S

English American Before 1990s

The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

CHAPTER I

Introduction

A. Background of Choosing the SubjectFew stories have captured our imagination like “The Legend of

Sleepy Hollow.” This very American story became an instant classic when Washington Irving penned it nearly two centuries ago. Set in New York’s Hudson River Valley, the tale of Ichabod Crane and a Headless Horseman combines comedy, romance, and horror. Crane, a superstitious outsider, competes with local hero Brom Bones for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a wealthy farmer. Brom’s pranks on the jittery schoolmaster set the stage for one of literature’s most famous rides

Fiction is a part of Literature. There are many literary works in fictions like myths and legends, mysteries and detectives, and horror series and ghost stories or the invisible creatures. Don D’Ammassa in his book, Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction, he classifies fantasy and the supernatural both evolved from myths, legends, and folklore later developed into fairy tales, which though ostensibly written for children were often contrived with adults in mind (2006: v). Supernatural horror is as old as the first story-teller squatting by a campfire. Although much more popular in Europe than in the United States, it has not developed into a significant separate genre on either side of the Atlantic. The oldest and most familiar form of supernatural horror is the ghost story, and, in fact, during the first part of the 20th century, all supernatural horror was referred to as “ghost stories” even if there were no ghosts involved at all (2006: vii).

Ghost stories commonly talk about the existence of the invisible creature. In the writer’s opinion, the invisible creatures really exist, but it does not mean that all myths or ghosts can be believed logically. It depends on each individual’s belief also; there are ghosts in people’s imaginations. Because

people are human beings, so people do not know how the invisiblecreatures are showed. Talking about invisible creatures, there are Angel and Jinn, and abstract thing that people called as mystery. Jane Bachman Gordon and Karen Kuehner (1974:346) classify a mystery into a fiction. A mystery may have spies, ghost, vampires, visitors from outer spaces, or criminals. It certainly has characters confronting an unexplained event or solving a puzzle. Then, what kind of the relationship between fictions and myths, legends and horror series or ghost stories? Here, the writer takes one of the most popular American fictions; it is The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. This story has substances of mystery, myth, legend, and culture.

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B. Objective and Scope of the StudyThis paper is intended to analyze the charateristic of romanticism

of The legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving. The main paper of this paper is the Mysticism and it will also to dicuss the element that built the mysticism. In this case Mysticism refers to supernatural mysticism as seen in the story. The analysis is limited on the boundary of the mysticism elements within the story and some of the author’s way of supporting the elements of mysticism in the story and the implication.

C. Problem Statement The legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving has the

characteristic of mysticism in the story. And in this paper i will showing the quote and explain some part of mysticism things in the story.

D. Theoretical Approach

The text examined by analyzing the mystical elements of the text by using mythological approach. The myth critic is conserned to seek out those mysterious elements that uniform certain literary works and elicit, with almost uncanny force, dramatic and universal human behavior (Guerin.1999.158). Some media and genres are used to tell stories (for example novels, and short stories), others show them (for instance, and for performance media).

E. Method Of Research

This paper uses qualitative research. According to Oxford dictionary, qualitative concerned with how good something is, rather than how much of it there is (2008: 359). Then, Bogdan and Taylor state that qualitative method is a method that produces descriptive data in the form of words, written or spoken (as cited in Ratna, 2010: 5). The kind of qualitative research that is used in this analysis is library research. The study of the theories, story text, and all supporting book is done by searching and collecting the object sources from the library. Then, to support the data, the writer also visits websites.

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CHAPTER II

Background Information

A. Biographical Sketch of The Author’sWashington Irving, (born April 3, 1783, New York, N.Y., U.S.—

died Nov. 28, 1859, Tarrytown, N.Y.) writer called the “first American man of letters.” He is best known for the short stories “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle.” (Britannica.com)

Both of which appear in his book The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. His historical works include biographies of George Washington, Oliver Goldsmith and Muhammad, and several histories of 15th-century Spain dealing with subjects such as Christopher Columbus, the Moors and the Alhambra. Irving served as the U.S. ambassador to Spain from 1842 to 1846. (en.wikipedia.org)

