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Washington Erving, A True Romantic
Washington Irving definitely shows characteristics of Romanticism in his writing. He does not draw ideal characters, he shows people how they really are, including all of their flaws. Through his writing he is able to express his love for nature by where his stories take place. Washington Irving also shows great imagination in his writing, with a bit of surprise and mystery.
In both stories, Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving paints the perfect picture of his characters. In Rip Van Winkle, Rip is described as a “simple good natured man, a kind neighbor, and an obedient hen-pecked husband.”(pg.275) Rip is also described as being a “favorite amongst the wives of the village.”(pg.275) Rip was probably too good of a neighbor. He always made himself available to his neighbors by helping husk their Indian corn, building stone-fences, and the women of the village would employ him to run their errands. Rip would also do little old jobs that their husbands would not do for them. “Rip was ready to attend to anybody’s business but his own, but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible.”(pg.275) I loved the way Washington Irving described the men that Rip met up in the mountains. He describes one man as having “a large head, broad face, and small piggish eyes: the face of another seemed to consist entirely of nose, and was surmounted by a white sugar-loaf hat, set off with a little red cock’s tail.”(pg.278) He definitely did not give these characters ideal features.
As in the story of Rip Van Winkle, Irving also describes a character very well in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Irving describes Ichabod Crain as being “tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snip nose, so that it looked like a weathercock, perched upon his spindled neck, to tell which way the wind blew.”(pg.286) That description definitely paints a picture, but not of an ideal man.
In both stories, Washington Irving uses the Hudson river and the valleys around the area. Irving shows his love for nature in his writing. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, he makes many referances to nature. When Ichabod Crane is going to the farmhouse where he is staying he notices several sounds of nature. These sounds took over is excited imagination: “the moan of the whip-poor-will from the hillside; the boding cry of the tree-toad, that harbinger of storm; the dreamy hooting of the screech-owl, or the sudden rustling in the thicket of birds frightened from their roost. The fire-flies, too, which sparkled most vividly in the darkest places, now and then startled [next page]