LITR 5535: American
Romanticism
Sample Student Research Project, fall 2003
Kristy Pawlak
Dr. Craig White
Literature 5535
20 November 2003
American Ghosts
Grow Up: The Changing Nature
of the American Gothic Tale in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,”
“Young Goodman Brown,” and “Ligeia.”
Literature
is a dynamic field. It changes and grows based on factors both within its own
field and within society as a whole. The
ghost stories or supernatural tales which appeared within the American Romantic
period are no exception. When these
tales are put on a chronological time line, an evolution can be seen in their
treatment of symbols, their purpose, and their treatment of the supernatural.
Beginning with Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” we can trace
the use of symbolism used for socio-political reasons as it evolves into tales
which become increasingly unconcerned with social or political issues.
Such tales include Hawthorne’s “Young Goodman Brown” which is an
allegorical tale that concerns itself more with, though not entirely,
personal moral issues than societal ones and Poe’s “Ligeia” which,
though read by some as an allegorical tale, is more purely a supernatural or
psychological tale whose symbolism exists on a much more specific or personal
level.
Bedford’s Glossary of Critical and
Literary Terms defines symbolism as “seriously and relatively sustained
use of symbols to represent or
suggest other things or ideas” (472). It
is important to note that in reference to “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
‘symbolism’ is being used with a lower case “s,” not to be confused with
the French Symbolism movement. This
will become important in discussing Poe. In
“Sleepy Hollow”, the two most symbolic characters are Ichabod Crane and Brom
Bones. Ichabod is set up as the
urban intellectual. He “is
generally a man of some importance in the female circle of a rural neighborhood;
being considered a kind of idle, gentleman-like personage, of vastly superior
taste and accomplishments to the rough country swains” (1264). Against Ichabod, Brom is contrasted as the rural, physically
able male. Brom has a “Herculean
frame and great powers of limb” and “great knowledge and skill in
horsemanship” (1267). Ichabod
symbolizes European traditions and values with his emphasis on education and
skills such as psalmody. It might
also be asserted that his desire to swallow everything up and to marry Katrina
in order to absorb her wealth is a symbol for British imperialism under which
America had recently suffered. Brom,
on the other hand, is a symbol for the new nation.
He is strong and able to conquer vast, wild lands.
He is young and childlike in aspects which give him charisma, much like
America is a fledgling nation. In
fact, Brom appears at times to be a child in a grown-up body with his insistence
on practical jokes. America’s
desire at this time to be a fledgling nation in a “grown-up body” will
greatly influence the literature produced in the years after the Revolution
during which Irving was growing up.
Irving’s
thinking was influenced by the political and historical time in which he lived.
Born in 1783, Irving could not have helped being influenced by the period
of transition through which America was traveling.
“Sleepy Hollow” is the earliest of these three tales and the most
influenced by socio-political forces. According
to Terrence Martin in his article “Rip, Ichabod, and the American
Imagination” America during Irving’s time saw itself as a newly formed
nation, “emancipated from history” which “desired to elicit confidence
from within and without by assuming immediate adulthood in the family of
nations” (137).
This
leads into what is perhaps the most important symbol inherent in the characters
of Ichabod and Brom. Ironically, it is Brom, despite his childlike actions, who is
the “adult” figure in the symbolic world which Irving establishes.
The main criteria for admittance into Irving’s adult world is a
disbelief in the supernatural and a disdain for the imaginative.
In an 1829 article, the Edinburgh Review wrote, “No ghost ... was ever
seen in North America. They do not
walk in broad day; and the night of ignorance and superstition which favours
their appearance was long past [before America came into being]” (Martin 139). America could not afford to compromise its adult status by
indulging the imagination. Thus,
according to Martin, Brom is the “only authentic American in the tale.”
Brom’s victory over Ichabod for Katrina’s hand and, depending on your
reading of the tale, Brom’s ability to run Ichabod out of town is symbolic of
a “victory for common sense and hard-headed practicality over imaginative
indulgence” (144).
In
the end, the tale rewards Brom and therefore American sensibility.
Ichabod is punished for his fanciful imagination and, in fact, Irving
feels a need to have Ichabod grow-up at the end of the story when he is spotted
by an old farmer. Ichabod had
apparently put aside his silly superstitions and entered the very serious, adult
field of law. Looking back at the
definition of symbolism, Ichabod and Brom become the sustained symbols which
represent the new ideas and national values which a young America was
developing.
