Sleepy Hollow V. Rip Van Winkle

In most short stories by Washington Irving, a romantic tone is established through his unrealistic view of society. In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving places the setting of the story in a tranquil society. Ironically, the exact opposite can be said for “Rip Van Winkle;” in which the setting is placed in a never-ending clash within Rip’s house. He is criticized constantly by his wife, presenting a perpetual conflict for Rip. In “Sleepy Hollow” the inhabitants do not take a liking to any foreigners or new custom; rather they are inclined to their own traditions and ways, cut off from the modern American influence. The commonality between these two stories is that the main characters have acquired desires that do not meet the demands or the lack there of of their surrounding peers. The protagonists of both “Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle” do not care to change their romanticizing ways to cope with the realities of society, forcing them to abide by the consequences of their actions.
Romanticism is characterized as a heightened interest in nature and an emphasis on an individual’s expression of emotions and the imagination, therefore deviance of society’s set code and traditions. In “Sleepy Hollow,” Ichabod Crane moves from a big city to a quiet country as a school teacher. Irving Mentions several times in the story is Ichabod’s appetite for food and luxury in which, “His devouring mind's eye he pictured to himself every roasting pig running about with an apple in his mouth; the pigeons were snugly put to bed in a comfortable pie, and tucked in with a coverlet of crust” (Irving, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”).   He has these desires because he used to live in a hustling and bustling society where desire for money, wealth, and success was everything. His income as a schoolteacher does not fulfill the basic necessities that he needs to survive properly. To make up for what he is lacking he would, “Convoy some of the smaller ones home, who happened to have...