Recently Answered Questions
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Washington Irving"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is structured as a frame story--the narrator stands back and imbeds this particular tale in a larger narrative structure, in which he positions himself as an outsider...
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Washington IrvingBoth of Irving's short stories can certainly be read as entertaining folk tales separate from the allegories they present as social commentary. "Rip Van Winkle" is entertaining for many reasons....
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Washington IrvingThe short story "The Adelantado of the Seven Cities" by Washington Irving bears resemblance to Irving's famous tale "Rip Van Winkle" in that the protagonists of both stories find themselves...
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Washington IrvingA folktale is a popular story that originates among common people and is widely transmitted in a local area by word of mouth. Folktales also usually have a fantastic or supernatural element,...
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Washington IrvingAs part of Ichabod Crane's compensation for teaching the children in the Sleepy Hollow area, he gets his room and board, on a rotating basis, from the farmers whose children he is teaching. Irving...
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Washington IrvingWhen we think of Washington Irving, what stands out most of all is what he accomplished in his short stories. Above all what he did was help America develop a distinctive and unique literary voice...
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Washington IrvingThere is something you could use in almost every paragraph of each one of these stories. Irving is a writer that uses a lot of imagery and poetic devices in his fiction. Both stories are loaded...
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Washington IrvingOne connection I see between Irving, Hawthorne, and Poe is a tradition of gothic themes and style in early American literature. It makes sense: the American colonists came to a "new" land, facing...
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Washington IrvingWashington Irving, in the tale of Rip Van Winkle as lifted from the larger work The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., was instrumental in creating literature that shaped the identity and...
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Washington IrvingWashington Irving lived in Tarrytown N.Y. (slightly north of N.Y.C.) however he did travel to many places within the state. One of the best examples of how Irving's writing was affected by his...
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Washington IrvingThe thing to focus on in answering this question would be the way in which Irving deliberately creates a setting for these two stories that places them in the heart of fantasy and which stresses...
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Washington IrvingOne of the truths presented by this short story is that change can be either good or bad, depending on one's outlook. When Rip falls asleep, the colonies are still under British rule. When he...
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Washington IrvingDame Van Winkle's character is a foil, or an opposite/contrasting type of character, to her husband Rip. This provides tension within the plot as Rip's characterization is developed. The reader...
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Washington IrvingBoth of these stories were written by Washington Irving in the early 1800s. They are presented to the reader as true tales from the collected papers of one Diedrich Knickerbocker. Both take place...
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Washington IrvingThe main theme of this legend that Irving creates or repeats in this compelling tale is the power of legends to outlive their origins. Let us remember that it was during the Moorish invasion of...
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Washington IrvingThe values of the Enlightenment, also sometimes referred to as the Age of Reason, included a focus on rational thought and logic. Enlightenment thinkers privileged the scientific method and reason...
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Washington IrvingYou might like to consider "The Devil and Tom Walker" and the way that it describes the involvement of the devil figure that appears in this story in various political events of America, especially...