver a wonderful performance. Hollywood’s image for Sleepy Hollow needed more action, blood, more superstition, and better looking characters. Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and the movie “Sleepy Hollow” differ on three main points: 1) the story line, 2) the appearance of Ichabod Crane, and 3) the occupation of Ichabod Crane.
Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and the movie “Sleepy Hollow” different story lines. Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” starts with the arrival of Ichabod Crane to fill the position of school master in the township. There lingers in the air a superstitious feeling of the headless horseman. The horseman is a Hessian rider that would take the heads of his victims during battle. Ichaod Crane is met with criticism and practical jokes by the local Sleepy Hollow boys and their leader Brom Bones. Irving describes in his short story that “The neighbors looked upon him with a mixture of awe, admiration, and good-will; and when any madcap prank, or rustic brawl, occurred in the vicinity, always shook their heads, and...
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...asbeth, just in time for the new century. Even with changes to the legend, the movie still delivered a brilliant, exciting story. After reading the short story and watching the movie I appreciated the short story better. Even though the movie is very exciting, bloody, and sexy the short story is more mentally appealing. Washington Irving I believe wanted the reader to have a wonderful but short and to the point adventure. Irving succeeds again to give his readers both intrigue and a mind boggling experience.
Works Cited
Burton, Tim, Scott Rudin, and Francis Coppola F. Sleepy Hollow. Paramount Pictures.
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.
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.
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.
Instead, he made Ichabod Crane a detective who had his own vision on how to solve crimes. In the movie Ichabod is sent to the small village of Sleepy Hollow where a murder of three town’s people has occurred and they want him to solve it. Soon enough, he meets Katrina, whom Ichabod falls in love with, similar to Irving’s original story. Brom once again becomes jealous of this situation. The beginning of the story is very much similar to Washington Irving’s original. However, the main difference is that Ichabod is a detective; he is attempting to resolve a murder mystery. The murder consists of three people who had their heads cut off yet the heads are not being found anywhere. Even though Tim Burton did incorporate Washington Irving’s original story, he chose to include his own version of what happened. Only in the beginning does he chose to show Brom pretending to the cloaked horseman. Burton does include a sudden alteration; he decided to introduce magic and witchcraft. A witch controls an actual demon who was behind the killing who is the horseman. Katrina’s stepmother, who is the true witch, now possesses greed and
Irving, Washington. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd ed. Vol. 1. Ed. Jayne M. Fargnoli. New York: Houghton, 1998. 1354-1373.
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.
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
The narration in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow functions as a way to give authority to the women of Tarry Town. This power of feminine is elicit by Washington Irving who gives respect and superiority to women indirectly, but yet evidently through third person narration. Furthermore through Katrina he parallels the power of Tarry Town’s women by illustrating their agency to beget the downfall of Ichabod.
At a glance, you would think that Irving’s stories are just generally entertaining pieces of work, and aren’t necessarily pinpointing a certain group of people, right? Wrong. Irving’s texts incorporates some issues of gender equality and victimization within the stories. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Rip Van Winkle, and The Devil and Tom Walker, there were many examples of how Washington Irving discriminated against the female gender in these three texts.
Irving Washington. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 5th ed. Vol. 1. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1998. 948-69.
Have you ever imagined being asleep in the forest for twenty years, coming back home and not knowing what has gone on all those years of your absence? Rip Van Winkle went through that, and had to come back home and face some real changes. The author Washington Irving has some interesting characters whom he puts in his short stories. Irving puts some characters in his short stories to reflect on some of his life. For example, Irving has similarities between Rip Van Winkle being asleep in the forest 20 years and Irving was in Europe for seventeen writing short stories and being the governor’s aid and military secretary. These two situations are similar, because they both didn’t know what they were going to come back too and were gone for such a long period of time. Irving does put some of his own life into his short stories and with a reason for his self-reflective works.
...cenery of the town and the often odd spiritual occurrences that take place in the town. "Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs; are subject to trances and visions; and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions." (Irving 1). Using words and descriptions like he did, Irving makes Knickerbocker's stories more believeable because he makes the reader feel like they are actually in the town of Sleepy Hollow. With just a little imagination he turned a ghost story into a credible account of actions that actually took place just by using his fake historian Knickerbocker.
Irving, Washington. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Ed. Illustrated Arthur Rackham. United States: David McKay, 1928.
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
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.