Preview

Supernatural Elements In The Romance Of Certain Old Clothes

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
791 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Supernatural Elements In The Romance Of Certain Old Clothes
During this semester while studying American Gothic Literature many new themes were introduced. I became most connected with and interested in the supernatural theme in the texts and found myself looking for it in outside books, movies, television and popular culture. The supernatural is characterized as events considered being of supernatural origins such as ghosts or some force beyond scientific understanding or laws of nature. The occurrence of the supernatural made each story more captivating and enjoyable. The supernatural theme was the most influential and prominent theme that we worked with during this course. While reading The Romance of Certain Old Clothes, I couldn't understand why it was included in the American Gothic Literature unit that I would be studying for the semester. But as I read the story a second time to understand it fully, I realized the story had major themes like betrayal, jealousy, and the supernatural. "Before the chest, on her knees, the young man saw with amazement …show more content…
Ichabod is a schoolteacher who thinks all pranks are done by ghosts and goes from house to house telling the housewives these lies and eats their food. As a school, teacher one would think he would be more intelligent and not be the one to spread fear amongst the townspeople. The tendency to overlook the headless horseman as a principal character in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is credited to the accepted and predictable reading of the story in that the headless horseman is not real at all but is in fact Brom Bones in disguise, acting out a favorite local ghost story in order to scare out of town schoolmaster Ichabod, Brom's romantic rival for the hand of Katrina Van Tassel. The story is left in the way that you can decipher what has happened which plays into the supernatural theme being
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Fall Of The House Of Usher Comparison Essay
    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Fall Of The House Of Usher Comparison Essay

    Gothic literature is a type of writing that is characterized by the elements of fear, death, and gloom. Edgar Allan Poe's “The Fall of the House of Usher” is a good example of Gothic Lit because it uses the factors of a spooky home, the weather is bad, and there is a ghost or a monster. “He suffered from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone endurable.(18)” This sentence is tied to gothic literature because he is in a old house and he is going crazy. Therefore…

    • 479 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing 'And The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow'
    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Comparing 'And The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow'

    “The Legend Of Sleepy Hollow” is a short story that was written by Washington Irving in 1820 and then was later on turned into a movie in 1999 by Tim Burton. The short story “Legend Of Sleepy Hollow” is based on a well-known legend of the headless horseman in the small town of sleepy hollow. This short story tells the tale of the alleged disappearance of the main character, Ichabod Crane. This story, leaves you guessing as to what is the truth about Ichabod Crane's disappearance? While in the movie, it is more of a Hollywood version of Irving’s original story. As the movie begins in New York and introduces Ichabod crane a detective, who has his own vision of how to “solve” crimes. Ichabod Crane is then sent to the small town of Sleepy Hollow to solve the three murder cases of the townspeople. Although the movie is fairly similar to the short story , the movie ends up taking a twist that leads the ending in a different direction from the original story.…

    • 1033 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Legend Of Sleepy Hollow Book And Movie Essay
    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Legend Of Sleepy Hollow Book And Movie Essay

    “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving is a short story based on the well-known legend of the Headless Horseman. In the book the disappearance of the main character Ichabod Crane, leaves the readers guessing what the truth is behind the ending. In the beginning of the movie there are similarities to the book until later in the movie there is a twist that leads the plot to another direction.…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing The Feather Pillow And Home For Peculiar Children
    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Comparing The Feather Pillow And Home For Peculiar Children

    Gothic literature has a specific tone and vibe that sets it apart from other genres of literature. In many gothic literature stories and novels, it seems that there is usually a presence of monsters, one or more characters suffers from psychological issues, or one of the characters is stuck on a memory from the past. These elements play a key role in portraying the characters accurately, and giving a deeper understanding to the story.…

    • 727 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Literature: the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Katrina Van Tassel
    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Literature: the Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Katrina Van Tassel

    In the story the legend of sleepy hollow, the story takes place in lower region of New York in a town called Tarrytown. In the city of Tarrytown the town of Sleepy Hollow had received its name, for all the haunted spooky things that happened there, and the legendary story of the Headless horseman. There are several important characters that make up the story. Two with very important significance are Ichabod Crane and Brom Van Brunt. Ichabod Crane was a native from Connecticut who had moved to Sleepy Hollow to instruct the children of the Vicinity. He was a tall, lanky man who if looked at bared a resemblance to a scarecrow. He was a superstitious school teacher of the children in the town. He was a smart, yet easy lived man. Scholar man yet looked like he was famished and had not eaten in weeks, skinny long lanky arms and legs small head with big eyes.…

    • 450 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ichabod Crane Analysis
    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ichabod Crane Analysis

    As described in the story, Ichabod Crane is a school teacher who travels to Sleepy Hollow to teach the children of the area. This, in company with his ability to ingratiate himself, persuades many of the townspeople to successively lodge him at their homes for a week at a time, which serves as his sole source of shelter. He follows strict morals in the schoolroom, including the proverbial "Spare the rod and spoil the child"; outside the schoolroom, he is shown to have few morals and no motive but his own gratification. Despite being thin, he is capable of eating astonishingly large amounts of food and is constantly seeking to do so. In addition to this, he is excessively superstitious, often to the extent of believing every myth, legend, tall tale, etc. to be literally true. As a result, he is perpetually frightened by anything that reminds him of ghosts or demons.…

