The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: Summary | Short Story

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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving: Summary | Short Story

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

ABOUT THE STORY

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is quite famous horror short story by American writer Washington Irving. He wrote this story whilst living in England in 1820. It was also published as part of a stories and essays collection called The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

This gothic horror is about Ichabod Crane, a young gentleman who moves to the small town of Sleepy Hollow. He is in the position of local schoolmaster. Here, Crane falls in love with one of his students and tries to win her heart. His love interest is for Katrina Van Tassel, a beautiful eighteen-year-old girl. She is the daughter of wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel.

We find various themes in the story such as reality and Imagination, supernatural, war, consumption, appetite, and Greed.

FULL PLOT SUMMARY

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

The story starts with a note. The note states that a story was discovered among the writings of a man named Diedrich Knickerbocker after his death. The text narrates the story of a young man named Ichabod Crane. He served as the schoolteacher in a place called Sleepy Hollow about thirty years earlier, around 1790. The place Sleepy Hollow is a part of Tarry Town, a larger farming community. This particular area is one of the oldest Dutch settlements in New York. It is located along the scenic banks of Hudson River.

The residents of Sleepy Hollow are fond of sharing stories about seeing supernatural things and experiencing strange events. This area is known for being both charmingly peaceful and frighteningly haunted. One particularly frightening story among other stories is about the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. This ghost is believed to be a soldier of Hessian who lost his head to a cannonball during the American Revolution. The Headless Horseman is reported to gallop swiftly through Sleepy Hollow at night, reliving the battle that took his head. In the daylight, he supposedly returns to the churchyard where he is buried.

In Sleepy Hollow, most residents are descendants of the original Dutch settlers. However, Ichabod Crane stands out as an outsider from the state of Connecticut. He is exceptionally tall, thin, and has a flat head. He has a long nose that makes him look like a scarecrow. Despite his slim figure, he has a huge appetite. As a teacher, he is strict but generally fair. However, he tends to maintain discipline and punishes the stronger boys more than the weaker ones.

As a schoolteacher, Ichabod Crane gets a very low salary. He stays with his students' families for a week at a time. He favours such students' homes with mothers who are good at cooking and those families with attractive older sisters. He also contributes to such families by helping with farm work and taking care of babies and young children. Ichabod is also a choirmaster and makes extra income by providing singing lessons. He takes pride in his singing abilities and thinks of himself as a talented singer. He is known for his ability to sing loudly during church services every Sunday.

Ichabod firmly believes in witchcraft and the supernatural. This conviction grows within him during his time in Sleepy Hollow. His favourite book, "History of New England Witchcraft" by Cotton Mather. This book is practically memorized by him as he reads it often in his free time. During evenings, he prefers sharing and hearing ghost stories and supernatural tales with the older women in town. The story of the Headless Horseman captivates him much. He is also afraid of the dark and gets easily scared during his evening walks home after these conversations.

Ichabod takes pleasure in the company of the young women of the town. He showcases his education and refined manners to impress them. His primary interest lies in courting Katrina Van Tassel, a charming, beautiful and flirtatious girl from a prosperous farming family. He is fascinated not only by her looks as well as charm but also by the prospect of inheriting her father's wealth, as she is the only child. He daydreams much about various culinary delights using the farm's animals and envisions selling the estate to start a new life on the frontier with Katrina after their marriage.

Katrina is already being romantically courted by a man named Abraham Van Brunt. He is also known as "Brom Bones." Rumours suggest that she is paying her much interest in him. Brom's horse is frequently spotted at the Van Tassel farm on Sunday evenings. Brom is locally well-known, quite strong, skilled with horses, and very good at his playful tricks. His reputation has deterred many other young men in town from pursuing Katrina, except for Ichabod. Ichabod doesn't openly want to compete with Brom for Katrina's heart. He knows very well that he would likely lose in a physical fight with him.

Instead of going against Brom, Ichabod provides Katrina with private singing lessons twice a week. This singing tuition allows him a fine chance to be alone with her without her parents around. This makes Brom quite angry. He starts doing his best to play pranks on Ichabod. He and his friends sneak into the schoolhouse of Ichabod. They turn all the furniture upside down. They even block the chimney of the school, causing it to fill with smoke. Brom even gives training to a dog especially to howl whenever Ichabod sings and gives lessons to Katrina.

