2de6-TLSH-Ichabod

Following the comprehensive description of Ichabod, which, interestingly enough, follows the previously observed movement in the description of the setting, the narration transitions to another character who can be interpreted - in narrative terms - as the "conflict" that will drive the narrative forward: Katrina Van Tassel.

The opening pages have introduced the reader to the setting, and the eponymous legend, namely that of the Headless Horseman. While Sleepy Hollow is grounded in a realistic setting - the narrator taking great pains to precisely locate it, seemingly following the route first taken by the original Dutch settlers - it is also depicted as a "spellbound region" whose "witching power" appears to be somehow contagious. Following the original extreme wide shot of the whole Bay of Hudson that progressively closes in on Sleepy Hollow and its peculiar inhabitants, the narration zooms out in an effort to depict Sleepy Hollow in relation to the outside world, before once again zooming in - this time - on the main character, Ichabod Crane, whose multi-faceted and multi-dimensional portrait the narrator delectably lingers on.

1. Situating the passage

Analysis of pages 314 to 319

Lesson 2: Ichabod Crane

Even before analyzing the text in detail, the analysis of the way the portrait is structured reveals that Ichabod is from the start characterized by his versatility and his striking ability to adapt; as well as by his devouring passion for stories - of any kind it turns out, but more specifically spooky stories.

Flights of Imagination

Dutch Relish

A Taste for the Marvellous

Delighting in Stories

"Traveling Gazette"

A Ladies Man

The Singing Master

A Humble Abode: the School and its Pupils

Inflicting Justice: the Champion of the Weak

A Protean Character

A Nomadic Kind of Life

The School Master

Introducing Ichabod: origin and physical appearance.

2. Structure of the passage

F.O.C. Darley

Daniel Huntington

Norman Rockwell

Edwin Austin Abbey

b. Famous Illustrations

a. Students' Drawings

3. Ichabod Crane's Physical Description

III - Instability of the Narrative Voice and Undecidability

II - An Outsider

I - A Memorable Character

I - A Memorable Character 1. Comic effect * The very first words that are used to introduce Ichabod - "worthy wight" - consist of a disyllabic and a monosyllabic word which are brought together, and somehow made inseparable, by an alliteration that turns the two words into a formula, a label almost, that sticks, and makes the character, from the very beginning, unforgettable. * Meanwhile, the pompous formula casts doubt on the character's "worthiness", especially coming after the narrator's tongue-in-cheek humorous asides that the passage opens on. * Perfect match between his name and his appearance + tone of narrator: "The cognomen of Crane was not innaplicable to his person" => Litotes (an understatement/ saying less to mean more) => reader is to understand that it is in fact completely applicable and adequate. * Physical description that is far from being neutral: use of hyperbole ("exceedingly" l.10) + alliteration in /l/ => letter that mirrors Ichabod's appearance: as straight, and thin, and tall. 2. A graphic depiction that makes the character memorable * Towards the end of the physical description, the narrator unambiguously, although not directly, appeals to the reader's sense of sight to actually "see" Ichabod, in fact emphasizing what he and the reader have been doing all along. Although the narrator does not, in that instance, directly address the reader, and instead hides behind an impersonal pronoun and an hypothetical modalization ("one might have mistaken him" lines 17-18), he nevertheless unmistakably invites the reader to see Ichabod as he does. As it is, Ichabod's depiction is so striking as to make it near impossible for the reader not to picture him vividly.

3. Ichabod Crane's Physical Description

* The enumeration that runs on from line 9 to line 16, and which details Ichabod's body parts one after the other, starting with his frame before closing up on his face, and finally zooming out to depict Ichabod against the background of his natural setting conjures up the image of an almost monstrous man, one that is disassembled and disconnected, the image of "an odd mixture" (line 122). * A series of antithetical attributes ("small" head l.13, "spindle neck" l.15, "huge ears, large green glassy eyes", "long snipe nose") made more striking thanks to the presence of alliterations in /g/ and /s/, emphasizes how disproportionate Ichabod is. * Not only a juxtaposition of disparate parts, Ichabod also seems to have more in common with animals than with fellow men. Metaphors and similes abound, turning Ichabod into "an odd mixture" of crane, snipe, and rooster, much like a portrait by Arcimboldo. 3. Climax: Horseman of the Apocalypse - Mock heroic * The description of Ichabod reaches a climax at the very end when he is compared to the "genius of famine descending upon the earth", a climax which is immediately undermined by the following bathetic statement that equates him to a "scarecrow eloped from a cornfield". No matter how enigmatic the first simile, it nonetheless portrays Ichabod, not only as an allegory, but also as a powerful entity whose implications I will adress later on. * The narrator's allusion might be to the "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse", in which case, even though Ichabod and the apocalyptic figure may share a similar famished appearance, the parallel, rather than inspiring dread, triggers laughter in light of the preceding description. * The ensuing epanorthosis, which conjures up a more "pagan" imagery, finalizes the undermining process, leaving the reader with this striking concluding image which, meanwhile, is replete with foreshadowing (= Ichabod effectively eloping but without his bride). Transition: The narrator can afford a gently - though at times more acerbic - mocking tone due to Ichabod's status as an outsider to the community of Sleepy Hollow.