He made his literary debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the Morning Chronicle, written under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle. After moving to England for the family business in 1815, he achieved international fame with the publication of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. in 1819–20. He continued to publish regularly — and almost always successfully — throughout his life, and just eight months before his death (at age 76, in Tarrytown, New York), completed a five-volume biography of George Washington. (en.wikipedia.org)

After a 17-year absence Irving returned to New York in 1832, where he was warmly received. He made a journey west and produced in rapid succession A Tour of the Prairies (1835), Astoria (1836), and The Adventures of Captain Bonneville (1837). Except for four years (1842–46) as minister to Spain, Irving spent the remainder of his life at his home, “Sunnyside,” in Tarrytown, on the Hudson River, where he devoted himself to literary pursuits. (Britannica.com)

B. Social BackgroundIn fact, the literature has always had an attachment to the situation and

the conditions surrounding it. It tersiratdalam the statement expressed the Warren and Wellek (1949) in their book entitled Theory of Literature, as follows:

“Literature is a social institution, using as its medium language, a social creation. (...) But, furthermore, literature’ represents’ ‘life’;and ‘life’ is, in large measure, a social reality, eventhough the natural world and the inner or subjective world of the individual have also been objects of literary ‘imitation’. The poet himself is a member of society, possessed of aspecific social status: he receives some degree of social recognition and reward; headdresses audience, however hypothetical. Indeed, literature has usually arisen in close connexion with particular social

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institutions (...). Literature has also social function, or ‘use’, which cannot be purely individual.” (Wellek dan Warren, 1949: 94)

In the quote above, Warren and Wellek detailing reasons why literature and the environment called have a close attachment to one another. First, literature is a social institution which also uses the medium of creation society, IE languages. It is a logical consequence, since the literature requires a language in order to be carried on the community well. Second, the literature represent "life", in the broad sense is referred to as a social reality. Although only a fiction author, ' life ' in the literary work can be said to be a clone who compiled based on real life.

Based on the above description, it can be noted that there is an attachment between literature and society as its environment. As a result of attachment to their surroundings in the form of that society, literary works can be examined from the perspective of literary sociology. Damono revealed that literary works can be seen in terms of Sociology by considering in terms of the facet. Facet facet societal concern human beings with their environment, the structure of society, institutions, and social processes.

Damono disclosed that if literature is associated with social structure, family relationship, conflict class, danlain etc, then sociology of literature can be used as a research standpoint (through Ratna, 2003:2-3). Ratna also stated that in the sphere of literary sociology, literature to understand by way of discussing aspects of kemasyarakatannya, regard literary works with the background society, and the relationship between society and the literary work (Ratna, 2005:2-3)

The late eighteenth century makes America economically wealthier. However, the rising materialism causes disillusionment. The materialistic values and inequities of American society emerge the dissatisfaction, and American Romanticism gainsstrength. The changes caused by the industrial revolution pushed the writers in their inner being and then they used symbols and imagination to express their feelings. They escaped from the cities to nature. The literary and philosophical theory sees the individual at the center of life, and thus, it places the individual at the center of art. It also sees in nature a reflection of Truth that is God.

Romanticism seeks to find the actual reality through intuition. There are two subgenres of the movement, which are the light and the dark romanticism. The light romanticism is not an often used term to describe authors like Washington Irving, whereas the dark romanticism is more used term especially for those like Edgar Allan Poe,Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville. These subgenres share similar characteristics but there are striking differences. The light Romantics are optimist because they have their solutions unlike the dark Romantics. They are both pessimist and optimist, thus, they are somehow realistic Romantics.

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The Light Romantics solve the problems of the society by searching the past. A comparative exploration of the stories in this study indicates these features. Ultimately, the works discussed in this paper have come to be viewed as emblematic of dark and light subgenres of the Romantic era. (sosyalarastirmalar.com)

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CHAPTER III

Mysticism Aspect In Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow short story tells the three aspects of social setting, cultural setting, and psychological condition based on intrinsic analysis, which the three aspects can to influence Ichabod Crane in having coward characterization.

