Jessica Gaul

Sleepy Hollow and Edgar Huntly—Gothic and Sublime

When I entered the classroom of American Literature 4231, I felt incredibly small. I had no idea what to expect, nor did I realize how incredibly fun and challenging this course would be. The teacher I had came in full of energy and emotion! He engaged each and every student and made us feel like we were all equals in the class. Through this class, I realized that without the pieces of literature we read, most of the movies and books we read now would have never existed.

Take for example, the legendary story of Sleepy Hollow, written by Washington Irving in 1819. When people think of this famous story, they usually remember the Disney classic and animated movie, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” with the comedic and silent character of Ichabod Crane. Through this movie, we saw the Legend of Sleepy Hollow unfold as well as the haunting Headless Horseman. If I had not come to this class, I would have never realized that there were so many adaptations from this one story, like the 1999 movie Sleepy Hollow starring Johnny Depp and Christina Ricci. I was able to read the actual story thanks to this class and realized how enchanting, gothic and sublime it really was. For example, in part of the story Irving describes a tree that Crane is approaching. “Its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost to the earth, and rising again into the air.” (Irving) With this graphic description, it was clear to me that the tree was a haunting presence, but beautiful at the same time. Irving’s words are a form of “The Gothic”, which is a theme or tone a writer uses to describe something creepy, scary, or depressing. Irving also used “the sublime” to create this masterpiece, and the tree he describes is another form of the sublime as well as gothic. The reader can literally say, “Wow!” when they read the description, like I did, and picture the tree in their minds. The gothic and sublime kind of go hand in hand, and make a piece of work very spooky and mysterious, as well as haunting and entertaining.

Another piece of work that uses the gothic and sublime is the novel of Edgar Huntley; or Memoirs of a Sleep Walker, written by Charles Brown in 1799. This story was incredibly difficult to understand and to read because Brown not only uses language that I am not use to, but he adds too much detail and rambles on and on. It got to the point where I kept asking myself, “Can you just get to the point Brown?!” However, I managed to read most of it and realized how dark and serious this novel was. An example comes from the first chapter where Huntley writes a letter and describes an overnight walk he took and talks about an interview with the man known as Waldegrave. “I recalled the incidents of our last interview, my importunities that he should postpone his ill-omened journey till the morning, his inexplicable obstinacy, his resolution to set out on foot during a dark and tempestuous night, and the horrible disaster that befell him.” Using the words such as ‘dark and tempestuous,’ and ‘horrible disaster’ sets a foreshadowing tone for the readers as well as mysterious because we don’t exactly know what is going on, or what happened. This is a form of gothic because it uses such dark words and gave me the chills just reading it. A form of sublime is when Brown describes the famous elm tree where Huntley found Waldegrave’s body. “The impulse was gradually awakened that bade me once more to seek the elm; once more to explore the ground; to scrutinize its trunk… I was familiar with the way, though trackless and intricate, and I climbed the steeps, crept through the brambles, leaped the rivulets and fences with undeviating aim, till at length I reached the craggy and obscure path which led to Inglefield's house.” Although Brown does not describe the tree in its entirety, he uses clues to emphasize how important the tree really is.

Both pieces of literature, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Edgar Huntley use the themes, gothic and sublime to bring a new wave of emotions to the reader. These stories proved that America can be dark, shady and very serious, while at the same time, comedic and entertaining. An example of comedy in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow would be when Irving is describing Ichabod Crane. “He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew.” It was quite funny to visualize Ichabod looking like some sort of chicken on top of the roof of a house directing weather!

The old saying, ‘never judge a book by its cover’ was a key motto to keep in mind in this class. Just because the title or the cover of the book looked boring or challenging did not exactly mean it was. In most cases, the readings were in fact very challenging, but at the same time, they were enchanting and kept my attention. Some of the titles that I thought would be easy to understand were in fact very hard to understand. Like Anne Bradstreet’s poem, “Verses Upon the Burning of our House.” I thought that poem was going to be easy to read, but the moment I caught a glimpse of the language, I knew it would be demanding.

Each novel, poem, and letter that we read during this semester were inspiration for something even bigger later on in life. From the short story of Sleepy Hollow, to the live action movie of Sleepy Hollow, literature has been around for centuries. Without it, America would be lost and completely dull.