II - An Outsider 1. An intruder * From the outset, Ichabod is presented as an outsider: not only is he "a native of Connecticut" (l.5), he's also said to "sojourn", or as he - according to the narrator - says himself, "tarry" in Sleepy Hollow. Both verbs suggest that he's only there for a limited period of time, the latter actually implying that he might be waiting for something to take him out of there. In any case, he is not a permanent resident. * The narrator then logically hastens to explain his reasons for being in Sleepy Hollow: the instruction of "the children of the vicinity" (l.5). It is noteworthy that Ichabod is not introduced as a teacher, the narrator focusing on his task rather than on his profession. This shift not only casts doubt on Ichabod's skills and colors the reader's attitude towards the character, it shifts the reader's attention to the justification for his seemingly incongruous presence amidst a community previously depicted as secluded and self-sufficient. * Not only an outsider, Ichabod even appears as an intruder, his presence uncalled for and merely tolerated. The war imagery that surrounds the reference to Connecticut is particularly telling and most likely hints at the spread of the Puritan Massachussetts colony whose demographics forced its people to settle in neighboring colonies, including that of Connecticut. Puritans were known to be highly literate and, because they believed everyone needed to be educated to be able to read the Bible by themselves in order to reach salvation, they were among the first to pass laws requiring towns to set up schools. The innuendo further sets Ichabod apart from a community that doesn't share those beliefs and those values. Meanwhile, the war imagery - as well as the reference the Frontier which I will go back to further on - sets him up as a conquering figure that, oddly enough, might be perceived as threatening. 2. A Threat * The use of the word "pioneer" is not anecdotal. It is in fact a particularly loaded term that immediately conjures up images of the Frontier. Although the Frontier was only conceptualized much later, to Jackson Turner it is concept that explains American history as a continual movement westward: "The advance of American settlement

westward explains American development" (The Frontier in American History, 1920). Although it may appear at first that Ichabod is merely "a pionneer for the mind" in his capacity as "schoolmaster", it is worth recalling that when he first catches sight of the Van Tassel mansion he immediately seems himself "invest[ing] [money] in immense tracts of wild land, and shingle palaces in the wilderness", with "the blooming Katrina, [and] a whole family of children, mounted on the top of a wagon loaded with household trumpery, with pots and kettles dangling beneath; [...] bestriding a pacing mare, with a colt at her heels, setting out for Kentucky, Tennessee,—or the Lord knows where!". Unlike the self-sufficient Dutch who are content "abiding" in Sleepy Hollow and are intent on preserving their traditions, Ichabod has the "pioneering" spirit that made westward expansion possible, and the greed to seek more and aim further. * Ichabod's greed is further foreshadowed at the end of the passage. Although the comparison with the Horseman of Famine is more comic than threatening, it nevertheless hints at Ichabod's "insatiable appetite" for food, for stories, for wealth, as well as for status. He's later on compared to an Anaconda whose "dilating powers" hide the fact that he is "a huge feeder". In other words, Ichabod Crane never gets enough of anything and leads a parasitic life that might lead to depleting Sleepy Hollow of its ressources. (Transition) As such, for the sake of preserving the community, the nuisance must be neutralized. 3. Foreshadowing Ichabod's Scapegoating. * Even though, at first sight, the narrator's gently mocking tone, which very aptly manages to establish a connivance with the reader, contributes to depicting Ichabod as a memorable comic figure whose vividly graphic description leaves a long-lasting imprint on our memory, there comes a point where the way Ichabod is set up against the community of Sleepy Hollow becomes disturbing. * The hypallage that sets Ichabod against "the profile of a hill" (l.16) contributes to making him stand out while emphasizing his strangeness. Singled out, Ichabod is made to be stared at, the narrator directing the reader's gaze towards this detached, and lone figure. This may hint at his subsequent scapegoating and departure from Sleepy Hollow.

