Washington Irving

Question 1

Birth/Death

Answer 1

1783-1859

Question 2

Early Career

Answer 2

Satirical Writing, including a History of New York, praised by Walter Scott

Question 3

Influences

Answer 3

Addison, Shakespeare and Sterne

Question 4

Expatriate

Answer 4

Lives in Europe for 17 years

Question 5

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

Answer 5

First American to Achieve International Literary Fame (Not quite true - Phillis Wheatley)

Question 6

Later Career

Answer 6

Diplomat, Minister to Spain

Question 7

What younger writers does Irving influence?

Answer 7

Hawthorne, Longfellow and Melville as Schoolboys

Question 8

Rip Van Winkle Sources

Answer 8

True sources in German Folk Tales; Frame narrative = found in papers of Knickerbocker, allusion to his satirical History of New York

Question 9

Rip Van Winkle Setting

Answer 9

Catskills in the time of British Rule

Question 10

Rip Van Winkle, Character

Answer 10

Anti-Franklinian Counter-Hero

Question 11

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Setting

Answer 11

Sleepy Hollow, near Terrytown, NY

Question 12

Ichabod Crane

Answer 12

School Master, Gangly, Mistaken for a Scare Crow. Used the rod on school children. Women admired his taste.

Question 13

Katrina Van Tassel

Answer 13

• Beautiful and rich coquette
• Pastoral homestead filled with luxury
• Ichabod’s mouth waters with thoughts of plenty, luxury

Question 14

Brom Van Brunt a.k.a. “Brom Bones”

Answer 14

• Jocular, Herculean Suitor of Katrina Van Tassel
• Claims to have raced the Headless Horseman
• Perhaps the Headless Horseman who chased off Ichabod?

Question 15

Mock-Epic Courtship Plot

Answer 15

• Poking Fun at Crane as a Don Quixote Figure
• Katrina Van Tassel as Coquette
  
  • -“He that wins a thousand common hearts, is therefore entitled to some renown; but he who keeps undisputed sway over the heart of a coquette, is indeed a hero.”

Question 16

When was “Sketch Book” published?

Answer 16

1820

Question 17

What is the name of the work in which “Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” appear?

Answer 17

The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.

Question 18

Who is Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.?

Answer 18

The central figure of Irving’s frame narrative for the collection of tales that would bring him international fame. It is his papers that supposedly contain “Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” – though these stories were supposedly written by yet another invented persona, Diedrich Knickerbocker.

Question 19

Within the context of the frame narrative, who is “Rip Van Winkle” written by?

Answer 19

Diedrich Knickerbocker (the imaginary character who supposedly wrote Irvings “History of New York”)

Question 20

How does Rip Van Winkle emphasize the shortness of American history?

Answer 20

Though published in 1820, tales from “Sketch Book” place even earlier; “Rip Van Winkle” starts before the Revolutionary War. Even though Rip is only asleep for twenty years, that short period of time is enough to render the part of America he had known completely unrecognizable.

After spending time in Europe, where history is…pretty ancient…this difference would have been especially striking to Irving. The idea that the twenty years could be the beginning of a national history and identity was exciting and worthy of exploration.

(Though we should note at the same time that the presence of some mysterious force in the forest alludes to a prior culture. Interestingly, it’s not Native American, but earlier settlers who are the source of mysterious forces. Irving’s elision of Native American presence is important.)

Question 21

Rip Van Winkle: Discuss the role of Native Americans in this story.

Answer 21

The mysterious forces in the mountains are notably not Native American, but European – Rip sees those dressed like the earliest Dutch settlers. Native American traditions are included in a postscript to the story as further proof that there is something supernatural in the mountains of that region.

The presence – or lack thereof – of Native Americans is also interesting considering this story’s positioning at the “beginning” of American history.

Question 22

Rip Van Winkle: What is Rip’s cultural heritage/that of the Hudson River Valley?

Answer 22

Dutch

Question 23

In whose papers was found the text of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”?

Answer 23

Diedrich Knickerbocker

Question 24

Sleepy Hollow: What Quals text is referenced in this work?

Answer 24

The Nun’s Priest’s Tale from The Canterbury Tales (Chanticleer is one of the things to be eaten at Katrina’s ball).

Question 25

Sleepy Hollow: What is the literary form of the dinner at Katrina's?

Answer 25

The whole courtship takes the form of a mock-heroic or mock-romantic plot. Ichabod hopes to present himself "in the true style of a cavalier...like a knight-errant in quest of adventures."

Question 26

Sleepy Hollow: What is one reason the text suggests that belief in the supernatural -- and perhaps the supernatural itself -- is more prominent in these NY Dutch communities?

Answer 26

Because the area has been settled the longest. Other parts of the country are newer - ghosts have "scarcely had time to finish their first nap."

Question 27

Sleepy Hollow: Where is Ichabod from?

Answer 27

Connecticut; he is an outsider.

Question 28

Sleepy Hollow: What site is the center of many of the native people's stories?

Answer 28

Major Andre's tree and the bridge on which he was captured. Major Andre was British general in the Revolutionary War taken captive on the bridge, and hanged from a nearby tree.

Question 29

Sleepy Hollow: What is the book Ichabod frequently quotes from?

Answer 29

Cotton Mather's "History of Witchcraft."

Question 30

Sleepy Hollow: What happens to Ichabod Crane?

Answer 30

Though initially no one in Sleepy Hollow knows his fate, it is eventually revealed that he fled the area and became a judge.

Question 31

Sleepy Hollow: What happens to Brom Bones?

Answer 31

He marries Katrina

Question 32

Sleepy Hollow: Did Ichabod really see the Headless Horseman?

Answer 32

The story strongly suggests that Ichabod was pursued by Brom Bones playing a cruel trick, and not an actual ghost. But metaphorically, Brom and Katrina are natives of the area who have lived there a long time. Crane was a newcomer hoping to capitalize off of Katrina's wealth, and he was pushed out by the "ghost" of Dutch cultural ties.

Question 33

Rip Van Winkle: Who does Rip consider himself a subject of ?

Answer 33

King George III

Question 34

Rip Van Winkle: Whose portrait replaces King George's at the local inn?

Answer 34

George Washington

Question 35

Rip Van Winkle: Who are the figures Rip spent time in the woods with rumored to be?

Answer 35

The ghosts of Hendrick Hudson's crew

Question 36

Sleepy Hollow: Discuss the Revolutionary War in this story.

Answer 36

The major source for the supernatural in Sleepy Hollow is Major Andre's tree. Major Andre was a spy/soldier that died in the Revolutionary War, but he was a British soldier, not an American one. This reverence for pre-American culture is echoed in the narrator's declaration that, unlike everywhere else in the nation, time seems to stand still here. Sleepy Hollow seems a completely "un-Revolutionary" space. Crane, and outsider from Connecticut, is driven out.