What is the setting of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?

The setting of Sleepy Hollow, New York, is significant because one of the story's major themes is the conflict between "country" people and "city" people. The original settlers of the Tarry Town area were Dutch, and they are depicted as strong, hearty farm people. Abraham "Brom Bones" Brunt and the Van Tassels are examples of these people. On the other hand, Ichabod Crane is an outsider from Connecticut. He is a Yankee--an city man with English ancestry. 

Sleepy Hollow is a secluded and very small glen off of the Tarry Town settlement area. This also helps set the mood for the spooky and comic events of the ending. If it were a city, or even a larger town, Brom Bones's Headless Horseman trick would not have worked against Ichabod Crane. Also, at the Van Tassels's party earlier, Brom Bones and the other Dutch farmers told old ghost stories from the area in order to lay the groundwork to scare Ichabod Crane. This worked because Crane is an outsider, whereas the Dutch farmers are the original settlers of Sleepy Hollow. Brom Bones knows the land and the history behind it, but Crane does not. In the end, when Brom Bones disguises himself as the Headless Horseman of legend (said to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper from the Revolutionary War), he chases Ichabod Crane all the way to the Old Dutch Burying Ground, a church and cemetery yard in Sleepy Hollow. In this Dutch colonial setting, the "country" man essentially wins over the "city" man. 

It's clear that Washington Irving thought of the place where his story takes place as very significant. After all, the name of the town is in the title--"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Even more evidence is that fact that Irving begins the story with a lengthy and vivid description of the town and its surroundings. It is a sequestered area with an aura of magic and dreaminess. Sleepy Hollow lies in a little valley two miles away from the small market port of Tarry Town, and it is "one of the quietest places in the world." 

The other consideration of the setting of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is the time period in which the story took place. Although Irving published his story in 1820, it takes place around 1790, 30 years earlier. The American Revolutionary War ended in 1783, so the story takes place in the years very soon right after the war. This was intentional, because the Revolutionary War is an important aspect of the narrative. The Headless Horseman himself is said to have been a soldier (a hired German trooper by the British army) in the war. Furthermore, Ichabod Crane's status as a Yankee, a "American" on the side of the colonies, is very prominent. 

What are the key elements of the plot in 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'?

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving is an American classic that many a reader has enjoyed. The setting of this tale suggests that rural beauty and comfort exist there; however, a ghostly headless horseman is rumored to haunt this area.

EXPOSITION

The narrator describes the lovely, desultory valley in which the story is set. While many migrate to the state of New York, they go past by this "pastoral site" founded by the Dutch. The area is, thus, much unchanged since it was first discovered. The residents have a penchant for all kinds of superstitions, but the "dominant spirit" that haunts the region is a Hessian trooper who rides on horseback without his head. At night, he rides forth to the scene where he lost his head during some nameless battle of the Revolution. However, his haunts are not confined there; he goes to adjacent roads, but he must always return to the church-yard before dawn.

Into this area, Ichabod Crane from Connecticut has come to be the schoolmaster. His last name befits him as he is very tall and lanky, with narrow shoulders and long legs and arms. His hands dangle from his sleeves, and when he walks, he resembles a scarecrow. His head is small, and it sits upon a "spindle neck."

During the school day, Crane is very strict; however, after school, he becomes "wonderfully gentle on the boys." He is also inclined to visit with the mothers, bouncing a baby on his lap. The narrator describes him as "[O]ur man of letters," who "was peculiarly happy in the smiles of all the country damsels." Further, Ichabod carries with him "the market of human gossip," and he fills his head with "Mather's book" and wives' tales with which to entertain the wives as he bounces their young on his knees. On his way home, the superstitious Ichabod is "beset by Satan" as he imagines "fearful shapes and shadows." 

RISING ACTION

When Ichabod plays psalms, one of his "musical disciples" is Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of a wealthy Dutch farmer. She is a young woman, pleasing both for her plump beauty and for her "vast expectations," as her father has a marvelous farm. After Crane visits the Van Tassels' mansion, "the conquest of his heart is complete." Unfortunately, there is a rival for Katrina's affections, Brom van Brunt, whose physical structure contrasts greatly with that of Ichabod Crane's. He is broad-shouldered and athletic. He is "foremost at all races and cock-fights"; with his strength, he is the umpire in all arguments and fights. But for all his brawniness, there is "more mischief than ill-will" in his makeup.

