英文版An Analysis of the Gothic style of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow.doc

An Analysis of the Gothic style of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow 1.Introduction Washington ivring is a great writer who made great contributions to the development of American literature, known as“the father of the American short story”.Most of washington ivring’s work shows a sense of humor and witty, and he using beautiful language creat a poetical world.Besides, there are works embody the Gothic style. The most typical work is the legend of Sleepy Hollow. The legend of Sleepy Hollow is set 1790 in the Dutch settlement of Tarry Town, in a secluded glen called Sleepy Hollow. It tells the story of Ichabod Crane, a sycophantic, lean, lanky, and extremely superstitious schoolmaster from Connecticut, who competes with Abraham Brom Bones Van Brunt, the town rowdy, for the hand of 18-year-old Katrina Van Tassel, the daughter and sole child of a wealthy farmer, Baltus Van Tassel. As Crane leaves a party he attended at the Van Tassel home on an autumn night, he is pursued by the Headless Horseman, who is supposedly the ghost of a Hessian trooper who had his head shot off by a stray cannonball during some nameless battle of the American Revolutionary War, and who rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head. Ichabod mysteriously disappears from town, leaving Katrina to marry Brom Bones, who was to look exceedingly knowing whenever the story of Ichabod was related. Although the nature of the Headless Horseman is left open to interpretation, the story implies that the Horseman was really Brom Bones in disguise. There are many description on the environment and plot. The environment is mostly grim,and the plots in this story are absurd . An atmosphere of ghostly and gothic filled the story. 2. The origin and characteristic style of Gothic Fiction 2.1Evolution of the word Goth Originally, the word Goth refers to a gothic tribe living in northern Europe, which belongs to the Teutonic. Teutones poured into the southern europe from the 6th century. Hardy and r