So, it seems that Irving wrote with a definite
purpose. His characters suit his
intent and are carefully crafted to be symbolic.
Irving avoids falling into the horrible abyss of imagination which would
have awaited him had his tale simply been an entertaining ghost story.
Through his characters he upholds the American values which he espouses.
As time progresses Americans’ appetites for the imaginative and
marvelous emerge. In
“Supernatural Ambiguity and Possibility in Irving’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow,’” Greg Smith notes that “in a cultural climate where indulgence of
the imagination is discouraged, the psychology of that culture will likely
develop a stronger resultant need for just such an indulgence” (175).
By the time Hawthorne sets out to write “Young Goodman Brown” in
1835, America is ready for a fanciful tale.
Imagination has been repressed too long and must be let loose.
Another factor which influences America’s entry into the gothic ghost
story genre is the time passed since the Revolution. America can now afford to be less consumed with the
“American” ideal and more attentive to what is happening on the world scene.
Gothic tales enjoyed great success in Europe and so they were sure to
find a receptive audience in America. Hawthorne’s
use of historical events such as the Salem witch trials combined with the ever
compelling issue of man’s sinfulness and his resulting position in society
place the tale in a familiar atmosphere.
This is a guilty pleasure that Americans can allow themselves.
True, it’s a work of fiction involving supernatural and psychological
occurances, but above all it’s an allegorical tale that teaches us about human
nature, right? The allegory makes
the fancy allowable. Hawthorne
strikes just the right balance between entertaining and moralizing.
Simply put, Bedford’s defines allegory
as the “presentation of an abstract idea through more concrete means” (9).
Furthermore, allegories have two levels of meaning and the reader is
expected to see through the plot and characters and “get” the deeper
meaning. The classification of
“Young Goodman Brown” as an allegory works especially well because no matter
your reading of the tale, the effect is still the same.
An abstract idea is presented through more concrete means–the
narrative. For instance, some
readers argue for a psychological interpretation of the story.
An example of such a reading is given in “‘Young Goodman Brown’ and
the Psychology of Projection,” by Michael Tritt.
He quotes Reginald Cook’s assertion that, “as Brown goes from village
to forest he passes from a conscious world to an unconscious one.”
He explains other sources which show that the forest reflects Brown’s
sinfulness, that the characters he meets are actually physical manifestations of
his own thoughts, and his journey enacts a “deep-seated guilt consciousness”
(114-115).
Other
readers pay as little attention to possible psychological explanations and focus
entirely on the tales position as an allegory.
In his article, “Ambivalence in ‘Young Goodman Brown,’” Walter
Paulits states that “the generic names and biblically allusive nature of the
temptations Goodman is subjected to seem sufficient proof of Hawthorne’s
allegorical intent” (578). The
generic names which Paulits refers to are indeed a major component of
allegorical tales. Bedford’s states that in an allegory, “characters
even bear the names of the qualities or ideas the author wishes to represent”
(9). This aspect of allegory is
used to great affect in Goodman’s frequent appeals to his wife, Faith.
We see such dramatic, double-entendres such as, “Faith kept me back
awhile” and “My Faith is Gone” (2083,2088).
It is easy when looking at all these characteristics to place “Young
Goodman Brown” in the category of a pure allegory much along the line of Pilgrim’s
Progress.
Rita
Golin states that “Young Goodman Brown” examines the complex inner life of
Goodman and his interrelationship with society.
Its allegorical intent is to “warn against simplistic moral judgements”
and to “challenge pious assumptions about Puritanism and revolutionary
America” (2066). Focusing on this
last point it is apparent that in the fifteen years which passed between “The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Young Goodman Brown” American sentiment and
thought underwent a major change. Irving
wrote a symbolic tale with the purpose of reinforcing the dominant revolutionary
thinking. Hawthorne wrote an
allegorical tale which moves towards existing for purely entertainment value,
but which still retains some social commentary, albeit a drastically different
one than is found just over a decade earlier.
Edgar Allen Poe influenced on the movement of
French Symbolism which “held that writers create and use subjective, or
private (rather than conventional, or public), symbols in order to convey very
personal and intense emotional experiences and reactions” (Murfin 473).
