Moral of Washington Irvings The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Essay

Moral of Washington Irvings The Legend of Sleepy HollowIn Washington Irvings short news report The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the remainder between nirvana and Romantic ideals is narrativized. Irvings story is an exploration of the divergence between these two schools of thought. Irving uses his setting, his characters, and his moral (or lack thereof) to criticism the Enlightenment. At inaugural reading, Sleepy Hollow may seem no more than a dreamy folk tale. But when read in the context of the rising resistance to Enlightenment thinking, it reveals itself to be a striking denunciation of the ideals of the Enlightenment. The grow of Enlightenment was characterized by the reign of moderateness. Enlightenment thinkers believed in the supremacy of rationalness above each(prenominal) other human faculties, and in the perfectibility of man and thusly society. Scientific understanding and the pursuit of knowledge were key pursuits in this time. philistinism was emphas ized as an overt rejection of the superstition of the Middle Ages. The ideals of the Enlightenment were rationality, objectivism, and the savant society based on pragmatism. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving uses all of the tools at his disposal as a storyteller to illustrate his review article of Enlightenment ideals. First of all, he creates an atmosphere and a setting where argue is at a loss. Also, he uses the character of Ichabod Crane to embody Enlightenment principles, and then has this character become a figure of ridicule. Additionally, Irving uses his conclusion to ram fun at the Enlightenment idea of literature as creation necessarily didactic. All of these elements come together to provide a perfect(a) indictment of the Enlightenment. ... ...e. He then has the storyteller himself question the veracity of the story with his final line, I dont believe one-half of it myself, which scorns not just the importance of a moral, but again questions the i mportance of truth and verifiability. While Irving may poke fun at the idea of a simplistic moral, a clear maxim that one can intimately digest, he nevertheless infuses his work with a message. If any moral could be taken from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, it is that there argon some places where reason cannot guide us. The possibility of a place where reason and rationality are no longer useful is a direct and sharp critique of the ideals of the Enlightenment. Through his tools of the trade as a storyteller, Irving effectively denounces the limits of Enlightenment thinking, and opens the inlet for the possibilities of Romanticism and the Gothic.