Order and Chaos by Washington Irving - Book Report/Review Example

Order and Chaos in the book The Legend of Sleepy Hollow In Washington Irving’s classic The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the themes of order and chaos are prevailing ones. Often times in literature, things are not always as they appear. There is order from chaos, and chaos from order, and when the two meet, there is disaster. This is the case of Irving’s story, which opens with a description of what sounds like an orderly and picturesque town. It is the kind of place where people lead orderly lives, as is demanded by the need to make a living in what is during the winter a harsh environment along the Hudson. It is orderly because that is what keeps people’s lives moving, is order. The story introduces the reader the traveling school master, Ichabod Crane, whose very organized life involves spending a week at a time at the homes of the local students, where he is well fed, sheltered, and has the opportunity to meet and perhaps marry a young woman who might inherit some means greater than his own. Ichabod’s organization is symbolic of the organization within which he lives. It is a very organized, chaotic free life that Ichabod leads. As the story departs from the historic, and begins to delve into the mystery of the urban myths, like that of the story of “Douffe Martling (65),” then the organization and sense of sleepy little town calm begins to dissipate. “But all these were nothing to the tales of ghosts and ap­paritions that succeeded. The neighborhood is rich in legend­ary treasures of the kind. Local tales and superstitions thrive best in these sheltered long-settled retreats; but are trampled under foot by the shifting throng that forms the population of most of our country places. Besides, there is no encourage­ment for ghosts in most of our villages, for they have scarcely had time to finish their first nap, and turn themselves in their graves, before their surviving friends have traveled away from the neighborhood; so that when they turn out at night to walk their rounds, they have no acquaintance left to call upon. This is perhaps the reason why we so seldom hear of ghosts except in our long-established Dutch communities (66).” It is only when we take ourselves out of the mundane daily life routines that it becomes really exciting, because then we can inject our environments with the sense of intrigue and suspense. Even if the characters are created by our social imagination, intended to create entertainment value, they are necessary to break the mundane daily routine. So we create ghosts and goblins, and those things that are representative in our lives of that which we cannot explain, like heaven and hell. These legends help us reconcile those notions and philosophies of the thing which we cannot easily or readily reconcile, but which hold special traditional value in our lives. Departing from the tradition, from the mundane, requires an element of chaos, because it is chaos about which the supernatural and the unexplained revolve around. As Ichabody Crane is going about his daily life, what he most looks forward to is a good meal. In order for Crane’s mundane, or organized life to be appreciated, it must be put beside a less organized or less tangible story element. So, Ichabod Crane’s life is going to encounter the “legend of Sleepy Hollow (66).” “The immediate cause, however, of the prevalence of super­ natural stories in these parts, was doubtless owing to the vi­cinity of Sleepy Hollow. There was a contagion in the very air that blew from that haunted region; it breathed forth an atmosphere of dreams and fancies infecting all the land. Sev­eral of the Sleepy Hollow people were present at Van Tassel's, and, as usual, were doling out their wild and wonderful legends. Many dismal tales were told about funeral trains, and mourn­ing cries and wailings heard and seen about the great tree where the unfortunate Major André was taken, and which stood in the neighborhood. Some mention was made also of the woman in white, that haunted the dark glen at Raven Rock, and was often heard to shriek on winter nights before a storm, having perished there in the snow. The chief part of the stories, however, turned upon the favorite spectre of Sleepy Hollow, the headless horseman, who had been heard several times of late, patrolling the country; and, it is said, tethered his horse nightly among the graves in the church-yard (66-67).” So it is the spectacle of chaos that the author employs to advance the storyline through the plot. When the ghost of the Hessan trooper is introduced, it is with those chaotic personality traits that one has in life, which, for the Hessan apparently persisted in death. The Hessan accepts the challenge to race, but, so it being reported, just as the human about to win, the Hessan disappears in a ball of fire. So the poor personality trait of poor sportsmanship is one attributed to the Hessan. The legend of the Galloping Hessan is embellished as the story goes from person to person, but it is a very organized embellishment. The story of the Hessan trooper goes along, in an organized way, it becomes more chaotic. “All these tales, told in that drowsy undertone with which men talk in the dark, the countenances of the listeners only now and then receiving a casual gleam from the glare of a pipe, sank deep in the mind of Ichabod (71).” Here, we see that the author is setting up the storyline for Ichabod to become out of control in his fear of the Hessan. Sleepy Hollow, as the stories go on, becomes a more haunting place to be about during the night hours, which is when Ichabd Crane is most likely to be found making his travels to and from the school house to the outlying farms. The stories told during the daylight hours are not frightening, but ghosts only manifest themselves during in the darkness of night. The tension has been created by the author, and very soon, Ichabod will be ripe for the heightened tension of responding to that which will be reported by him as the Hessan trooper. Now the author introduces the feelings and emotions that Ichabod needs to experience in order to move from his organized life, to his chaotic experience. We cannot move the character out of a well defined organized life without first causing the character to become unglued by experiencing a sort of emotional surrender to the chaos that will follow. “He had never felt so lonely and dismal. He was, moreover, approaching the very place where many of the scenes of the ghost stories had been laid (73).” Ichabod is feeling lonely, which is the vulnerability that is needed to create the chaos that the story is building towards. It is at this point that the things begin looking out of place and frightening to Ichabod. He begins to imagine that the things in the countryside