This essay analyzes Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow through the lens of economic greed and societal expectation, arguing that neither Ichabod Crane nor Brom Bones pursues Katrina Van Tassel out of genuine romantic love. The paper examines how Ichabod's calculating covetousness of the Van Tassel estate and Brom Bones' sense of heroic entitlement reduce Katrina to a trophy rather than a person. By contrasting the two rivals' motivations and characterizations, the essay concludes that Irving uses their competition to critique greed, ultimately rewarding the lesser of two flawed suitors while leaving genuine affection conspicuously absent from the tale.
The rivalry in Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow does not appear to be a competition between a deserving lover and an undeserving antagonist. Instead, it is a showcasing of economic greed and societal expectations. Ichabod and Brom Bones represent two opposite extremes — imperfect yet culturally expected caricatures of men of their time. Katrina Van Tassel, on the other hand, is merely the prize at the positive end of each man's means. While both Ichabod and Brom Bones pursue Katrina — Ichabod being more outwardly successful in his courtship — there is no doubt that each views her hand as a principle of a larger goal. There is no genuine love in the tale.
Ichabod Crane's physical description depicts the schoolteacher as an ungainly man: tall, lanky, and awkward. He is relatively poor and without reputation, though the narrator characterizes him as cunning and calculating. Ichabod clearly knows how to charm people when it serves his goals, and the moment he set eyes on Katrina Van Tassel — or rather, on Katrina's property — he determined that marrying the beautiful heiress would be his singular ambition. Yet Ichabod does not love Katrina in any conventional sense. While her beauty contributed to his interest, his motivation is plain covetousness directed at her estate.
Irving makes this desire transparent: "[Ichabod] had a soft and foolish heart towards the sex and it is not to be wondered that so tempting a morsel soon found favor in his eyes. More especially after he had visited her in her paternal mansion" (Irving, 2007). The mansion, not the woman, is the true object of his longing.
Abraham Van Brunt — known to everyone as Brom Bones — is Ichabod's opposite in almost every physical respect. Brom Bones is a "burly, roaring, roistering blade" (Irving, 2007): handsome, broad-shouldered, and strong. He is the embodiment of the social ideal of a hero. He carries the arrogance of a nobleman, possesses the physical appearance society admires, and commands genuine respect among the villagers of Sleepy Hollow. Even Katrina "did not altogether discourage his hopes" (Irving, 2007).
Brom Bones is also drawn to Katrina, yet his attraction resembles that of a knight claiming a princess rather than that of a man in love. Genuine emotional attachment does not appear to factor into his pursuit. In Brom Bones' view, a gallant hero is entitled to the gallant princess, and Katrina is simply the spoil that heroic right demands. His courtship is an assertion of social dominance, not an expression of affection.
While Katrina should not be dismissed as a simple country coquette, she remains a trophy contested between two headstrong characters. Her attraction to Ichabod is both surprising and unsurprising: he is not the sort of man a beautiful heiress would typically favor, yet his cunning and eloquence would have been enough to win her over. Her eventual marriage to Brom Bones is equally surprising and unsurprising; it takes Brom Bones' calculated mischief — exploiting Ichabod's deep superstitious fears — to drive his rival out of town permanently and claim his prize.
"Katrina reduced to prize between two rivals"
Washington Irving's story portrays greed and uncouth gallantry. He pits these two ideas against each other, and, as justice would have it, greed is found sorely wanting. Ichabod Crane — though the more successful in actually winning Katrina's affection — had been too openly covetous. He saw Katrina as a stepping stone to convert her property "into cash" (Irving, 2007), and he paid for that greed through humiliation and permanent flight from Sleepy Hollow. In the end, Brom Bones emerges as the lesser of two evils, and he ultimately wins his trophy — not through love, but through the shrewder exercise of social power.
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