The skillful usage of irony and satire by the author made me impressed. Irving used tragic irony to boost the comic effect.
Ichabod is depicted ironically from various sides. To begin with, I would like to mention his appearance. He is described as “…tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together.
His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew...”
Irving made fun of Ichabod’s way of living, ridiculed his passion for scary stories, his “animal appetite”, even his school, where our hero felt as a king: …”Ichabod, in pensive mood, sat enthroned on the lofty stool from whence he usually watched all the concerns of his little literary realm. In his hand he swayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power; the birch of justice reposed on three nails behind the throne, a constant terror to evil doers, while on the desk before him might be seen sundry contraband articles and prohibited weapons, detected upon the persons of idle urchins, such as half-munched apples, popguns, whirligigs, fly-cages, and whole legions of rampant little paper gamecocks…”
So, definitely, stylistic devices were used in proper way, and, frankly speaking, they boost the reader’s interest to follow the story. Unfortunately, I was not able to demonstrate all the examples of irony, used in the story, I just wanted to draw the attention to the most interesting and vivid ones.
Ichabod is depicted ironically from various sides. To begin with, I would like to mention his appearance. He is described as “…tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together.
His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew...”
Irving made fun of Ichabod’s way of living, ridiculed his passion for scary stories, his “animal appetite”, even his school, where our hero felt as a king: …”Ichabod, in pensive mood, sat enthroned on the lofty stool from whence he usually watched all the concerns of his little literary realm. In his hand he swayed a ferule, that sceptre of despotic power; the birch of justice reposed on three nails behind the throne, a constant terror to evil doers, while on the desk before him might be seen sundry contraband articles and prohibited weapons, detected upon the persons of idle urchins, such as half-munched apples, popguns, whirligigs, fly-cages, and whole legions of rampant little paper gamecocks…”
So, definitely, stylistic devices were used in proper way, and, frankly speaking, they boost the reader’s interest to follow the story. Unfortunately, I was not able to demonstrate all the examples of irony, used in the story, I just wanted to draw the attention to the most interesting and vivid ones.
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