for which he once took for granted, now are taking on ominous and threatening shapes and new meanings. As Ichabod approaches that place where in the legend the tree stands; here we see the story begin to disintegrate into chaos – Ichabod whistles. The whistle is indicative of a last thread between order and chaos. He hears a groan, his teeth chatter, and he inadvertently sends the pressure signals to the mount to take off (74). It is heightened tension, and it is the pursuit of order by chaos. Now, as he passes the landmarks familiar to him from the legend, he conjures up in his mind those images of horror. “Ichabod, whose fears increased with the delay, jerked the reins on the other side, and kicked lustily with the contrary foot: it was all in vain; his steed started, it is true, but it was only to plunge to the opposite side of the road into a thicket of brambles and alder bushes. The schoolmaster now bestowed both whip and heel upon the starveling ribs of old Gunpowder, who dashed forward, snuffling and snorting, but came to a stand just by the bridge, with a suddenness that had nearly sent his rider sprawling over his head. Just at this moment a plashy tramp by the side of the bridge caught the sensitive ear of Ichabod. In the dark shadow of the grove, on the mar­gin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, black and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveler (78).” Ichabod is slowly working his self into a hysteria. The calm and collect school master is about to give over to chaos. Ichabod’s terror rises to the level of “desperation (79).” At this point, the completely out of control psyche of the school master takes over, and he is vulnerable to any sight, sound, or sense that something supernatural is about, something that is already placed in his thoughts by suggestion of the legend. At the point when Ichabod completely surrenders to his terror, Gunpowder, the horse he is riding, takes charge. The horse is now choosing the direction and road, and Ichabod has become but a player in the drama that is unfolding. “They had now reached the road which turns off to Sleepy Hollow; but Gunpowder, who seemed possessed with a demon, instead of keeping up it, made an opposite turn, and plunged headlong down hill to the left. This road leads through a sandy hollow, shaded by trees for about a quarter of a mile, where it crosses the bridge famous in goblin story, and just beyond swells the green knoll on which stands the whitewashed church (80).” What we see is that the author is successfully creating the environment between the reader and the characters interact in the building tension of terror. Then, suddenly, he I losing his saddle, and this is creating an even greater level of tension and chaos, because it is something that he must confront the reality of as he is confronting the supernatural being that is evoking terror in him. There was “no time for petty fears (84).” Ichabod was struggling to regain control of his self, to bring order back to his highly structured way of living and coping. Then, there is the breaking point, the final straw, when Ichabod loses all control. The bridge that he must cross where a pumpkin is used to frighten Crane into believing that he is being accosted by the Hessan trooper sends Ichabod over the edge. The next we know, Ichabod Crane has left the area for a distant part of the country where he studied law, while working as a teacher, and then went into politics (89). Ichabod’s competition, Hans van Ripper, who always found the stories of Ichabod’s sudden disappearance and departure to be amusing, was also strongly believed at first to have had a significant role in scaring the daylights of poor Ichabod Crane. Order, has been restored to the lives of the characters and the village. Ichabod Crane is living away from Sleepy Hollow, content and in a life that allows him to be self-sufficient. Van Ripper was left without competition for the wealthy farmer’s daughter. Order and chaos are a writer’s tools, to be used to invest the audience in the storyline, especially one that has the elements of intrigue, suspense, and surprise as does The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. The author took a non-existent character, the Hessian trooper, and made it a significant character in the story. Using the stereotypical imagery built around the fear of the unknown, the author gave the headless horseman power over Ichabod Crane’s imagination. From the point where the townspeople were relaying and reminiscing the folklore around the legend, Ichabod’s imagination became increasingly obsessed with the legend. The obsession became a fear, and the fear turned to terror. By the time that Ichabod was making his usual trek through the countryside after having visited with the farmer and his daughter, then Ichabod’s imagination took control over him. As the reader, there was not the sense that Ichabod resisted the overpowering of his common sense and order. The control over Ichabod’s fear was in the hands of van Ripper, who sensed Ichabod’s weakness, and played on that fear. The story leaves little doubt but that Ichabod was victim to van Ripper’s game to use Ichabod’s fear against him, and to use it to van Ripper’s advantage. “Ichabod Crane is not only, a representative of bustling, practical New England who threatens imaginatively fertile rural America with his prosaic acquisitiveness; he is also an intrusive male who threatens the stability of a decidedly female place. For Irving, the issue of art is sexually charged; in Sleepy Hollow, this tension finally becomes a conflict between male and female storytelling. A close look at the stories that circulate through the Dutch community shows that Ichabod's expulsion follows directly from women's cultivation of local folklore. Female-centered Sleepy Hollow, by means of tales revolving around the emasculated, headless "dominant spirit" of the region, figuratively neuters threatening masculine interlopers like Ichabod to ensure the continuance of the old Dutch domesticity, the Dutch wives' hearths, and their old wives' tales (Plummer, Laura, and Nelson, Michael, 175).” Therefore, Ichabod might well be perceived as the chaos in an other closed society. His presence requires that clever legends be manipulated – in this case by van Ripper – to drive Ichabod away. Once gone, the author quickly returns the order of the town to the normal status quo. Ichabod has become a part of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Works Cited Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1906. Questia. 17 Dec. 2008 . Plummer, Laura, and Michael Nelson. ""Girls Can Take Care of Themselves": Gender and Storytelling in Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow."." Studies in Short Fiction 30.2 (1993): 175+. Questia. 17 Dec. 2008 . Read More