CRISIS

Nevertheless, Crane is faced with a formidable adversary against whom he must compete for Katrina. But, he is plucky and has perseverance when he foresees bountiful meals in his future. Under the guise of being the singing-master, Crane visits the farmhouse and flirts surreptitiously with Katrina. Brom plays many a practical joke on Crane to run him off, but Ichabod is determined in his pursuit of Katrina.

CLIMAX

Ichabod Crane receives an invitation to a "quilting frolic" to be held at Mynheer Van Tassel's. During the day Crane hurries his students through their lessons and dismisses the children an hour early. Wishing to appear the cavalier, Ichabod Crane rents a horse, but the "errant-knight's steed" is a broken down plow horse. Nevertheless, Crane is gallantly dressed, and he sets forth in search of adventure on the back of old Gunpowder. As he jogs along, Crane delightfully views the bounty of the Van Tassel's farm. Once there, Ichabod eats and dances and joins the story-tellers.

The chief part of the stories, however, turned upon the favorite spectre of Sleepy Hollow, the headless horseman.

Brom Bones claims to have challenged this headless horseman one night. As his horse Daredevil began to beat the goblin-horse, they came to the church-bridge and "the Hessian bolted and vanished in a flash of fire." Crane matches these stories with tales from Cotton Mather and incidents from Connecticut. The party ends, and Ichabod lingers, believing he can woo Katrina. But, he soon departs with a desolate look on his face.

On his dark ride home at the "witching time of night," Ichabod Crane recalls all the stories he has heard of ghosts and goblins. And, as the night darkens, Crane's imagination ignites, and he fears that he is being chased by the Hessian in search of his head. When he hears the galloping hooves of his pursuer's horse, fear strikes Crane; he urges old Gunpowder on, and he comes down on the horse's backbone so hard he fears he will be knocked apart. After some slipping from side to side by the saddle, the entire thing falls off the bony horse. But, Crane gives Gunpowder a "convulsive kick in the sides" and the old horse springs onto the bridge, sending the saddle behind them. Desperately, Crane clings to the old horse as he hears the black steed snorting in his wake. "Just then he saw the goblin rising in his stirrups, and in the very act of hurling his head at him." Ichabod tries to dodge this horrible cranium, but he falls and tumbles into the dust while Gunpowder, the black steed, and the goblin race past him "like a whirlwind."

FALLING ACTION

The next day when the children come to the schoolhouse, Master Crane is nowhere to be seen. The brook is searched, but no one finds a trace of Ichabod Crane. On Sunday there is much speculation. Some think Ichabod has been carried off by the Galloping Hessian. But, since he is a bachelor, the congregation do not trouble themselves about him. The schoolhouse becomes deserted, too, and "is reported to be haunted by the ghost of the former pedagogue."

DENOUEMENT

At times a young boy passes the old schoolhouse and reports that he hears a voice in the distance, singing a "melancholy psalm tune among the tranquil solitudes of Sleepy Hollow."

A brief plot summary of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is that an outsider (Ichabod Crane) enters a Dutch American enclave in upstate New York and decides that instead of being the community's teacher, he would like to marry the daughter (Katrina Van Tassel) of a wealthy Dutch farmer and live off the inherited wealth. However, the man widely assumed to be her future husband (Brom Bones) scares off the outsider with a frightening prank and reclaims his girlfriend.

The rising action of the story is realized through Ichabod's growing realization that the Van Tassels are very wealthy and that a marriage to Katrina would provide him with an affluent and leisurely life. Ichabod presents himself as a scholar and a cosmopolitan to impress the locals and gain acceptance in their society, though he is not Dutch American, as are all the others in the community. He works to ingratiate himself. 

The crisis grows as Brom Bones begins to see Ichabod as a genuine threat to his own planned marriage to Katrina. Ichabod plans to ask Katrina to marry him.

The climax occurs on the evening that Ichabod attends a party at the end of the summer.  After an evening of dancing, feasting, and drinking, he intends to propose to Katrina but loses his chance. Late that evening, Brom Bones succeeds in scaring off Ichabod by appearing to him as the Headless Horseman.

