Washington Irving Romanticism

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What would it be like to live in a world of supernatural; to live in a world where knights fight monsters in order to win the heart of their girl? This is what the Romanticism world of literature is like. In the literature world, end of the 18th century, and the beginning of the 19th century was the time where Romanticism style writing was at it’s climax. It included fine detail, knights, monsters, supernatural, lush nature, and imagination. An author, by the name of Washington Irving, sought to create stories other than the dramatic, chivalrous, romantic stories that were dominating the world of literature. He wanted a book that would be amusing to read, and could have the reader laughing. From this desire, he created “The Legend of Sleepy …show more content…
In the Romantic writing world, the imagination was supreme, and Irving used Ichabod’s love for ghost stories to show that the imagination was not amazing, and left to itself it will turn to things like ghost stories. But Ichabod loved hearing horror stories, and imagining them and after filling his mind with these stories, he began believing them. One night, as he was riding on his horse, he thought he saw a headless horseman; riding in black clothes, holding his head in his hands. Ichabod was scared out of his britches. As he rode faster, the “headless horseman” threw something at Ichabod. It hit him. He thought it was the head of the horseman. But the “headless horseman” was actually a man by the name of Brom Bones. Brom Bones was a man who was also wanting the same girl that Ichabod was wanted. Ichabod soon finds out the Brom Bones only threw a pumpkin at him! Washington Irving also uses this to poke fun at Romanticism. He is showing that the supernatural monsters are not real, and how the imagination is not as “supreme” as the romanticism style portrays it. The headless horseman was only Brom Bones, a normal man, who was just dressed up. Ichabod does not defeat the “monster” the “headless horseman”, and he did not get Katrina Tassel. This is much different than Romanticism genre, where the knight normally kills the “monster” and in return for slaying the monster, he wins his girl. Washington Irving pokes fun at romanticism by making a ridicules “knight” who is unable to defeating the “monster”, or win the hand of his

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