Characters of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
Ichabod Crane is the main character of the story who is from Connecticut, America. He gets a job as a school teacher and singing master in Sleepy Hollow, New York. He is a tall and thin young man who is a little greedy by nature. He is a strict master who uses a rod on misbehaving students but only against those, who can bear the rod. Ichabod Crane believes in mysterious happenings, ghosts, and the supernatural. Katrina Van Tassel is the only daughter of a wealthy farmer in Sleepy Hollow named Baltus Van Tassel. She is very beautiful, young, playful, and flirt and would often wear revealing dresses, expressing her figure in the best possible manner. She learns music from Ichabod who falls for her. Baltus Van Tassel is a rich, happy, and contended farmer who is not rude or proud. Abraham or Brom Van Brunt is the main rival of Ichabod as he too wishes to marry Katrina. Brom is a well-known rich person of Sleepy Hollow who is burly and boisterous in his behavior. He is known for his bravery and heroics and thus is nicknamed Brom Bones by the locals. Brom is a mischievous prankster and he is a skilled horse rider. Hans Van Ripper is a farmer of Sleepy Hollow at whose farmhouse Ichabid lodges. Ripper is a good helping man who lends a horse to Ichabod whenever he needs it. Diedrich Knickerbocker the narrator of the story was a Dutch historian.
Summary of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow:
The story begins with the statement that it has been found among the possessions of a deceased man named Diedrich Knickerbocker. The narrator describes the setting of the story which is based around 1797 in a bucolic area of ‘Tarry Town’ in New York. There is a village named Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod Crane who originally hails from Connecticut moves to Sleepy Hollow for a job as a school teacher and singing master. It is a Dutch settlement in New York which appears to be a bit gloomy and bewitched. All the inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow believe in ghosts and witches and they would often tell different ghost stories, especially involving a Headless Horseman, an old Hessian trooper whose head was shot off during the Revolutionary War, and who gallops off in search of it each night. The Horseman is seen most often riding by the church, where local historians say he was buried.
Ichabod, who himself was interested in ghosts and supernatural elements, found the village pleasing. He started living there at a farmhouse owned by Hans Van Ripper who appear to be a decent content man. Ichabod is a strict teacher but not a cruel one, doling out his punishment of the rod only to those who can handle it. Ichabod teaches students of the village leads the psalm singing lessons at church and enjoys flirting with the young women, who admire him for his intellectualism. Ichabod feels that he is the intellectual superior of every member of Sleepy Hollow. He also looks down on their old-fashioned, insular country ways. He enjoys spending time with the old Dutch wives to hear ghost stories and to tell his own, many of which come from Cotton Mather’s “History of New England Witchcraft,” which is his favorite book. Ichabod gets no salary or income through his teaching job and it is customary in the village for the farmers whose sons he teaches to feed and board him in rotation. To make some money and save, he begins offering private singing lessons.
Katrina Van Tassel is the daughter of a wealthy Dutch farmer in Sleepy Hollow. She is a student of Ichabod who is impressed by her beauty and flirtatious attitude. Once, her father Baltus Van Tassel invites Ichabod to his farmhouse and he gets startled by observing the wealthy environment of the house. He begins thinking that if he succeeds in getting the hand of Katrina in marriage, he will lead a rich life. However, soon he realizes that Katrina is loved by many, including the brawny, clever, and mischievous Brom Bones, who wander the villages looking for trouble with his gang of sidekicks. Brom isn’t a ruffian but he is a boisterous prankster with a good heart. Brom has already scared off many of Katrina’s other suitors, but Ichabod is harder to shake. Ichabod always avoids any physical altercation with Brom as that is Brom’s strength but he easily manipulates Brom intellectually. Brom, on his part, continues his pranks on Ichabod. He fills the schoolhouse with smoke, trains a dog to follow Ichabod around howling, and sets many other pranks to frustrate and humiliate Ichabod. Meanwhile, Ichabod continues his tries to woo Katrina who appears to be responding positively.
One day, a messenger comes with an invitation to Ichabod for a party at Baltus Van Tassle’s estate. Ichabod decides that it is the best chance for him to ask for a hand of Katrina in marriage. He feels thrilled and prepares well for the party in the evening. He even borrows a horse named Gunpowder from Hans Van Ripper.
At the party, Ichabod feels that he is the best man in the house. He decides to stay behind after the party and proposes to Katrina. However, Katrina disappoints him and Ichabod suffers a heartbreak. He immediately returns to the village. He finds the path home dark and eerily quiet. He tries to keep himself from getting too scared, but soon after he has passed the possibly haunted Major Andre’s tree, he sees a large, dark figure looming nearby. It does not respond to his call, but as he passes by, it starts to move and joins him on the path riding a large, dark horse. Ichabod is greatly disturbed and tries to shake off his pursuer, but he fails. Finally, he notices that the rider has no head on his shoulders; the head seems to be sitting on the saddle in front of the man. Ichabod tries to get his decrepit horse to run home as fast as it can, but he is not a skilled rider and the horse resists. He rides faster and faster, at one point losing Gunpowder’s saddle and fearing how angry Hans Van Ripper will be.
When Ichabod reaches near the church, he finds that the headless horseman is closing in. Thus, he hurriedly races to the bridge where the ghost is said to disappear and not follow. Ichabod crosses the bridge and looks back, but he sees the Horseman, instead of disappearing, hurls his detached head at him. It knocks Ichabod off of his horse. The next day Ichabod is missing, and a search party eventually finds the fallen saddle and horses’ hoof tracks next to a smashed pumpkin. Sometime later, an old farmer returns from New York with the news that Ichabod had run from the village from fear and to escape Katrina’s rejection but had become a successful lawyer and judge.
But the old Dutch wives and local folklore maintain that he was taken by the Headless Horseman.
At the end, there is a postscript from Diedrich Knickerbocker who claims that he heard this story at a restaurant during a business meeting in New York. Knickerbocker describes the storyteller as an older country gentleman with a good sense of humor. One of the elderly gentlemen who is tall, thin, and serious-looking, got annoyed at the storyteller and asked what is the moral of the story. The storyteller responded by saying that the story has three messages, first is to take a joke as we find it. Second, competing with someone sure to beat you is foolish. And thirdly, that some losses in life lead to better opportunities in the future. The annoyed gentleman claimed he still doubted the story’s veracity. At that point, the storyteller claimed he didn’t believe half of it himself. The postscript suggests that Ichabod surely survived the attack by the Headless Horseman which was nothing but another prank of Brom Bones. The storyteller appears to be Brom Bones himself during his older days while the other old, annoyed, tall, thin gentleman is Ichabod himself.
So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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