The typical symbols of negative romanticism are individuals who are filled with guilt, despair, and cosmic and social alienation. They are often presented, for instance, as having committed some horrible and unmentionable crime in the past. They are outcasts from men and from God; they are almost always wanderers on the face of the earth. The other term used to define the opposite of the negative romanticism is the Positive Romanticism, as Eberhard Alsen puts forth. He puts the definition as “the ideological core of Positive Romanticism is a worldview that is grounded in philosophical idealism” (2000, 3). Alsen explains the positive romanticism shortly as “the imagination that reveals to the positive Romantics the spiritual world of essences beyond the physical world of appearances” (2000, 4).

In analyzing the aspecs of mysticism which reflect romantic charaterictic, this paper will discuss how mysticism provoked the nature, mysticism influence the character and mysticism provokes Ichabod’s exploration in The Sleepy Hollow by Irving.

A. Mysticism Provoked by the NatureSetting is the place or the location in the story. The setting can

provide a spesisific mood that will support the theme and the plot. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Irving that has the essence of mysticism, the setting in mainly gloomy. There are quotes and the opinion from the author’s point of view that can support mysticism by the nature. Example include:

“And under the sun, Irving’s sound imagery records this American energy to the last twittering note”.

(academia.edu)

Those word it is clear that Irving trying to evoked mysticism through ih his description in nature. By his description of the nature in Sleepy Hollow, Irving composes a bustling symphony of imagery in Ichabod’s students toiling. Irving gives the tweeting, a time-tried symbol of dawn and the early bustling of an earnest working day for the American farmer, his own percussive qualities, as he goes about “clapping his burnished wings, and crowing with pride” (954).

“some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield,”(academia.edu)

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Those words contain of mysticism of the place. There is a relentless quality in Irving’s descriptions and Ichabod becomes a creature who revels in the devouring of things. Irving does not hesitate to show Ichabod is “a huge feeder, and though lank [has] the dilating powers of an Anaconda” (951). In Ichabod’s eyes, all is edible.

“assists the farmers occasionally in the light labors of their farms, help[s] make hay, mend[s] the fences, [takes] the horses to water, [drives] the cows from pasture, and cut[s] wood for the winter fire” (951).”

(academia.edu)

This passage suggest the place when Ichabod sets up the prosperous farmer, Baltus Van Tassel, as the perfect picture in his hunger for the fruits of industry as he chuckles with the possibility that he might one day be lord of all the luxury and splendor that American wealth brings.

"Van tassel stronghold located on the banks of the Hudson River, in one of the Green, fertile corner of safeguard, in which the Netherlands farmers are very fond of nestling. Discuss the great elm tree spread wide branches on it, at the foot of the bubbling springs from the most gentle and sweet water”

(academia.edu)

This quote illustrates the mysticism of the place which in the above places is a stronghold location very far and hard covered by extensive warehouse is the farmhouse, every window and crevice that looked full of stuff with farm.

After reading the analysis, it is clear that Irving tries to evoke mysticism through his description in nature. By his description of the nature in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I got fourth the words that support the mysticism in nature.

B. Mysticism in Urban LegendAn urban legend, popular legend, urban myth, urban tale or

contemporary legend is a form of modern folklore consisting of fictional stories, often with macabre elements deeply rooted in local popular culture. These legends can be used for entertainment purposes, as well as for semi-serious explanations for random events such as disappearances and strange objects. (en.wikipedia.org) Here on Sleepy Hollow Road, where the pavement crosses Hite

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Creek, there once stood a covered bridge, crossing the meeting of the creek and Sleepy Hollow Lake. Legend has long had it that from perhaps an even earlier bridge, mothers once tossed unwanted, crippled or otherwise burdensome babies, perhaps born from incestuous relationships into the deep pools which formed below, which eventually wash into the nearby Ohio River. According to the tale, when the moon shines down on the bridge from above, and the night is still, you can still hear the screams and cries of these hapless victims, as well as the mournful wails of their doomed mothers. (gothichorrorstories.com)

Here is a part of text which is taken from the short story of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a short story which was written by Washington Irving.

“The dominant spirit, however, that haunts this enchanted region, and seems to be commander-in-chief of all the powers of the air, is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head. It is said by some to be the ghost of a Hessian Trooper, whose head had been carried away by cannon-ball.” (Irving: 12)

From the passage above, it can be imagined that the setting of the place is and horrible. Then, the other lines of the story above tell about a ghost series of legendary superstition and furnished materials of believing in those religion shadows.

