Sleepy Hollow Book vs. Movie
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a short story written by Washington Irving in the early
1800’s. In comparison Sleepy Hollow is a movie directed by Tim Burton staring prominent
actor Johnny Depp. Even though the movie is based off the book Tim Burton goes a totally
different direction with the plot and characters because the only true resemblance is the
setting and even that was elaborated in many different ways. Nevertheless both main
character Ichabod Crane experience paranormal activities, but how they handle them is
another story.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow short story version takes place in the 1800’s, Washington
Irving does a fascinating job with bringing the words into scenery. Irving’s short story is
mainly told by describing as much as possible to give the reader a sense of what he wants
us to see. The main idea of the short story version is a ghost tale that has been fabricated
and told for many years, being changed and added to as people pleased or saw fit. In
addition to the ghost story, Washington Irving also created a little romance story to grab
the attention of the readers. Ichabod Crane, the main character in the story, became rather
interested in Katrina Van Tassel but not entirely for herself but more so for her fortune that
she would receive once her father passed. Irving states, “From the moment Ichabod laid
his eyes upon these regions of delight, the peace of his mind was at an end, and his only
study was how to gain the affections of the peerless daughter of Van Tassel.” What Irving
was trying to say was that Ichabod learned about Katrina’s family fortune and wanted to
find a way to trick her into marrying him for her money. Throughout the story Irving uses
descriptive words to create a scene for the reader. He describes the village and its climate
as a gloomy place. He describes the Van Tassel farm and the Van Tassels themselves.
Every person or new setting change has its own descriptive piece of writing by the author
to engage the reader a little more into creating his/her own imagination. The headless
horseman is the ghost story told by many of the villagers and their stories behind him all
quite are different. Some claim him to be a soldier who was caught and hung on a tree with
his head chopped off, other believe he was a spy. The story never quite claimed the real
