Literary Research Essay: Analysis of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

This assignment is a literary research essay focusing on Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The essay requires students to conduct research, analyze the story, and incorporate outside sources to support their arguments. The provided solution includes a selection of quotes from various critical sources that explore different aspects of the story, such as character analysis of Ichabod Crane, the themes of greed, envy, and psychological terror, and the symbolism within the narrative. The assignment brief specifies the essay's length, the required approach (Formalist strategy), and the grading breakdown. The research portion constitutes 50% of the grade, emphasizing the importance of the provided research materials. The essay aims to analyze the literary elements employed by Irving to enhance the text and requires students to select a poem or short story from a given list, or obtain instructor approval for an alternative selection. The assignment's structure and deadlines are clearly outlined, emphasizing the importance of timely submission.

1. Annotated Primary Source:
Irving, Washington, and Harriet Marie Johnson. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Gregg
Publishing Company, 1986.
2. Quotes from Arnold, David LG. "Fearful pleasures, or" I am twice the man": The re-
gendering of Ichabod Crane." Literature/Film Quarterly 31.1 (2003): 33.
“Irving’s Ichabod Crane is an interloper, a representative of not only of thoughtless rapacity but
also of creeping urbanization and industrialization, who must be expelled to preserve the idyllic
homogeneity of Sleepy hollow”
3. Quotes from Primlyn, A. Linda. "Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and “The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow” as American Folklore: A Representation of Headway."
Dialogue-A Journal Devoted to Literary Appreciation 12.01 (2016): 46-51.
“Also he is a ravenous eater and his appetite exposes his avariciousness and greed”
4. Quotes from Wells, Liz, Theopisti Stylianou-Lambert, and Nicos Philippou. Photography
and Cyprus: Time, Place and Identity. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014.
“In Ichabod, the reader sees the country schoolmaster as a clownish buffoon of questionable
intelligence and meager education”
5. Quotes from Tucker, Kristine. "What Is The Tone Of Irving's Short Story "The Legend
Of Sleepy Hollow"?". Education.Seattlepi.Com, 2019,
https://education.seattlepi.com/tone-irvings-short-story-the-legend-sleepy-hollow-
5373.html. Accessed 25 Mar 2019

“Irving describes Ichabod Crane as having “green glassy eyes”, a phrase that symbolizes his
envy and greed”
6. Quotes from Plate, S. Brent. "Sleepy Hollow." Journal of Religion & Film 4.1 (2016): 11.
“Within the world of surreal, distinctions between life and death, good and evil, birth and death
dissolve and the monstrous headless horsemen may actually be seen as a symbol of justice,
purging the community of its deadly sins of greed, lust and envy”.
7. Quotes from Greven, David. "Troubling Our Heads about Ichabod:" The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow," Classic American Literature, and the Sexual Politics of Homosocial
Brotherhood." American Quarterly 56.1 (2004): 83-110.
“Woman’s lust for man’s severed head, the sea of the brain, that great clot of seminal fluid. He
is in her sphere of power – and the violence that ensues can be seen as either a tribute to her or
the fulfillment of of her stratagems”