This symbolic trend can be seen clearly in Poe’s stories which, like
the work of French Symbolists, are “more subjective than explicit in
meaning” (Murfin 473). “Ligeia”
in particular resists a definite meaning and lends itself to multiple readings.
Based
on the epigraph of “Ligeia” which is credited to Joseph Glanvil, though
never found in his work, there are readings which examine the story as an
allegorical tale dealing with the triumph of the human will.
In the article “The enigmatic ‘Ligeia’” Yaohua Shi quotes James
Schroeter writing about his opinion of the importance of the Glanvil quote:
That
the quotation appears four times suggests that Poe wishes to impress the reader
strongly by its frequent reiteration. That
it appears under the circumstances in which it does suggests that he wishes to
lend it the greatest authority, conviction and weight–first, by attributing it
to the authority of a serious seventeenth-century author; secondly, by having
the extraordinarily learned Ligeia speak it on the most solemn of all occasions.
(489)
Carrie Zlotnick-Woldenberg
wrote an article entitled “Edgar Allen Poe’s ‘Ligeia’: An
Object-Rational Interpretation” in which she states that “Ligeia” “has
traditionally been read as a supernatural tale in which the will of the dead
woman is strong enough to overcome death, an idea alluded to in the story’s
epigraph” (403).
Reading
Poe as allegorical seems to be a risky undertaking considering his distaste for
allegory in other writers. Overall,
Poe recognized and praised Hawthorne’s ability, but he was critical of his use
of allegory. Poe did not like
allegory which forced characters and plot lines to enforce abstract ideas. According to Kent Ljungquist, Poe felt that, “Only when
allegory is suggestive, that is, when it ceases ‘to enforce a truth’ and
offers an unobtrusive ‘under-current’ of meaning, are the ‘proper uses’
of prose fiction served.”
Poe had a very deliberate view of the creative
process which “counters the Romantic assumption that the poet works in a
‘fine frenzy’ of ‘ecstatic intuition’ (Ljungquist).
This combined with his reticence in relation to allegory, argues against
the idea that he would so deliberately set up the Glanvill quote which leads to
an obvious and forced allegorical reading unless it was to satirize allegory or
to intentionally discredit this reading.
Other more convincing readings of “Ligeia”
focus on the psychological aspects of the story.
One such reading says that the narrator displays “poor reality testing
and loose boundaries and [functions] primarily in the schizoid position” and
therefore hallucinates the murder of Rowena by Ligeia and Ligeia’s subsequent
revivification. The narrator’s
desire is being expressed and it is this desire that brings Ligeia back, not the
force of her will.
Taking
the psychological reading yet another direction, “ Ligeia” can easily be
read in such a way that Ligeia herself is in fact a supernatural, apparition in
the mind of the narrator. Could he have been married to Rowena the whole time and
through the desire for a perfect mate or hatred for Rowena (and the affect of
opium) imagined Ligeia and her murder of Rowena
Perhaps it was a fantasy used by the narrator to deny his own guilt in
the murder. One of the mysteries in
the story is Ligeia’s lack of a surname.
While some readers see this omission as a gesture of devotion, others
feel that it is a sign that Ligeia is, in fact, a figment of the narrator’s
imagination (Shi 487).
In “Poe’s Siren Character and Meaning in
‘Ligeia,’” Daryl Jones traces the origin of the name Ligeia to the name of
one of the Sirens who appear in Greek Mythology.
The Sirens are the ultimate examples of the desire and loss theme which
is so strong in “Ligeia.” In
Greek tales, the passing ships are lured to the Siren’s by desire after
hearing their beautiful music and then they lose their lives on the rocks.
Like, Poe’s Ligeia the Sirens possess the apparent power of
revivification, as demonstrated by their presence after their deaths in tales
separated by generations. Poe is
apparently familiar with the Sirens of Greek mythology since he refers to them
in other works. Poe’s
descriptions of Ligeia also lend themselves to the characterization of
Ligeia as a Siren. Poe describes
“The almost magical melody ... of her very low voice” which alludes
to the alluring music of the Sirens. Jones
adds his opinion to the debate over the allegorical aspects of “Ligeia” by
stating, “At the very least,
Ligeia’s characterization as Siren suggests that Poe’s celebrated tale is
not, even when understood literally within the conventions of Gothic fiction,
the simple and straightforward tribute to the will’s capacity to triumph over
death” (34-36).