Transition: The different ways in which we can read Ichabod's depiction cast doubt on the uncertain role played by the narrator. III - Instability and Undecidability of the Narrative Voice * In the opening pages, despite the narrator's efforts to appear as a reliable source of information, he'd appeared as too volatile to be trustworthy. This is confirmed once more in this passage, which raises questions as to what his purpose may be. The passage opens on yet another instance of tongue-in-cheek humor: "in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since". The discrepancy between the adjective "remote" and the mention of the time marker which is introduced by the epanorthosis, is clearly ironical, undermining the seriousness of tone that might have been expected from an author whose stated intent is to "build a monument" to the Dutch forefathers of the colony. 1. Framing Ichabod/ Framing the Reader * The narrator's "tour de force" in fact lies in his skill at making the reader side with him, against Ichabod it turns out. This is all the more unsettling when one becomes aware of the tonal shift and innuendoes that contribute to framing Ichabod as an intruder that must be expelled. Ichabod, however, is not the only one to be framed. So is the reader whose view of Ichabod is entirely shaped by the narrator, and who ends up laughing at Ichabod's demise at the end of the story, along with the other characters. And were it not for the addition of the "Postscript" in which it is recounted that Ichabod moved on with his life in Manhattan, the reader would probably no more "[trouble] [their] head [...] about him" (p.339) than the others. 2. Ichabod as embodiment of "American Spirit" * It is however striking that, as a "[pioneer] for the mind as well as for the forest" (l.6), Ichabod turns out to be the embodiment of the "American Spirit" that enabled westward expansion, although he didn't make it West. He, however, managed - if one is to believe the "old farmer"'s testimony - to climb the social ladder, his tenacity and "shrewdness" enabling him to overcome obstacles and to rise "from rags to riches".

The pupils: ==> Different ways of refering to them: "stripling" = neutral, "urchin" less so = suggests deprivation, "scholars" definitely ironic, points to the fact that most people in Sleepy Hollow may not be able to read, and that learning how to read makes those kids stand apart. => Metaphor that compares them to a beehive ==> Pupils like bees, conning over their lessons, gathering knowledge the way bees gather nectar from flowers. (Common trope/ topos) => Imagery taken up again later on: "flowery path of knowledge". => Ironical in light of the barrenness of the place + the way Ichabod is shown to teach them.

The school house: => Emphasizing scarcity and lack = only one room means all grades are brought together. => Basic => "Rustic" to quote Knickerbocker => All patched up = suggests townspeople make do with what's available = it might also suggest neglect => Lack of interest in education? => From those observations, we can assume that Ichabod is not treated any differently => Poor teacher => Disregarded by the community => Comment on the way to secure the school remains enigmatic in spite of the narrator's use of connectors = but is there really any point securing the school? ==> Discrepancy between the suggestion that it might require to be secured and description that precedes. Disjunction contributes to comic effect.

4. Ichabod Crane's Portrayal as a School Master

Narrative voice: => Ironical distance: choice of vocab => Constant undermining process => Apophasis: "I would not have it imagined" -> Claims he doesn't want that, but works towards that effect => reverse effect: draws attention/ emphasizes Ichabod's unjust way of administering "justice" (repeated twice) => Noteworthy that he resorts to passive structure to avoid directly addressing the reader, and yet uses possessive adjective "your" line 44. => Unclear position => 3truth to say"/ "certainly": repeated assertions that make the narrator sound phony.

Ichabod: => A figure of authority/ embodying authority: "authoritative voice", "the master". => Epanorthoses reveal that source of authority lies in Ichabod's inflicting corporal punishment upon his pupils => undermines the use of the word "master" as his "authority" is acquired through violence. * "Apalling sound of the birch" = periphrasis = way of softening reality = taken from the "formidable birch tree" previously mentionned = making do with what's more handy. => "He administered justice with discrimination" = surprising reversal. -> Protects the weak -> Inflicting justice on "Dutch urchin" = precision raises questions = hint that Ichabod is perfectly aware of his being set apart? => "The claims of justice"/ "duty by their parents" (this time with quotation marks) = pompous way of speaking -> Narrator using Ichabod's own words even when not explicitely quoting him (indirect speech)? -> + use of word "chastisement" = religious undertones = Ichabod's Puritan upbringing? -> Line 47: enumeration with amplification + alliteration = mirrors beating

Giuseppe Arcimboldo, The Air