Washington Irving did a fantastic job with this story and his display of the many literary elements. Ichabod Crane was a money hungry, food loving, self centered individual who created the situational irony in the story with his plan to win the affections of Katrina Van Tassel, and get all of her family's fortune, land, and food. This portrayed an action that was completely unexpected, due to the fact that he was the school teacher and Katrina was his student. Irving used a number of metaphors and similies to give the story its design. My favorite part of the entire story was how Ichabod was tricked by his own self in his master plan of winning Katrina which also symbolized situational irony. Ichabod thought he was in the clear and was closing in on his attempt to win Katrina but finds out that she was only using him to make Brom Bones jealous. Overall I felt that this story was very interesting and was a great example of true Gothic Literature.
Young Goodman Brown
Hawthorne has pointed out what he sees to be problematic in society and public morality in "Young Goodman Brown." In my own point of view, I felt that Goodman Brown was very indecisive with his heart and what he believed in. Faith in this story represented the good in Goodman Brown's wife trying to keep him from leaving. Her pink ribbons were an important symbol in this story that respresented the good and innocence in life, in my opinion. They could also respresent the reminder of a higher power considering Goodman Brown saw a pink ribbon floating down from the heavens. What I found to be the most interesting part of the story was when Goodman Brown decided to go into the forest and meet with the Devil himself. I found it interesting because he seemed to be of innocent nature and wouldn't ordinarilly do something like this. This is situational irony in my opinion, considering this is an event that is unexpected. I'm convinced that it the fall of the ones closest to him had an impact on this. Overall I think Hawthorne did a great job of this story, and the plot that was laid out.
I would agree with the majority of your analysis, like how Ichabod ruined his own plan to win Katrina and it was unexpected. However, I did not see it as a true gothic novel. There were definitely some aspects of it that was like, the haunting and the chase to win over Katrina. However, I did not notice very much more. I get how it can be a gothic novel yet I feel as though it was lacking a lot of major elements and this could be due to the fact that there was not much details into the characters live.
ReplyDeleteGo Frogs! They got by Wyoming, even Young Goodman Brown would of been pleased, that is if Hawthorne was also of the same mind. IMHO
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