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Atmosphere In Rip Van Winkle And The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow

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Washington Irving is known as being one of the most famous American authors in history. He has created fresh and exciting stories such as “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” that continue to captivate those who read them even today. What makes his works so exciting is the tone and mood that he creates in each of his stories. In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” “Rip Van Winkle,” and “The Devil and Tom Walker,” Irving creates a mood of uncertainty and peculiarity. Irving uses contrasts, personification and imagery in his description of setting, and symbolism to create an atmosphere of mystery in his stories. Irving uses contrasting tones and ideas to confuse the reader and create mystery. Irving contrasts the realistic description of setting with the unearthly mystery, and tranquility with creepiness in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”. In this story Irving gives a fairly realistic description of the setting to the reader with vivid imagery and details. At the same time though, he is telling a tale that is not very realistic at all as he is talking about a “ghost” that has a “nightly quest for its head” (Irving, “Sleepy” 4). This realistic description of setting as well as other aspects in the story compels the reader to …show more content…

In the beginning of the story he says the “tapping of a woodpecker is almost the only sound that ever breaks in upon the uniform tranquility” (Irving, “Sleepy” 3). The tone of the story shifts though, as Irving starts to mention darkness numerous times in his description of setting and shifts the serene tone of the story to take a more mysterious feel as he describes goblins and “phantoms” that “walk in darkness” (Irving, “Sleepy” 12). This shifting tone creates an intriguing contrast that confuses the reader. This is a slow, but noticeable transition, which adds to the effect of mystery, as the reader is unsure of what is to come

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Washington Irving, an 18th century author, wrote a short story based on the legend of Faust which he named “The Devil and Tom Walker”. In “The Devil and Tom Walker” Washington Irving uses imagery to establish mood. First, when Tom Walker takes a shortcut home through a swamp, Irving describes the swamp as follows “The swamp was was thickly grown with great gloomy pines and hemlocks, some of them ninety feet high, which made it dark at noonday, and a retreat for all the owls of the neighborhood. It was full of pits and quagmires, partly covered with weeds and mosses, where the green surface often betrayed the traveler into a gulf of black, smothering mud; there were also dark and stagnant pools, the abodes of the tadpole, the bullfrog, and the watersnake; where the trunks of pines and hemlocks lay half-drowned, half-rotting, looking like alligators sleeping in the mire.

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The imagery of the first poem greatly contrasts from the overall tone. In “A Barred Owl,” Richard Wilbur describes an owl frightening a child and waking her from her slumber. Wilbur sets the scene with dark imagery: “The warping night air brought the boom/ Of an owl’s voice into her darkened

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Overall it can be assumed that Irving doesn’t have a positive viewpoint of society. In the story of “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” Ichabod, who probably represents the author the most, had a less than preferable outcome by the end of the book. He spends most of the story chasing after Katrina, but so is everyone else in the town. At one point it would look as if they truly have a good thing.

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“Rip Van Winkle” and the Emergence of an American Mythology. By Danise Bachman Rip van winkle in indeed a classic piece of American mythology. Washington Irving set this story in the past and filled it with exaggerated and sometimes, strange characters. It also features a mysterious and magical occurrence that put the main character to sleep for twenty years!

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Poe, who is often known for using challenging and varying sentence structure, uses elements of syntax such as polysyndeton and parallel structure to create a dark and ominous mood. Poe uses syntax in the first paragraph when he starts several sentences with “But in the…” and then names a specific room. This is effective because he describes each room with different features, but each feature has an equally discomforting feeling accompanying it. He uses polysyndeton in the second paragraph when he described the sound the clock made; he wrote, “...there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and exceedingly musical.” The combination of the different qualities of the sound are important because not only does it mirror the complex reaction the characters have to it, but it illustrates the significance of the clock.

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Irving’s Character Alikeness Biographical and short story writer, Washington Irving is known for his works “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” However, he does have additional short stories. Between 1819 and 1820, Washington Irving published The Sketch Book, which was made up of approximately 30 short stories. Within those works were characters such as John Bull, Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, and several other unnamed characters. Now, the nameless characters in Washington Irving’s tales had just as deep impacts in their stories as named characters; from those deep impacts came about noticeable character resemblances between those characters.

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Irving provides imagery in the way that the reader can picture the hard work Winkle is doing on the farm, only to be constantly nagged by his wife. Winkle then feels the need the “escape” from everything, just as most people do during their own stressful times (_). Consequently, this helps the audience connect with the main character on a personal level. Had the author not provided this section of imagery, the story likely would not have been as engaging for the reader.

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Irving's use of the supernatural theme is investigative and makes for a great story but lacks certainty. Make note of Brom and the fact that he laughs every time the abduction is mentioned. Also the narrator never really addresses the sadness of the townspeople. It seems like they were unaffected and will continue their usual routine. The people of sleepy hollow are never

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Also, In the Devil and Tom Walker, Irving didn’t make the devil very scary, he made him seem like a friend to Tom, so it wasn’t even that scary. This was demonstrated when the devil said to Tom, “You are the usurer for my money! When will you want the rhino?” (Irving 5) Unlike the Devil and Tom Walker, The legend of Sleepy Hollow drew me into the story because there was more suspicion. On the contrary, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow also had that horror factor to it.

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While Washington Irving was writing “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), it was the time when Great Britain reached independence and all over the world were going many changes. In this story, he described the small village with its rural life where everything remained the same far from the immigration and improvement of the

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There is always something that bothers us in life, whether it’s others or even our own conscious. In “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe, the narrator has a difficult time following through with his cruel acts because a part of him knows it’s truly wrong. Throughout the story, his crimes bring more tension between him and the old man. Suspense is created with his every move, leaving readers hanging on the edge of their seats. In “The Tell-Tale Heart”, Poe builds suspense by using symbolism, inner thinking, and revealing information to the reader that a character doesn’t know about.

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Hugh S. Dawson also added some thoughts to the ideas of Young, Fetterley and Fiedler about Rip Van Winkle that Rip Van Winkle being Gothic story once more shows the advantage of marriage to avoid from wasting life in impenetrable forest [6, 14/08/2015]. Another bestseller work of Washington Irving is “The Spectre Bridegroom” that also included in “The Sketch Book by Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.”. If Irving in “Rip Van Winkle” headed to mix the physical and metaphorical dream reflecting the sigh of freedom in colony, in this work he brought the new American breath to the old Europe. Unlike other works, Irving described the happened events in Germany. All these hinted at that Irving wanted to ruin the old fences around Europe that formulated for many years.

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The author wants to makes the reader tried to answer their own question with imagination and what they believed truly happened at the

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Suspense is an integral part of storytelling. Without suspense, certain stories would not create their intended effect. Edgar Allen Poe wrote many books and poems, which were all under a gothic theme. His writings were very dark and mysterious, and they all contained suspense. Poe’s novel “The Tell-Tale Heart” and his poem “The Raven” contain suspense, which is created through point-of-view, irony, and diction.

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The approach of Irving to the creation of national literary icons which will be accepted and read by every new generation could not be estimated. The activity of Irving in this direction almost always makes him different from the other authors. In “Rip Van Winkle” among the features which could be able to attract the attention of the reader we can point out the tone of the story. Indicating

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