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19th-Century American Literature Videos 35 videos
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 6710 Views
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Description:
The title is pretty ironic when you consider how little sleep you'd be getting if you had a headless horseman chasing you.
Transcript
- 00:01
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow a la Shmoop. Ichabod Crane is about two hundred years old,
- 00:09
but that hasn’t stopped the old coot from being a staple of pop culture.
- 00:13
He’s been played in the movies by Johnny Depp, and is even the subject of a 2013 time-traveling
- 00:18
TV show.
- 00:20
What is it about the Legend of Sleepy Hollow that's made such an impact on American society?
Full Transcript
- 00:25
One thing that keeps it in high demand is the simple fact that people love scary stories.
- 00:29
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, with its terrifying headless horseman, is one of the original
- 00:33
scary stories to tell in the dark. People are always passing along creepy tales...
- 00:40
Like how that friend of your friend’s cousin’s half-brother’s aunt once put a hamster in
- 00:45
the microwave…
- 00:46
Similarly, they’ve been telling and retelling the Legend of Sleepy Hollow for two centuries.
- 00:53
While Irving didn’t up come up with the legend of the headless horseman, he glammed
- 00:56
it up, which helps the story’s longevity.
- 00:58
It’s surprising he didn’t come up with the idea to turn Hansel and Gretel into gun
- 01:02
toting action heroes. You say scary stories aren’t your thing?
- 01:10
People who aren’t big fans of scary stories enjoy Sleepy Hollow for a different reason…
- 01:14
its protagonist, Ichabod Crane.
- 01:16
We can all identify with Ichabod…
- 01:18
He’s no Hercules or Superman… he’s a skinny nerd with fast feet and quick wits
- 01:23
in place of rippling muscles. And, judging by how often we hide under the
- 01:26
covers after a scary movie, we also identify with his fear.
- 01:32
Even if you’re not that big into frights, or don’t give two shakes about Ichabod…
- 01:35
…you can’t deny the fact that, as a culture, we Americans love to fantasize about supernatural
- 01:41
stuff.
- 01:44
Things that go bump in the night can be anything from vampires and werewolves….
- 01:47
…To Bigfoot, El Chupacabra, or even UFOs circling overhead looking for something or
- 01:52
someone to… probe. Irving takes advantage of our love for the
- 01:57
unexplained by leaving it open to interpretation whether or not the headless horseman is actually
- 02:03
real.
- 02:04
Imagine reading this story, then hearing a snapping twig in the woods on a dark night.
- 02:09
You’d be liable to think that it could be the diabolical horseman, looking for a head
- 02:15
transplant…
- 02:18
So why has this story made such an everlasting impact on American storytelling?
- 02:22
Is it our love for scary stories?
- 02:24
Our soft spot for the underdog?
- 02:26
Or our fascination with the supernatural? Shmoop amongst yourselves
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