Washington Irving Mood Analysis

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Brian Barros Mrs. Neshan English 3 19 September 2014 Washington Irving Mood Analysis Washington Irving is a very mysterious and suspenseful writer as is evident in “The Devil and Tom Walker” and in “Sleep Hollow.” In both stories Irving writes with a very gloomy, melancholy mood. Most of his stories are mystifying, infused with a bit of horror and fantasy. Irving uses elaborate language in his work to make the stories mood seem extremely dark and eerie. In the excerpt of Sleepy Hollow you can infer the movie will be very mysterious and dark. In the beginning it shows Ichabod Crane riding his horse threw a foggy, ominous forest, similar to the one described in “The Devil and Tom Walker.” When reading Irving’s story and reading all the adjectives he uses to describe the setting, it makes you think of a place as you see in Sleepy Hollow. Both stories are based on mythical beings. In the Devil and Tom Walker the Devil is the fictional character as is the Headless Horseman in Sleepy Hollow. Death is also a key idea that travels through both the stories. In Sleepy Hollow multiple people are beheaded and in The Devil and Tom Walker, both Tom and his wife are killed by the Devil. All the imagery used in these stories, shows Irving carries the same mood from story to story. He writes his stories to keep a reader on the edge of there seats and afraid to be alone in the
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