Focusing again on the time period, our first introduction to this theme is one of Dutch New York against Urban New England. The Dutch community is sylvan, nostalgically conceived, changeless, and an Eden for its inhabitants. Ichabod arrives as a Yankee whose spoiling of this Eden simply cannot be tolerated -- and even more, by marrying the daughter of a wealthy and high-ranking community member, becoming part of Eden himself. This simply could not happen to a community that is so "European in nature."
Sleepy Hollow, as a town is clearly Dutch, with Dutch values, culture, and mores, or for riving, "population, manners, and customs, remain fixed." We see a bit of the conflict too when Ichabod proposed to exchange the "middle landscape" of the Van Tassel dowry for a piece of wild land in "Kentucky, Tennessee, or the Lord knows where." The region is more than a conglomeration of Europeans living in harmony with nature. Instead, the town is sheltered, resistant to change, its rather feminine characteristics, and more especially its vulnerability make it symbolic of one of the ideals of European Romanticism.
Indeed, this atmosphere is so central to the theme of the story that Ichabod comments, "It is remarkable that the visionary propensity I have mentioned is not confined to the native inhabitants of the valley, but is unconsciously imbibed by ever one who resides there for a time. However wide awake they may have been before they entered that sleepy region, they are sure, in a little time, to inhale the witching influence of the air, and beginning to grow imaginative -- to dream dreams, and see apparition." Intoxicating as this may be, we begin to wonder what Ichabod's true motivations are.
Certainly, despite his intellectualism, Ichabod suffers from the very human "virtue" of succumbing to the seven deadly sins. For example, our "scarecrow eloped from a cornfield," so far from the folk shows his errant ways on numerous occasions:
Sin
Example
Comments
Envy/Avarice
Ichabod's "large green glassy eyes.
Ichabod's desire for the Van Tassel lands
Part of a physical description and then with moral implications.
As the enraptured Ichabod . . . rolled his great green eyes over the fat meadow lands, the rich fields of wheat, of rye, of buckwheat, and Indian corn, and the orchard burthened with ruddy fruit, which surrounded the warm tenement of Van Tassel, his heart yearned after the damsel who was to inherit these domains, and his imagination expanded with the idea, how they might be readily turned into cash, and the money invested in immense tracts of wild land, and shingle palaces in the wilderness
Sloth
Avoids hard work in favor of light labor
Ichabod will assist "occasionally in the lighter labors of their farms." Bu avoids work by becoming "wonderfully gentle and ingratiating" with the women.
Gluttony/Envy
Coveted food and the idea of becoming a Lord
[Ichabod] was a kind and thankful creature, whose heart dilated in proportion as his skin was filled with good cheer, and whose spirits rose with eating, as some men's do with drink. He could not help, too, rolling his large eyes round him as he ate, and chuckling with the possibility that he might one day be lord of all this scene of almost unimaginable splendor.
Anger
Willingness to flog students
Mean spirited nature about the prospects of the farm
In some ways shows insecurity and the ability to use anger to disassociate
Ichabod, flush with food, contemplates the possibility of being "lord of all this scene." Here the surface parts to reveal how he contends emotionally with the prospect of success: "Then, he thought, how soon he'd turn his back upon the old school house, snap his fingers in the face of Hans Van Ripper, and every other niggardly patron, and kick any itinerant pedagogue out of doors that should dare to call him comrade!"
Lechery
Double entendre indicating sexuality mixed with lust (food or sex?)
Lust
Phallic symbology
After school he would sometimes follow students home "who happened to have pretty sisters, or good housewives for mothers, noted for the comforts of the cupboard."
Ichabod wants the fertile feminine land
Irving suggests that Ichabod's "long snipe nose… that looked like a weathercock" and "there are peculiar quavers still to be heard in that church, and which may even be heard half a mile off, quite to the opposite side of the mill pond, of a still Sunday morning, which are said to be legitimately descended from...
Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.
Get Started Now