Sleepy Hollow: American Gothic Essay

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Sleepy Hollow: American Anxiety Via American Gothic

The early Americans lived in an America that many are unfamiliar with in this day. Early America was a fierce wilderness rife with uncharted territories and much uncertainty. Thus, there was no doubt that early Americans felt a great deal of anxiety: anxiety about their futures and anxiety about their decision to leave England. Published in 1820, the story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving is a classic example of American gothic fiction and is a strong representation of the anxiety of the early colonists. Many of the supernatural elements of the short story "Sleepy Hollow" demonstrate a sense of fear about what is, and a fear about the environment, along with an aggravated apprehension about what was to come.

The sense of grimness and gloom is present throughout Irving's story and are tools which he uses to set the tone for the supernatural elements. However, these environmental tones are largely used as literary tools to help manifest the palpable anxiety of these early Americans. Irving clearly distinguishes himself from European Gothic writers who use castles, monasteries and comparable places as settings for their stories, by choosing a dark forest as his setting instead. The bulk of the story occurs on the bank of the Tappan Zee River at a small harbor on a little village known as Tarrytown: Irving asserts that the forest is known to be "one of the quietest places in the whole world" (3). This description alone is somewhat eerie because the description of the forest seems to indicate that there's an absence of activity: an absence of life. This descriptive line seems to suggest that the forest is so quiet it is observing one.

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This creates a strong sense of treachery and furthers the unsettling tone of the entire story. This detail also works to convey that latent sense of anxiety among the early settlers. This anxiety and sense of foreboding only grows: at the end of the story, the entire forest seems to absorb even more supernatural powers, transforming itself into an area of mystery and evil.

Another classic gothic device that Irving uses consistently are the choices of colors and light: the colors selected and mentioned help to convey the sense of darkness and with it, the sense of colonial unrest throughout the story. The most commonly used shades described in the story are black and white. Aside from black representing the gloomy and depressing it also indicates "the dismal end of the legend but also to depict the psychological state of the main protagonist, the schoolmaster Ichabod Crane, his awe and utter desperation" (narod.ru). In many ways one can interpret the story….....

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