A
major difference between an allegorical and psychological reading of Ligeia can
be partially attributed the character whom the reader designates as the main
character. Supernatural/allegorical
interpretations tend to see Ligeia as the main character and the narrator as the
observer and recorder of her remarkable triumph of will.
Psychological approaches are more interested in the narrator as the main
character. In fact, as mentioned
above, Ligeia often appears in these readings only as a figment of the
narrator’s imagination or an opium induced hallucination (Shi 486).
“Ligeia’s” position in the chronological
progression from “Sleepy Hollow” to “Young Goodman Brown” makes sense
when Poe’s inspirations and motivations are explored.
William Goldhurst credits both Irving and Hawthorne as being influences
on Poe. This is in line with the
idea that the abstract nature of
the tales increased one to the next as their social, political, and religious
agenda decreased. Poe would have
read both tales and been ready to take the next step in the Gothic genre. Goldhurst states that Poe’s position in American literature
has been uncertain because his subject matter is outside the mainstream American
thought and because his philosophies seem “soft-minded
and adolescent” (1324). This
represents a dramatic evolution which occurred since the symbolic
argument for adult-thinking and strict adherence to American ideals seen
in “Sleepy Hollow.” In fact,
even though “Ligeia” was published a short four years after “Young Goodman
Brown,” the absence of an obvious allegory (names such as “Faith” and
“Goodman”) and the lack of any attempt to make the tale reasonable or
realistic (“Young Goodman Brown” uses specific historical references such as
the witch trials, while Poe is intentionally vague about specific settings and
time frames) represents the final jump into a full-blown American Gothic tale.
One characteristic linked most frequently to
the Gothic tale is the presence of the supernatural.
Just as we can trace the evolution of symbolism from less abstract to
more in “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, “Young Goodman Brown,” and “Ligeia,”
we can also see a change in the way supernatural occurrences are handled.
Beginning with “Sleepy Hollow,” an early American supernatural tale,
the supernatural aspects have a very clear logical explanation.
The reader is allowed to
think away the ghosts if so inclined. The
supernatural actually seems like more of a tool to advance the purpose of the
story than being the purpose of the story itself.
In “Sleepy Hollow” the headless horseman is easily explained away by
the smashed pumpkin, Brom’s knowing looks, and Ichabod’s well-established
over-active imagination. Many
readings actually take this logical “out” as a matter of fact.
Martin states as fact, “he (Ichabod) is literally run out of the region
by Brom Bones impersonating the Headless Horseman” (144).
This is not to say that no alternative readings
exist in regard to the mysterious Headless Horseman.
Greg Smith argues that Brom’s impersonation of the Headless Horseman
has never been established conclusively and in fact, the evidence given would be
circumstantial in a court of law (175). The
same reading asserts that the Horseman as been somewhat slighted by traditional
reading because he is not recognized as a major character in the story.
Readings which do not endorse the logical explanation as fact, place
major importance on the narrator, Diedrich Knickerbocker, and his lack of a
conclusive opinion either way. The
reasoning here would be that if he agreed that the mystery was solved logically
it would be easily stated and therefore he does not agree with this conclusion. The fact that he doesn’t conclusively endorse the
supernatural view matters less because the supernatural by nature is unable to
be conclusively proved. Furthermore,
Smith argues that the supernatural view is endorsed by the narrator twice at the
end of the tale. First,
Mr. Knickerbocker makes the statement, “The old country wives, however,
who are the best judges of these matters, maintain to this day that Ichabod was
spirited away by supernatural means” (1279).
Smith points to the emphasis on the wives’ authority which is
highlighted through the use of the word “judges” which has the implication
of authority. Finally, Smith
asserts that in the postscript, the doubting businessman is mocking, rude, and a
“wet blanket” and therefore, combined with the previous assertion of the
wives being the best judges, forces the reader to either align themselves with
either an unappealing, unendorsed character or with the “best judges of these
matters” (Smith 176).
It
is apparent that Irving, being one of the first Americans to venture into the
ghost story genre, used the supernatural to make his tale more facinating and
appealing to his readers. Donald
Ringe points out that “the rationalistic foundations of American thought
[notwithstanding] the marvelous takes a stronger hold on the mind than any
rationalist can offer” (Smith 177). Irving
had a point to make and he chose a fairly new, innovative approach that caught
the American imagination. But, as
previously mentioned, the American mind during Irving’s period was focused on
rational, adult thought. It
behooved Irving, therefore, to write a tale with a very, obvious, logical
explanation so as not to alienate the audience to whom he was trying to speak.