The falling action occurs as Ichabod's disappearance is noted by the townspeople who conjecture that he has been taken away by supernatural forces; this becomes a local legend, and Brom and Katrina eventually marry. 

Enotes has a link to a very good summary that will answer each part of your question. See the link below.

Who is the main character of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?

The main character in Washington Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is Ichabod Crane. Despite the fact that the story is about him, Crane is not a character that readers will enjoy reading about. He is not a typical protagonist in the sense that the readers like him and cheer for him. Superficially, Crane is not a good-looking guy. He is quite awkward-looking, and Irving doesn't shy away from telling readers this information:

To see him striding along the profile of a hill on a windy day, with his clothes bagging and fluttering about him, one might have mistaken him for the genius of famine descending upon the earth, or some scarecrow eloped from a cornfield.

Crane is also afraid of just about everything and everyone. That's odd, considering how much he loves reading scary stories and telling scary stories. The above information essentially shows Crane as a stereotypical "book nerd." He is not exactly the hero type, but this is a fairly common hero introduction format. As a modern analogy, Spiderman/Peter Parker is similar in some ways; however, audiences know that ultimately a guy like Peter Parker is a decent and moral human being. That's not the case with Crane. He plays the meek and mild card because he has to. We are told that Crane deeply desires the wealth and status that could be offered to him through Katrina. There is nothing wrong with that, but Crane plans to be an all-around jerk with that power:

soon he'd turn his back upon the old school-house; snap his fingers in the face of Hans Van Ripper, and every other niggardly patron, and kick any itinerant pedagogue out of doors that should dare to call him comrade!

The main character of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is Ichabod Crane, the new schoolmaster. Ichabod comes to Sleepy Hollow "for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity." Although Ichabod is not a particularly likable character, the action revolves around him. He has a goal, namely, to secure the affections of Katrina van Tassel, a coquette and the only daughter of the richest farmer in the area. Ichabod knows that making a match with Katrina would set him up for a comfortable lifestyle, especially upon the death of Katrina's father. However, an antagonist stands in Ichabod's way, another suitor of Katrina's named Brom Bones. The rivalry drives the narrative, with Brom taking advantage of Ichabod's fears and superstitions to literally scare him away from Katrina and Sleepy Hollow. Ichabod doesn't reach his goal in Sleepy Hollow, but the penultimate paragraph of the story relates the gossip of how he succeeded admirably in another venue. Because the story is told primarily from Ichabod's perspective and because he drives the action, Ichabod is the main character of the tale.

Who is the primary narrator of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?

The primary narrator in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a man at the tavern. 

"The story opens with a long descriptive passage offered in the first person by the narrator, who is revealed at the end of the story to be a man in a tavern "

"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: Summary." Short Stories for Students. Ed. Marie Rose Napierkowski. Vol. 8. Detroit: Gale, 1998. eNotes.com. January 2006. 3 November 2008. <http://www.enotes.com/legend-sleepy/summary>.

Who is the antagonist in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?

Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt is generally considered to be the main antagonist of Irving's short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." It is notable to mention, however, that Brom Bones is primarily seen as an antagonist because he is the main opponent of the main protagonist, the fearful and superstitious schoolteacher Ichabod Crane, as they both compete for the love of the young and rich Katrina Van Tassel. On his own terms, though, Brom Bones is not particularly villainous, nor does he have any truly ill intentions.

Irving describes Brom Bones as a handsome young man who is very strong (hence his nickname) and who likes to joke around. His most negative personality traits are his arrogance, his immaturity, and his vanity, and arguably the worst thing that he does in the story is more manipulative in nature than it is harmful or antagonistic—he pretends to be the Headless Horseman and uses Ichabod's fears against him in order to scare him away from Sleepy Hollow.

Granted, the story doesn't reveal what happens to Ichabod in the end, and it is unclear where he goes after his disappearance from Sleepy Hollow. Thus, in a way, the legendary character of the Headless Horseman can also be considered a secondary antagonist. On the other hand, the Headless Horseman is only ever spoken about and he is never actually seen by anyone in the story—he is simply a supernatural being whose myth is repurposed by Brom Bones.