“night-time imagery with the two notoriously haunted locations of Sleepy Hollow: the tulip-tree of Major Andre and Raven Rock.”

(gothichorrorstories.com)

This quotation is about the legend place in Sleepy Hollow that called Raven Rock. There are mournful cries and wailings heard… about the great-tree where the unfortunate Major Andre was taken. (962). The woman in white who haunts the dark glen at Raven Rock is often heard to shriek on winter nights before a storm. (These sound images shamefully remind Crane’s scholarly audacity of the “the stories of ghosts and goblins that Ichabod had heard in the afternoon come crowding upon his recollectionWhile the schoolmaster can tolerate such stories in the heat of daily American industry, he cannot anticipate or confront their full power under a night sky in the flat gallop of his imagination.

“... there lies a small market town which is generally known by the name of Tarry Town.”

(gothichorrorstories.com)

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This passage is about one of urban legen place named Tarry Town. Some say that the place was bewitched during the early days of the Dutch settlement; others, that an old Indian chief, the wizard of his tribe, held his powwows there before the country was discovered by Master Hendrick Hudson. Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power that holds a spell over the minds of the descendants of the original settlers. They are given to all kinds of marvelous beliefs, are subject to trances and visions, and frequently hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions.

C. Mysticism In the Character

This chapter will discuss the characteristics of the character that either causes or affected by the mysticism in the story.

1. Headless HorsemanHeadless Horseman the task of exposing—on Ichabod's behalf—Ichabod's gendered failures erase the excruciating specificity of Irving's description of the actual, rather than merely symbolic, violence perpetrated against Ichabod. Such readings (quite unwittingly, I am sure) collude with Brom Bones and the narrator, for, as one critic puts it.

“spirit that haunts this enchanted region is the apparition of a figure on horseback without a head or known as Headless Horseman”

(study.com)

As the passage suggests, the Horseman become renoewned by the people i Sleepy Hollow. 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, and who is ever seen by the countryfolk, hurrying along in the gloom of the night as if on the wings of the wind. Historians of those parts allege that the body of the trooper having been buried in the yard of a church at no great distance, the ghost rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head; and that the rushing speed with which he sometimes passes along the Hollow is owing to his being in a hurry to get back to the churchyard before daybreak. The specter is known, at all the country firesides, by the name of the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow.

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2. Brom BonesHe was broad-shouldered, with short curly black hair, and a

bluff but not unpleasant countenance, having a mingled air of fun and arrogance. From his Herculean frame, he had received the nickname of "Brom Bones." He was famed for great skill in horsemanship; he was foremost at all races and cockfights; and, with the ascendancy which bodily strength acquires in rustic life, was the umpire in all disputes. He was always ready for either a fight or a frolic, but had more mischief and good humor than ill will in his composition. He had three or four boon companions who regarded him as their model, and at the head of whom he scoured the country, attending every scene of feud or merriment for miles round.

"Brom Bones [who] shortly after his rival's disappearance conducted the blooming Katrina in triumph to the altar, was observed to look exceptionally knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related, and always burst into a hearty laughter at the mention of the pumpkin, which led some to suspect that he knew more about the matter than he chose to tell"

(study.com)

As reflected in the quotation above Such was the formidable rival with whom Ichabod Crane had to contend. Considering all things, a stouter man than he would have shrunk from the competition. Ichabod had, however, a happy mixture of pliability and perseverance in his nature; he was in form and spirit like a supplejack - though he bent, he never broke.

3. Katrina Van TasselKatrina Van Tassel, a beautiful young woman of

eighteen, is one of Ichabod’s students. She is also the only child of Baltus Van Tassel, one of the more successful farmers in the area. Ichabod is quickly taken in by her flirtatious charms, but it is when he first visits her father’s abundant farm that he considers himself truly in love with her, or at least her likely inheritance.

“Katrina occupies the fancy of others beside Ichabod: "the numerous rustic admirers, who beset every portal to her heart, keeping a watchful [End Page 87] and angry eye upon each other, but ready to fly out in the common cause of any competitor."

