The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving - Analysis

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Themes

·       Cotton Mather's Tales of Witchcraft lend a feel of realistic supernatural, of historical accuracy

·       Tentative language in regards to the supernatural
“This has ever since been considered a haunted stream, and fearful are the feelings of the schoolboy who has to pass it alone after dark”


Devices

·       Lists
“Under this were hung flails, harness, various utensils of husbandry, and nets for fishing in the neighboring river. Benches were built along the sides for summer use; and a great spinning-wheel at one end, and a churn at the other, showed the various uses to which this important porch might be devoted”

·       Run-on sentences

·       Lots of semi-colons

·       Maxims
“I profess not to know how women's hearts are wooed and won. To me they have always been matters of riddle and admiration. Some seem to have but one vulnerable point, or door of access; while others have a thousand avenues, and may be captured in a thousand different ways. It is a great triumph of skill to gain the former, but a still greater proof of generalship to maintain possession of the latter, for man must battle for his fortress at every door and window”

·       Great detail (mostly natural)
“The sequestered situation of this church seems always to have made it a favorite haunt of troubled spirits. It stands on a knoll, surrounded by locust-trees and lofty elms, from among which its decent, whitewashed walls shine modestly forth, like Christian purity beaming through the shades of retirement. A gentle slope descends from it to a silver sheet of water, bordered by high trees, between which, peeps may be caught at the blue hills of the Hudson. To look upon its grass-grown yard, where the sunbeams seem to sleep so quietly, one would think that there at least the dead might rest in peace. On one side of the church extends a wide woody dell, along which raves a large brook among broken rocks and trunks of fallen trees.”


Keywords

·       Spectres
·       Supernatural
·       Terror
·       Schoolmaster
·       Sleepy Hollow
·       Ichabod
·       Katrina Van Tassel
·       Dutch
·       Cozy words: nook, sleepy, dream, cove
·       Abraham=Brom Van Brunt=Brom Bones
·       Bird descriptions
·       Gunpowder (horse)
·       Hans Van Ripper

The Washington Irving Monument in Alhambra

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