One autumn afternoon, Ichabod becomes quite excited when he receives an invitation to a party at the Van Tassel farm, just like the rest of the town. He is too excited about the event and lets his students go an hour early to prepare himself for the event. He spends extra time getting himself ready. He fixes his hair and puts on the only suit. To impress Katrina, he borrows Gunpowder, an old and grumpy plow horse with one blind eye. He borrows it from his neighbour Hans Van Ripper. However, the saddle's stirrups of Gunpowder are too high. When Ichabod rides on it, he seems so comical like a grasshopper due to his lanky frame. As he heads on the journey towards the Van Tassel home, he daydreams about the delicious food he'll share with Katrina if he successfully courts her.

As Ichabod arrives at the lively party in the early evening, Brom is already present there on his impressive horse, Daredevil. His horse is so fast and no one dares to ride on it. Despite the party being packed with young men and women being dressed up, Ichabod moves straight to the place where food items are placed. There he indulges himself in the delicious dishes. While eating, he again daydreams about owning the farm as Katrina's husband. In high spirits, Ichabod joins the dance floor enthusiastically. When the music begins, he performs his best. He is quite convinced of his excellent dancing skills. He performs much joyfully as he dances with Katrina. He dances with his joyous mood but Brom feels quite disappointed and watches them being aggressive.

As the dance ends, Ichabod participates in storytelling with the locals of Sleepy Hollow. The older men start sharing the exaggerated stories of their time while they were soldiers in the American Revolution. Later, the conversation shifts to ghost stories. They start talking about the Headless Horseman. Brom recounts an event of a race with the Horseman quite jokingly. He asserts that he would have won if the Headless Horseman hadn't vanished in a burst of fire after crossing the church bridge, as it typically does.

Next, Ichabod tells genuine ghost stories from his Connecticut hometown. He shares stories of his walks in Sleepy Hollow at night, and quotes from his favourite book, “History of New England Witchcraft". As the party ends, Ichabod stays behind to talk to Katrina. He thinks that he has won her affection. The narrator claims that he is unaware of their conversation but suggests that Katrina may have rejected him and used his attention to make Brom jealous. Finally, Ichabod leaves the party. He seems quite disappointed and disheartened.

While Ichabod travels home in the darkness, he keeps on thinking about the ghost stories. He gets more and more scared by the nighttime sounds. He urges his horse Gunpowder to run faster but the old horse stumbles off the road. Soon, Ichabod notices a sizable figure on a horse. He slows down his horse to let the rider overtake him but the rider matches his speed. When Ichabod finally sees the rider more closely, he clearly sees the rider and gets terrified. He finds the headless figure is headless who is carrying his head in his lap.

Being quite scared, Ichabod urges Gunpowder to run faster and the old horse takes its speed. A chase begins, with Ichabod struggling to hang on. When he approaches the church bridge, he hopes the Headless Horseman will vanish, as per the stories. However, when he looks back, he finds the horseman still present. Unexpectedly, the horseman hurls his head at Ichabod. This causes Ichabod to tumble to the ground.

The following day, Ichabod is missing. He is absent from the school. His horse, Gunpowder, returns without the saddle. A search is conducted by townspeople. The search team moves to the church bridge, where Ichabod's hat and a smashed pumpkin are found, but there is no clue of Ichabod. His disappearance becomes legendary among people in Sleepy Hollow. Some people think that the Headless Horseman took him, while others suspect Brom played a trick on Ichabod. Brom later marries Katrina. He often laughs whenever the pumpkin story is told. Years later, a visitor comes to Sleepy Hollow and claims that Ichabod is alive. According to him, Ichabod is thriving in Manhattan, with his very successful career as a lawyer, politician, writer, and judge.

The story ends with a note from Diedrich Knickerbocker. In the note, he states that he transcribed it as he heard it. The narrator, an older man with humour, shares the story. It leads to laughter from most but a serious reaction from another tall gentleman. This serious man questions the story's moral, and the narrator provides him with three different lessons: 1. We have to accept jokes as they are. 

2. We have to avoid foolish competition.

3. We have to recognize that some losses may lead us to better opportunities. 

The postscript hints that the narrator might be Brom and the serious man Ichabod but leaves this open to interpretation.

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