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(study.com)

This passage is telling about the Ichabod’s and Katrina. This hero had for some time singled out the blooming Katrina for the object of his uncouth gallantries; and though his amorous toyings were something like the gentle caresses of a bear, yet it was whispered that she did not altogether discourage his hopes. Certain it is, his advances were signals for rival candidates to retire; insomuch that, when his horse was seen tied to Van Tassel's paling on a Sunday night, all other suitors passed by in despair.

D. Evocation of Exploration

Ichabod’s boundless (and undisciplined) imagination is an embedded trait that seems as American as the apple orchards of his native Connecticut, but will certainly doom him to failure.

"Ichabod was still alive; that he had left the neighborhood, partly through fear of the goblin . . . partly in mortification at having been suddenly dismissed by the heiress." [End Page 86]

Ichabod, according to the old farmer, becomes a lawyer, a politician, an electioneer, a newspaperman, and then a judge.

But in the last paragraph, the narrator tells us that "the best judges of these matters"—that is, "the old country wives"—maintain up to the present that Ichabod was "spirited away by supernatural means." With astonishing swiftness, in the very next clause of this sentence, Ichabod is reified as legend: "and it is a favorite story often told about the neighborhood around the winter evening fire." "The unfortunate pedagogue" returns as the ghost who, it is believed, haunts the decaying remains of the "deserted" old schoolhouse.

E. Survival of The Fittest

In the end of the story, there is strong relation that Brom Bomes is the Headless Horseman that attacks Ichabod’s Crane with the intention of getting him out of the town thius removing him from the competition of attaining Katrina Van Tassel’s heart.

Ichabod’s imagination thus makes his life more difficult, but it does not seem to alter his behavior, since his imagination leads him to think the supernatural things are real. He continues to read these stories, and he continues to walk home after dark. His imagination in its fantasizing function does, however, seriously affect his life in that it reinforces his

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impotence. Ichabod’s imagination is so powerful that he believes himself essentially already the owner of the Van Tassel farm. Because he gets so much joy out of this fantasy, he forgets that he has to put forth an effort to make it into a reality, so he does not.

Ichabod also tries to woo Katrina, imagining his future life with her. But he does not take Brom seriously enough as a rival, nor does he do anything to prove that he could be a husband who would offer anything to Katrina besides singing lessons. Thus Ichabod’s powerful imagination renders him impotent in reality.

This story also be seen the condition of American society ath the time. The lack of history and continuity in America, like the lack of class structure, is apparent in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and is even more apparent in the rest of the collection, which offers the European contrast. Sleepy Hollow’s overabundance of ghost stories, when compared to other American neighborhoods, is explained by the fact that it is an old village, whose inhabitants are largely descendants of the original settlers. Thus, even though it is an American village, it is presented as more like a European village than most American neighborhoods, which allows it to have legends.

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CHAPTER IV

Conclusion

In concluding of the Analysis, it is importantant to retrace the charaterictics of romanticism provided in the story, which include mysticism, nature, and love. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is an endearing and charming tale full of good humor, yet it has serious social implications. It questions whether change and progress are better than stability and order. The old virtues of the settlers are more important than those of the destroyers. Irving sides with Katrina, who has rejected Ichabod’s advances, and Brom Bones, who defeats his rival by playing on the hero’s irrational fears. Irving implies that the practical man always will defeat the dreamer. With the creation of “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” even if Irving had written nothing else, he would be elevated to literary greatness, because he fashioned two great American myths that perfectly symbolized American ideals and aspirations.

In my conclusion However, Ichabod does not have this balance. [In his tale, Irving perceives balance and control in terms of horsemanship.] And Ichabod is an “unskillful rider” who loses control of Gunpowder at the bridge and bounces about, having lost his saddle in his flight from the Headless Horseman . Crane’s abundance of effort and lack of grace leads Lewis Leary to conclude that “bloodless Ichabod is father to many confident, untrained, blundering, successful native heroes” In this light, Brom Bones must win Katrina, as he has “skill in horsemanship, being dexterous on horseback as a Tartar” Ichabod seeks the same prize, but cannot balance the imaginative aspects of his American appetite.

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