The Fall of a Legend

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” was so fun to read. It was timed perfectly with the season as well, with it being close to Halloween and all. When I was a kid, I used to watch the cartoon version of this all time and I loved it. This story never gets old. Brom Bones is your classic Byronic character. He is suave and brawny. He has muscles and is impressive physically, but he is also a jerk and you kind of love/hate him all at the same time. Ichabod Crane is the nerdy character you pity to the point of love. You want him to be able to marry the girl of his dreams but if he did, there wouldn’t be much of a storyline.

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” is a perfect example of the gothic novel. It takes place in a swampy, forested, secluded space. There is the element of mystery with the legend of the Headless Horseman. There isn’t a castle but there is a large farmhouse which is compared to a castle. You have the Byronic hero who wins the girl and the element of horror when Ichabod disappears in the end.

 “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a whole other monster to describe. The doppelganger is the house, itself which is given human traits. It’s reflection is different from its actual appearance and in the end, its crumbling is the actually fall of the House of Usher. This is interesting, because it is not Poe’s typical writing style.

The main character is a hypochondriac who believes he is ill. He buries his sister alive and thinks the house is surrounded by a green fog that is going to kill all of its inhabitants. Essentially, as compared to “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” it is also very gothic in nature. There is the sense of mystery, the doppelganger, the curse passed down through generations, and the sense of fear.

Overall, these are two of the better novels we had read and I appreciated that I was able to understand the writing better than I could in “Castle of Otranto” or “Romance of the Forest.”