“Young
Goodman Brown” has obvious supernatural elements and because of the
allegorical nature of the tale there is less pressure to explain them away.
As noted in the definition of allegory, the reader is expected to
recognize the double levels of meaning and thus supernatural elements are not
expected to be believed, per se. Even
so, in case the reader is still a bit uncomfortable with the devil, supernatural
speed (traveling from Boston to Salem in fifteen minutes), appearances from
deceased family members, and so forth, the narrator willingly supplies the
reader with an easy out by asking, “Had Goodman Brown fallen asleep in the
forest, and only dreamed a wild dream of a witch meeting?” (2091).
So, progressing from “Sleepy Hollow,” “Young Goodman Brown” has
moved almost to the point of telling a ghost tale for entertainment’s sake,
but he seems unable to make it quite to the end without pausing to hand the
reader a logical explanation on the way out.
His logical “out” is not nearly as strong as Irving’s in “Sleepy
Hollow.” Hawthorne’s narrator
does not endorse or have his characters endorse one view over the other, but
it’s as if he couldn’t quite trust the reader to find it for himself.
Finally, in “Sleepy Hollow” the Headless Horseman and the surrounding
lore is the tool used by the story, not the point of the story.
“Young Goodman Brown,” partially by virtue of being an allegorical
tale, is dependent on its supernatural elements.
The story is about Goodman’s experience in the forest.
One could have imagined other ways for Brom to be victorious over Ichabod
and thus show the symbolic victory. No
other story could give Goodman the same experience and have the same life
altering effect.
So, just has the symbolism changed in nature
from “Sleepy Hollow” to “Young Goodman Brown”, so did the treatment of
the supernatural. Likewise, just as
the symbolic elements underwent their most drastic changes in studying Ligeia,
so too does the treatment of the supernatural.
Poe once wrote about Hawthorne’s tales that, “these effusions of Mr.
Hawthorne are the product of a truly imaginative intellect, restrained and in
some measure repressed...” (Poe, Criticism).
This assertion that Hawthorne’s imagination was repressed illustrates
the progression Poe makes when he composes Ligeia which in no way allows
imagination to be repressed.
The treatment of the supernatural in Poe’s
“Ligeia” is drastically different than in the other two tales because the
author and the narrator refuse to help dissolve the readers’ conflicts by
presenting a logical “out.” As
previously discussed, the reader can choose to see the tale entirely in a
psychological interpretation. It
can be read as an allegory. Or
simply, it can be taken at face value as a literal ghost story.
However, the fact remains that none of these readings are suggested by
Poe or by the narrator. The closest
Poe approaches to offering a logical explanation is to let the reader know that
the narrator is under the influence of opium during key incidents in the story;
but, the tale is much too complex to be explained away by a drug induced
hallucination excuse. “Ligeia”
is told by the narrator after the fact and so there are many aspects of the tale
which lend themselves to being the truth. For
instance, barring the possibility that the narrator is not just affected by
opium use, but also long term delusions, we must assume that he was actually
married to Rowena who must have actually died.
Who killed her and how and when is up to the reader to decide.
Complicating the reader’s desire to “figure it out” is the problem
of accuracy in the story. Shi points out that we depend on the narrator’s
recollection of these events, yet “from the very beginning of the story, the
narrator tells us that he does not remember” (490).
“Ligeia”
continually resists interpretation and it is its complexity that properly places
it at the end of the evolution of the American Gothic ghost story both
stylistically and chronologically among these three tales.
“Sleepy Hollow” and “Young Goodman Brown” present the reader with
choices and have a certain degree of complexity, but the choices there are clear
cut. “Ligeia” has no clear cut
choices for the reader to make. The
reader knows they must be made, but they must first be found.
Even the supernatural elements in “Ligeia” refuse to be concretely
supernatural. Is she a ghost or
isn’t she? Was she ever really
real or wasn’t she? The allure of
the tale lies in its refusal to answer.
H.P.
Lovecraft wrote in “Supernatural Horror in Literature” that:
Atmosphere
is the all-important thing, for the final criterion of authenticity [in a ghost
story] is not the dovetailing of a plot but the creation of a given sensation.
