1. What are the social, political, and philosophical standards, stated or implied, that Irving the satirist adopts in exposing the folly and degeneration of the times?
Irving uses the 20 years that Winkle was asleep to satirize the degeneration of the times. There was so much life in the world Winkle left behind and when he woke up the world was dead. The only thing people were concerned about were votes.
2. How just is the charge that Irving is fundamentally anti-feminist? Consider his descriptions of such maidens and matrons as Katrina Van Tassel and Dame Van Winkle. Are the men of Irving’s tales shown to be as foolish and knavish as the women?
Irving was not totally anti-feminist even though he portrayed the women in the story as nagging.
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Readers can conclude that the feeling of being free from her marriage to a lazy husband gave her a sense of peace to the point where she could die happily.
5. Discuss Irving’s use of a frame to separate the author or narrator from the story in Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
Irving writes so that the reader is under the assumption that the stories were found in the diary of Knickerbocker and so the reader accepts that as fact.
6. How just is the complaint that in writing The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving weakened a good story of the supernatural by introducing satire and humor?
The complaint is based on personal opinion. I feel like the story would not have been as good without the satire and humor adding that extra dynamic.
7. Is Ichabod Crane solely a caricature? What is the significance of his being a schoolmaster? Of his wooing Katrina? Of his return to Connecticut?
Crane’s sole purpose in the story is not to be a caricature. With him being a schoolmaster, it is assumed that he has so much knowledge but he is not any smarter than the other adults in the town. Crane wooing Katrina is significant because it is assumed that he flees town because of how scared he is of the legends and his return only makes it seem as if Sleep Hollow is the center for the