Thinkers at the time of the Enlightenment or Age of Reason were engrossed with the project of imposing order onto the universe. With the God-given faculty of reason, they argued, humankind, above and beyond every other creature, could navigate the world with greater insight and influence. They saw themselves, in other words, as Adam-like in the sense that their mission was to "tend the garden": keep it trimmed and tidy, give it language, name everything that can be named. This was in the 18th century. Revolutions were inspired by this movement. Monarchies were rejected. Heads were severed from their bodies in France.
Enter Washington Irving’s 1820 short story “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” in which a daydreaming schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, happens upon the horrifying specter of the Headless Horseman. While attending a harvest party at the home of his love interest, Katrina Van Tassel, Ichabod first hears the tale of the Hessian trooper from Brom Bones, another of Tassel’s suitors. Lanky, bookish, and physically unimpressive Ichabod Crane, though, is no match for the brawny Brom Bones. As such, he is jilted and decides to leave the party and trek through the dark woods toward home at the witching hour – the time when the Headless Horseman is said to roam the area looking for what was taken from him. Their encounter is inevitable. Petrified, Ichabod Crane spurs his mount, a sad-looking horse named Gunpowder, into action, and the Hessian gives ghoulish chase. The pursuit is intense. The only hope is to reach the wooden bridge mentioned in the Brom Bones’ telling of the story. It is where the headless rider must stop. He cannot go beyond it. Sure enough, Ichabod Crane finds the bridge and crosses it; however, the Headless Horseman rears back on his own terrifying mount and hurls his severed head at him, knocking him off Gunpowder.
Ichabod Crane’s fate is mysterious, and Irving seems to be keen on keeping it that way. There is no clear resolution. There is simply a shattered pumpkin and a missing protagonist. Ichabod Crane’s whereabouts remain unknown, and there ends the story.
This alone makes the tale very appealing. It is a favorite around campfires and at sleepovers. Given the date of the short story’s publication, however, I wonder if there is more to be said.
The Enlightenment sparked the American Revolution. In “Common Sense,” firebrand Thomas Paine even made the argument that our separation from the English crown was quite reasonable – the proper thing to do. After the Revolutionary War, though, a new worldview emerged. While Enlightenment thinkers championed reason, the Romantics championed emotion, the very thing that set apart Ichabod Crane from the rest. He was fond of literature – an American Don Quixote whose world was entirely made up of fantasy and fanciful thoughts. Like it or not, the pendulum was swinging, and those with Romantic bents were taking center stage. While the Republic was inspired by Enlightenment ideals, it quickly became a lab to explore other facets of the human experience, namely what the embrace and celebration of emotion can do to advance human civilization.
Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” therefore, becomes an elaborate analogy of America’s relationship with the Old World. The Hessian is the Old World, representing reason, logic, the mind, the head. Ichabod Crane is a brand-new America, representing dreams, feelings, the things of the heart. What happened to him in the end is anybody’s guess. Perhaps Irving was saying the same about America. We outran our past and crossed the wooden bridge. Who could possibly know what awaits us?
