Because of the way that Irving’s stories have typically been presented as Gothic stories, we typically think of him as a Dark Romantic writer. However, in Irving’s stories “Rip Van Winkle” and “Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” he creates settings, characters, and plots that revolve around both Light and Dark Romantic subject matter.
One of the general themes of Romanticism is the use of the far-away and non-normal, which was antique and fanciful:
a. In Light Romanticism, writers were interested in the past and history’s influence on current society. The remoteness of settings takes people out of the “civilized” society that depends on materialism and industry.
b. In Dark Romanticism, the situations in the stories are out-of-the-ordinary in time or place; sometimes the setting is atypical of the American frontier, possibly super-natural. Writers were interested in the past and history’s influence on current society.
Choose one of Irving’s stories and explain one way that it is either a Light Romantic or Dark Romantic story based on the information above. Examine the setting, characters, and plot. Give evidence from the text to support your answer and use parenthetical citations to document your sources.