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Definition of Irony
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this seems like a loose definition... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how they actually are. If this... read full definition
Irony is a literary device or event in which how things seem to be is in fact very different from how... read full definition
Main Story
Explanation and Analysis—The Cognomen of Crane:
Throughout “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving uses verbal irony to give readers a more critical view of the story’s characters and setting. He employs this technique to introduce his protagonist and the Sleepy Hollow community:
In this by-place of nature there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane[.]
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Explanation and Analysis—A Delusional Dancer:
Irving uses dramatic irony to highlight how Ichabod Crane is disconnected from reality. One key example is the gap between Ichabod’s estimation of his own skills as a singer and dancer and the audience’s estimation:
Unlock with LitCharts A+Ichabod prided himself on his dancing as much as upon his vocal powers. Not a limb, not a fiber about him was idle; and to see his loosely-hung frame in full motion, and clattering about the room, you would have thought Saint Vitus himself, that blessed patron of the dance, was figuring before you in person.
Related Themes:
