 |
LITR 4232 American
Renaissance 2010 Student Midterm Samples 2. Short essay (4-6 paragraphs) on 1 of 2 options (or combinations as inspired) :
|
 |
Velma Laborde
Passage Analysis:
The Woman of Sleepy Hollow
This short essay will focus
on the following passage from Washington Irving's
The Legend of
Sleepy Hollow:
"All these, however were
mere terrors of the night, phantoms of the mind that walk in darkness; and
though he had seen many specters in his time, and been more than once beset by
Satan in divers shapes, in his lonely perambulations, yet daylight put an end to
all those evils; and he would have passed a pleasant life of it, in despite of
the Devil and all his works, if his path had not been crossed by a being that
causes more perplexity to mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of
witches put together, and that was - a woman.
This passage is significant it is a good example of the
gothic and the sublime; romantic terms that were commonly used during the
American Renaissance.
It is also important because of its connection to
the paragraph before it and the one following it.
In the previous paragraph Ichabod's walk through
the woods is described and in the following Katrina Van Tassel is introduced.
These paragraphs not only use the gothic and
sublime to describe specific things like the woods and Katrina, but it lends the
gothic and sublime to the bigger issues facing America during this time period
such as, the women's movement and the beginning shift from the ideal country
life toward the new modern society.
The entire passage could be described as gothic and
sublime.
In the previous paragraph (18) he describes the woods
using gothic language like, "fearful shapes and shadows beset his path" and the
"dim and ghastly glare of a snowy night."
The darkness, shadows, and glare in the woods are
all gothic images.
He describes the "trembling ray of light streaming
across the waste fields from some distant window!"
Even the light is in fear of the darkness.
He uses extreme words in his description of the
woods and of the feelings it elicits are sublime; "waste fields," "curdling
awe," and "complete dismay."
Yet, in paragraph 19, the horror and terror of the
woods is completely pushed aside by the even more horrific woman.
The happenings in the woods are "mere terrors of
the night."
They are still scary, but only "mere" compared to a woman.
The shapes and shadows in the woods are, "phantoms
of the mind that walk in darkness."
These are all gothic and sublime images.
Darkness is full of terror and phantoms walk there
in your mind.
Yet, it is still less fearful than a woman because
"daylight put an end to all these evils."
The contrast between light and dark is an example
of the gothic.
The images of extreme terror that are contrasted
with the beautiful language of the passage are examples of the sublime.
All of these gothic and sublime examples are
romantic because they push the image of the woods and of women to a transcendent
place; a place beyond what is considered normal and real.
The woods and even the devil himself, as scary as
they are, are no match for Katrina.
Katrina is described as a "being."
That one word is gothic, sublime and transcendent.
She is not even a person; she is something else
that does not have a word.
She is a thing "that causes more perplexity to
mortal man than ghosts, goblins, and the whole race of witches put together."
"Mortal" is man, but she is a "being."
The ghosts, goblins and witches are gothic.
The entire line is sublime because the "perplexity"
she causes is beyond all of those mystical things "put together."
All of it transcends what is real and puts Katrina,
as a woman, beyond any concrete understanding.
In paragraph 20, it becomes clear why Katrina, a
woman, is described in such a fantastic and scary manner.
Here is where she becomes the
symbol of
