Washington Irving's The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

Washington Irving is known as being one of the most famous American authors in history for his fresh take on romanticism. He has created innovative and exciting stories such as “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “The Devil and Tom Walker,” and “Rip Van Winkle” that continue to captivate those who read them even today. In these three stories, Irving takes a stance on what the early Americas were like as he creates settings full of both mystery and wonder. His settings are symbols of the American landscape’s mystery, danger, and potential, and he uses personification and motifs to convey this message. Irving creates mysterious settings in these three stories, which is representative of the mystery of the newly founded United States. In each of these
In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” Irving describes “twittering blackbirds” flying in the sky (Irving, “Legend” 24). In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Irving describes a “vulture” that flies away into the depths of the forest, after leaving an apron with “nothing but a heart and liver” in it (Irving, “Devil” 338). These motifs are both symbols of death. Death itself represents the unknown, and in these two instances, Irving’s incorporation of these symbolic animals contributes to the ambiance of mystery that Irving achieves in his description of setting. These animals also represent the dangers that were sometimes associated with venturing into the wilderness in the early Americas, and are symbolic of this unexplored
In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving uses the color black to refer to setting as he talks about ghosts that “walk in darkness” (Irving, “Legend” 12). These references to the color black create a tone of mystery because the color black and darkness carry the connotation of mystery, the unknown, and danger. In “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Irving uses the motif of darkness multiple times as he refers to a “dark grove,” and “black smothering mud” (Irving, “Devil” 329). These references to darkness are symbolic of the unknown territory of the United States, and they illustrate the mystery of the unexplored that the America’s had at the time, as well as the dangers involved with the unknown. Elisabeth Piedmont Martin argues in her essay that Irving adds these “gothic themes” into “The Devil and Tom Walker” in an almost satirical way as he refers to darkness and the devil (Martin 55). This gives a glimpse into Irving’s view that maybe the fear of the unknown is actually paranoia, and that it may be