Icabod Crane Character Analysis

In a little valley located among the high hills in Upstate New York is one of the quietest places in the entire world, Sleepy Hollow. In this quiet town lives a man by the Name of
Ichabod Crane. In the legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving uses physical descriptions, actions and interactions to foreshadow the tragic ending of the lovestruck and superficial
Ichabod.

Ichabod Crane is vividly described as a ridiculous and dorky man who happens to be in love for shallow reasons. His physical appearance is that he is very tall and skinny, with very long arms and legs, over sized feet, to the point that he is disproportionate in size. His head is small and he has huge ears, large eyes, and a gigantic nose. He looks like a scarecrow. The girl he is in love is a beautiful and wealthy girl named Katrina Van Tassel. she is described as “a blooming lass of fresh 18; plump as a partridge; ripe and melting and rosy­cheeked as one of her father’s peaches, and universally famed, not merely for her beauty, but her vast expectations. She was withal a little of a coquette”. His shallowness is revealed when it says that “His heart yearned for the damsel who was to inherit these domains, and his imagination expanded witht the idea, how they might be readily turned into cash”. His main intentions for liking her are merely for her father’s land that he owns and how much money he shall gain if he becomes a part of that family. Also, Irving shows how Ichabod’s actions and interactions are affected by his motives.