    • 716 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Romanticism In The Minister's Black Veil
    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Romanticism In The Minister's Black Veil

    Some stories might not include the several elements that a Gothic literature have. For example, these are some Romanticism characteristics that “The Minister's Black Veil” has, there are the inevitability of fate, the failure of human nature, the limitations of humanity, mystery and suspense, nostalgia and inner conflict, “But there was something, either in the sentiment of the discourse itself, or in the imagination of the auditors, which made it greatly the most powerful effort that they had ever heard from their pastor's lips . . . . A subtle power was breathed into his words.” (Freedman 360). Sadness and the disconnect between man and his nature. “the fictive equivalent of the minister's sermon. Its subject to "had reference to secret sin"; it too is "tinged rather more darkly than usual with the gentle gloom" of its author's temperament; and it, too, Hawthorne may well have felt, was his most powerful effort to that time.” (Freedman 358). The disconnection of the minister with the whole village was huge, just because he was wearing a black veil covering his face. His character is more likely to be a romantic character in the story of his actions and confusion to…

    • 1267 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Sleepy Hollow Corruptness
    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sleepy Hollow Corruptness

    The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a tale that has been passed down for generations, seen more clearly through the eyes of each passing generation for what it truly represents. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow may seem like it is just a children’s tale, but it actually represents something much deeper. The characters surrounding Ichabod in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow are incredibly immoral. They are snobs who don’t care about anything but their own well-being. Irving uses the flaws in these characters to show the corruptness of society and to show how the athletic and crude are glorified over those who are intelligent and devoted enough to advance society.…

    • 1031 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Consider the view that literature within the gothic genre is always shocking
    • 878 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Consider the view that literature within the gothic genre is always shocking

    The gothic genre is full of many themes and ideas that are considered to be very shocking to the reader, but maybe not to the reader of the 21st century but to…

    • 878 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Examples Of Monstrosity In Frankenstein
    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Examples Of Monstrosity In Frankenstein

    Gothic literature can objectively be boiled down to a series of commonalities that are prevalent in some way, shape or form throughout the figureheads of the genre. Themes tying monstrosity to that of bodily deformity, duplicity, desire and degeneracy are deeply rooted in the genres subtext raising many questions regarding humanity as opposed to the humanities. This view is in part, a product of the Victorian era in which this genre thrived. At the time, much study was being conducted in regards to the possible connection between physical appearance and criminality. This created an unnecessary link between the perceived atavistic properties of an individual and the probability of them housing a malicious nature. These perceptions are only further embellished…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ichabod Crane Essay
    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Ichabod Crane Essay

    You would think that a guy that loved scary movies wouldn’t be scared of the dark but little did we know he is scared of absolutely everything. In Washington Irving's story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Ichabod Crane attends an autumnal harvest feast, where he listens to local townspeople recounting ghost stories. Later that night, on his fateful ride home, he encounters the Headless Horseman. The ending of the story is left open to interpretation: Is the Headless Horseman a ghoulish spirit, or is it actually Crane's rival in love, dressed in disguise and further exaggerated by Crane's haunted, overactive imagination” (A Ghostly Imagination). This article shows tha Ichabod crane had imaginative dreams that were filled with scary and dark…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Frankenstein Chapter 10 Notes
    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Frankenstein Chapter 10 Notes

    * Pg.- 100- supernatural- “The moon had disappeared from the night and again, with a lessened form, showed itself, while I still remained in the forest” shows eeriness and supernatural within the surroundings and references the moon which is typical in gothic literature.…

    • 352 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Fall Of The House Of Usher Comparison Essay
    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The Fall Of The House Of Usher Comparison Essay

    Gothic Literature is “a literary genre that began in England in the late 1700s”(33). This literary genre contains elements such as weird or violent plots, gloomy and eerie moods, characters in torment(physical and psychological), and desolate settings. In Poe’s story, Poe writes, “upon the mere house, … an unredeemed dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture into aught of the subline.”(Usher 14). This citation shows the element of gloomy and eerie moods, creating an element of Gothic Literature. Therefore, proving…

    • 662 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Legend of Sleepy Hollow
    • 327 Words
    • 1 Page

    Legend of Sleepy Hollow

    Ichabod Crane is the protagonist of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; already superstitious, his nervous behavior intensifies living in Sleepy Hollow. He is egotistical and self-praises himself in the belief that his love interest is lucky that he woos over her. Being a pedagogue, Ichabod has an exceptional imagination, but would rather use it for thoughts of gluttony and greed; slobbering over the thought of indulgences and riches. After a night of partying, Ichabod becomes enwrapped in the thoughts of the supernatural; making himself weary and panicky. No one’s quite sure what happened to him.…

    • 327 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Gothic Literature Vs Magical Realism
    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Gothic Literature Vs Magical Realism

    Gothic literature and magical realism are genres that both work to create strong emotions from the reader by using the type of elements they have in their stories. Magical realism is when the author uses recognizable characters who feel, act, and react in customary ways and introduces them to supernatural or unreal elements. Elements that pertain to magical realism that are found in the short story “House Taken Over” would be the realistic characters and the presence of a supernatural being. Gothic literature involves weird or violent incidents and supernatural or otherworldly occurrences to torment the characters in a psychological and/or physical way. Some of the elements of gothic literature that are…

    • 420 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More

Related Topics