Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Young Goodman Brown

The Legend of Sleep Hollow and Young Goodman Brown were both relatively short, enjoyable reads.  The Legend of Sleep Hollow was one of the first American Gothic novels, and had many of the Gothic elements found in Gothic novels.  First, the Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a Gothic counterfeit, as it is set in a time period way before it was actually written and pretends to be like an old manuscript.  Second, Washington Irving writes under a secret name.  The setting is in a Dutch farming town, which has had supernatural incidents over the years.  Ichabod Crane comes into the town of Sleepy Hollow, hoping to educate the farm folks.  He is definitely the "anti-hero" as he is described as scrawny with a "flat head."  He teaches and helps people with singing lessons.  However, like Adeline, he is fascinated by the story of the Headless Horseman, but tries to one-up the town by creating his own ghost stories from back in Connecticut.  Brom on the other hand, would be the typical hero, except he is the villian, who bullies Ichabod to the point that he leaves Sleepy Hollow forever.  Katrina uses Ichabod to make Brom jealous, which demonstrates her power of men in the "novella."  The most comic part of the novel, is when the Headless Horseman, or Brom Bones, scares poor Ichabod and then throws his "head" at Ichabod, knowing Ichabod off his horse.  It turns out that the "head" was actually a pumpkin, and because of embarrassment, Ichabod leaves Sleepy Hollow forever.  Since the supernatural is explained, Sleep Hollow can be considered a literature of terror.

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne was a short story about faith and sin.  I read the story in high school.  Goodman Brown is married to a woman named Faith, which is an allegory and is used in double voice discourse (DVD).  The setting is dark and mysterious, with the fog and the forest intensifying the scene.  The presence of the devil, who appears in the form of Goodman Brown's father or grandfather is another Gothic element.  Goodman Brown ends up losing his Faith, both literally and figuratively.  Dark romanticism is seen throughout the story, as the idea of sin and guilt as an inherent trait of mankind is said to Goodman Brown when he meets with the devil.  Where the other characters understand that they sin and can grow from it, Goodman Brown cannot get over the fact that sin is an inherit quality of mankind and therefore never really grows from the experience.  He instead is disgusted by everyone in his community, and basically becomes a depressed loner.