Despite the terrifying mystery of the Headless Horseman and Brom Bones's manipulative actions, Irving indirectly implies that the real villains of the story are fear and superstition, as they can compromise any person's happiness and mental stability.

What are the plot, rising action, and falling action in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?

One element not mentioned in the examination of Washington Irving's story, "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is point of view.  This story and "Rip van Winkle" are both from Irving's The Sketch Book.  Both tale are supposedly handed down from

the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman of New York, who was very curous in the Dutch history of the province and the maners of the decendants from its primitive settlers.  His historical researches, however, did not lie so much among books, as among men...

Thus, the tales of Knickerbocker are handed down, and Irving presents himself as the narrator of one of his tales.  So, he is narrating a story that has told to Knickerbocker.  Then, within the tale told thrice, the characters in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" tell stories themselves, with all the narrators being unreliable.  Without any reliable narrator, Irving has fun having Ichabod Crane frightened by the story of the Headless Horseman, a story within a story.

Clearly, the emotional distance that all these unreliable narrators create keeps the reader from empathizing with any character. In this manner the humorous tone prevails as the reader, then, focuses more upon it. And, it is this humor as Irving describes the unlikely figure of Crane who supposes himself a courter of Katrina van Tassel and who ingratiates himself to the old wives of the community that has made this story distinctively American and a favorite for many generations.

In this story, the climax or turning point comes when Katrina Van Tassel scorns Ichabod Crane and falls instead for Brom Bones.

Because this is the climax, of course what comes before is the rising action.  In particular, the rising action follows Ichabod as he and Brom compete for the love of Katrina.

The falling action is what comes after the party at Van Tassel's.  Ichabod leaves the party and then mysteriously disappears after having seen the headless horseman.

With Ichabod out of the way, the story resolves with Katrina marrying Brom and we are left to wonder if Brom was really the headless horseman.

Who is the protagonist in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"?

Ichabod Crane is the protagonist of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." However, his antagonist, Brom Van Brunt, known as Brom Bones, is arguably the hero of the story, despite most of the narrator's attention being paid to Crane.

Crane is not a likable or admirable person. A gangly, graceless man, he comes from outside Sleepy Hollow to be the village schoolmaster. He beats the school children in his care, and a person passing by the schoolhouse might hear

the appalling sound of the birch, as he urged some tardy loiterer along the flowery path of knowledge.

He will then, after school, smile and visit the home of one of the prettier mothers with a well-stocked cupboard. He enjoys flattering and spending time with the ladies, including swapping folk stories with the older local women. He is superstitious and has a store of old supernatural tales on hand.

Crane becomes a rival to Brom Bones when he goes after the hand of Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter of wealthy local landowner. Crane is interested in Katrina primarily for her money and the good food served in her home.

Brom, in contrast, is strong and good-humored, with a group of followers. He loves Katrina for herself and uses his wits and pragmatism to get rid of his rival; he scares the superstitious Crane out of town by impersonating the legendary headless horseman.

In "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," who is the famous ghost of Sleepy Hollow?

The Headless Horseman is the famous ghost in the small town of Sleepy Hollow.  Local legend has it that he is the ghost of a Hessian soldier, who died during a battle in the Revolutionary War.  It is said that the soldier lost his head when a cannonball hit it during the fighting.  He often rides by the local church, as the legend also states that he was buried there.  It is said that he rides about on his horse searching for his missing head, and that he cannot cross the bridge near the church.  The main character in the story, Ichabod Crane, is particularly curious about this local legend.  When Ichabod finally sees the ghost of the Headless Horseman, he spots the severed head sitting on the horse in front of the soldier and races toward the bridge to escape.

What was important in the story of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow set in the 1800s?

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a short story published in a collection called The Sketch-Book in 1819 and 1820 in installments.  Washington Irving brought forth the popularity of the American short story with The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in the 1800s.

The story itself took place in the late 1790s.  There were several important happenings in the story.  One was that Ichabod Crane became infatuated with Katrina Van Tassel.  He visited her often and tried to woo her.  He went to a party at her father's farm, seeking to impress her.  Instead, he heard Brom Bones tell a story of the Headless Horseman who was said to haunt the area.  Ichabod was already superstitious, and he nervously rode his horse home later that night.  Suddenly he came across what appeared to be the Headless Horseman.  He was chased away and never heard from again.