49 pages • 1 hour read
Washington IrvingThe Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1820A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Literary Devices
Hearsay and Oral Storytelling
A popular storytelling technique in fiction from the 19th century is a first-person narrator relating a story that they have heard from someone else. This type of second-hand story is hearsay, or information that comes from a third-party source and cannot be verified, such as gossip or rumors. (Hearsay is also a legal term for evidence that is disallowed in court because it is unsubstantiated, but that is not the definition that is important here.)
On one hand, framing the story as having been told to the narrator by a witness or participant in its events gives the story an air of intimacy. Readers feel as if they are learning a secret, one that is only known by word of mouth. On the other hand, using hearsay as a narrative technique means that the narrator and the story are unreliable.
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is narrated by “the Late Dietrich Knickerbocker,” who is a fictitious Dutch historian invented by Washington Irving. This scholarly narrator lends credence to the story at first, but as the story moves on, it becomes clear that Knickerbocker is retelling a story told to him by some other unnamed source. It should also be noted that Ichabod Crane’s story takes place 30 years before the Knickerbocker relates it, and it is likely the story has become exaggerated if not completely fictionalized over those 30 years. This layered narration creates a tension between the “true story” aspect of hearsay and its unreliability, which makes such narratives compelling since the reader must decide what is true for themselves.
This device is particularly effective in ghost stories, which have traditionally circulated through oral storytelling. Irving calls Ichabod Crane’s story a legend, suggesting the truths it contains are symbolic rather than factual.
Exaggeration
Exaggeration is the representation of someone or something as more extreme than it is. As a literary device, exaggeration can evoke emotions and create strong impressions. Exaggeration is also an effective way of creating humor in a story.
Irving uses exaggeration in describing each of the characters with exaggerated features. Ichabod Crane is extremely tall and lank while Brom Bones is enormous in size and personality. Katrina has exaggerated female characteristics that border on salacious as Irving describes her as a “blooming lass” and a “tempting morsel,” and each description of the Headless Horseman gives him new, terrifying qualities (31). Their exaggerated features make the characters both caricatures and archetypes rather than individuals.
Pastoral Idyll
An idyll is a picturesque, idealized story that takes place in a beautiful setting. A pastoral idyll is one that takes place in the countryside. Pastoral idylls present life as simple and contented. Nature, rather than the city, is the primary setting, and the lives of the story’s characters revolve around nature, as they do in Sleepy Hollow. Pastoral idylls are spaces of tradition rather than change. Because idylls convey contentment and happiness, they are often used in romantic narratives, especially in the 19th century.
Idyll comes from the Greek word eidyllion and means “a little picture.” Thus, idylls usually contain vivid descriptions that appeal to the senses. Irving’s writing relies heavily on sensory details, and the soothing rhythm of his writing helps immerse the reader in Sleepy Hollow.
Idylls evoke feelings of calm, harmony, and peace. Irving introduces Sleepy Hollow as “one of the quietest places in the whole world,” where the only sounds are the murmuring brook and the chirping birds (3). When Ichabod wants to read, he “stretch[es] himself on the rich bed of clover bordering the little brook” near his schoolhouse (18). Irving describes the day of Baltus Van Tassel’s party as fine and autumnal and provides a long description of the clear sky, colorful forest, and plethora of birds (46). Van Tassel and his farm exemplify Sleepy Hollow’s idyllic qualities. Van Tassel is wealthy and content, and his farm is nestled in a “green, sheltered, fertile nook” by the Hudson River (23). Irving spends the next five pages describing in mouth-watering detail the farm’s abundance as Ichabod imagines all the food it will produce and how it will all be his after he marries Katrina.
Ichabod’s desire for food, the farm, Katrina, and her father’s wealth is significant because it positions Ichabod as an outsider looking in on all the luxuries of an idyllically peacefully life he cannot have. Ichabod comes from out of state; he is educated, and, unlike the hearty residents of Sleepy Hollow, he is angular and thin. He embodies none of the characteristics associated with the pastoral idyll, though he is literally and metaphorically hungry for everything the idyll represents. The Headless Horseman ousts Ichabod from Sleepy Hollow because he does not belong.
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