The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

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.
Irving draws out Katrina Van Tassel only in relation to the farm not to demean her, but rather to bring out her importance in the town to expose the dominance of women in Tarry Town. At the beginning of the story Knickerbockers sets the importance of women by stating that the town’s “name [is] given by the good housewives.” To emphasize this influence of women, Katrina is juxtaposing to the farm which develops that women are the central power of the town. This is evident in the following passages;
Katrina Van Tassel [is] the only child of a substantial Dutch Farmer. She was blooming lass of fresh eighteen; plump as a partridge; ripe and melting and rosy-cheeked as one of her father’s peaches.
His stronghold was situated on the banks of the Hudson, in one of those green, sheltered, fertile nooks in which the Dutch farmers are so fond of nesting.
Through juxtaposition, Katrina, “the only child of a substantial Dutch farmer,” being born into nobility represents the literal and metamorphic power of females. The farm is the central “stronghold” for the village that provides sustenance for the villagers. Similarly by depicting Katrina as “partridge or peaches,” Irving elicits Katrina literal power through wealth. Here the power of wealth is assign to a female character rather than men to illustrate how she is beginning to break the norms...

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... over her choice of marriage partner demonstrates that Katrina is not a typical woman of eighteen century. Also through repetition of word “women” Irving emphasizes that women have a responsibility of Ichabod’s downfall. Katrina rebuff Ichabod is shown through her dancing with Ichabod to show “off any of her coquettish tricks,” and then rejects him. On the parallel, Irving demonstrates the power of women by speaking of them with high level of respect. For instance in the last paragraph he states that women of town are “best judges of these matters.” Through the use diction “judge” Irving demonstrates the superiority of women in the town who have decide the fate of Ichabod by making him a tourist attraction. Furthermore Irving explicitly states that the sole reason of Ichabod downfall is “a woman” because he was “struck with witch’s token” of love and storytelling.