We may say, as a general thing, that a weird story whose intent is to
teach or produce a social effect, or one in which the horrors are finally
explained away by natural means, is not a genuine tale of cosmic fear. (Smith
175)
Clearly, “Ligeia” would
be the only of these three tales to fit into this categorization.
However, for all the differences in the tales they do share two important
characteristics. First, they have a degree of ambiguity, especially concerning
the supernatural, which “provides many great ghost stories with their lasting
resonance” (Smith 175). In fact,
long before Barthes declared the author dead, the reader is made the central
figure in these tales. Their
ambiguity can only be sorted out by the individual reader.
The critics can debate, but ultimately the decision to either think away
the ghosts or to embrace them belongs to the reader. Sometimes the choices are more clearly laid out and other
times the choice is between two equally illogical interpretations, but either
way the true meaning cannot be found in the texts.
Author, Phillip Pullman, writes, “The ghost stories I still enjoy . . .
work because of their ambiguity” (1).
Another similarity, or more specifically, a
shared problem, among the texts is the need of Romantic and particularly Gothic
tales to create an atmosphere of mystery and timelessness. America simply does not have the history to provide Romantic
writers with crumbling castles, ancient families, and forests with centuries old
ghosts. Irving compensates by
creating an almost magical land in which his tale occurs.
He explains that “the place still continues under the sway of some
witching power, that holds a power over the minds of the good people” (1261).
Furthermore, he uses words and phrases such as “descendants” and
“during the early days of the settlement” which have no definite time value,
but sound old. When Ichabod is
introduced Irving writes, “In this by-place of nature, there abode, in a
remote period of American history, that is to say some thirty years since, a
worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane . . .” (1262).
Martin points out that “The archaic substantive wight serves to
emphasize the incongruity of the introduction; only in America of the time could
a remote period of history be defined as thirty years” (143). Irving’s tinge of irony here when alluding to America’s
lack of a past serves to illuminate his acknowledgment of the difficulties which
he faced.
Hawthorne experienced his share of difficulty
writing romantic tales in the American atmosphere.
Hawthorne associated romance with ruin.
America was fresh and new. He
explained that it was difficult writing in the “broad and simple daylight”
that “happily” prevails in the United States (Martin 140). In “Young Goodman Brown” we see tactics such as alluding
to British monarchs such as King William which tie the setting to the more
ancient and romantic British culture. He
also sets up the physical setting of the forest as seemingly ancient with its
“innumerable trunks and thick boughs overhead” (2083).
Poe is never as constrained as these other
authors by lack of atmosphere in America because his settings are much more the
product of his imagination and he creates them according to the needs of his
story. Or more effectively, he just
sets his tale in Europe and ignores the problems with American settings
altogether. In “Ligeia” we
learn that the narrator met Ligeia in “some large, old, decaying city near the
Rhine” and her family is “of a remotely ancient date” (1333).
In fact, he dwells with her there near the Rhine until after her death
when he buys an abbey in one of the “least frequented portions of fair
England” (1339). Regardless of
the country in which “Ligeia” and other works by Poe are set, the atmosphere
depends on elements more intimate and personal.
Poe spends over a page describing the bridal chamber which he shared with
Rowena in order to provide a proper backdrop to the harrowing experience
he was relating. From there
the setting becomes the mind of the narrator as the reader experiences with him
the horror and apprehension he feels in his sorrow and depression.
Poe’s masterful manipulation of setting is yet another way in which he
exemplifies the culmination of the American supernatural tale.
Gothic ghost stories emerged in America later
than they did in Europe, but as talented authors such as Irving, Hawthorne and
Poe adapted the genre to the needs of a young, new country, the American tale of
the supernatural evolved and matured, producing some of the country’s most
enduring masterpieces.
Works Cited
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Heath, 1990. 1322-1325.
Gollin, Rita. Foreward.
“Young Goodman Brown.” By Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ed. Paul Lauter. Lexington:
D.C. Heath, 1990. 2065-2069.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel.
“Young Goodman Brown.” 1835. The Heath Anthology of American Literature.
Ed. Paul Lauter. Lexington: D.C. Heath, 1990. 2082-2091.
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<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/31/opinion/31PULL.html>.
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Smith, Greg.
“Supernatural Ambiguity and Possibility in Irving’s ‘The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow.’” Midwest Quarterly 42 (2001): 174-183.
Tritt, Michael. “‘Young
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