Legend Of Sleepy Hollow Characters

Graphic symbol sheet for Washington Irving's archetype short story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

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Ichabod Crane

A superstitious schoolteacher who likes food, women, and the Van Tassel fortune. He is mostly nice and friendly, but also greedy and rather cocky-important. He is something of a freeloader, although this is somewhat excused past the fact that he doesn't get paid much for his teaching gig.

Adaptational Dainty Guy: Whereas the original story portrays him equally a greedy, pompous social climber, Ichabod is often portrayed in adaptations of the story as far more noble, kind, and heroic.
Anti-Hero: Despite displaying a number of positive traits, the story focuses largely on his flaws; green-eyed, avarice, gluttony, and sloth.
Asshole Victim: Possibly. If you subscribe to the "killed by the Horseman" ending, he had it coming. Downplayed with the alternative catastrophe, every bit he still deserved to be chased out of boondocks.
Big Eater: He has a huge appetite in spite of his rail sparse physique.
Did Not Get the Girl: He attempts to win the hand of Katrina in marriage to get access to her father'southward vast wealth, but he fails and leaves dejected.
Golden Digger: A male person instance. Ichabod wants to get with Katrina in no small part due to her begetter's money.
Green-Eyed Monster: He'due south envious of the Van Tassel family's wealth. Fittingly, he'south described has having large, burnished green eyes.
Hot for Student: Ichabod gives Katrina psalmody lessons. She'south eighteen, though, and also this was considered a much more mature age, one far more ready for marriage at the time the story is set. There's also ambiguity in how much he's attracted to her versus her family's money.
Jerkass: Ichabod gets less and less appealing equally the story goes on, peaking when he thinks of how, one time he'due south married Katrina and acquired her father's great wealth, he'll tell everyone he associated with as a schoolteacher to spiral off.
Meaningful Name: "Ichabod" is traditionally translated as "Inglorious," while "Crane" hints at the schoolmaster'south tall, thin frame and beaky nose.
Never Found the Trunk: The story leaves information technology ambiguous whether the Horseman killed Crane or simply scared him away from Sleepy Hollow.
Never Gets Fatty: Despite his massive appetite, he's always runway-thin.
Noodle Incident: Whatsoever happened with his final run across with Katrina. It's not known what exactly was said, merely information technology'due south pretty clear she rejected him equally he left the Van Tassel farm in a huff.
Rounded Graphic symbol: Although his near-obvious trait is his Greed, Ichabod is actually a rather multi-faceted character. Beyond his selfish ambitions, Ichabod is also superstitious, imaginative, has a (typically unhealthy) sense of marvel, and even has some positive traits thrown in for practiced measure.
Uncertain Doom: One of the biggest mysteries near the story is what became of the old schoolteacher: was he killed and dragged off to the afterlife by the Headless Horseman or simply scared out of town never to return?

Abraham "Brom Bones" Van Brunt

Sleepy Hollow's local hero and Ichabod's rival.

Adaptational Villainy: Most stories based on the story oft have Ichabod as the hero, thus as his rival Van Brunt is frequently portrayed as more than villainous.
Anti-Villain: Brom Bones is depicted equally displaying all the qualities of a Not bad American Hero: bravery, recklessness, and square-jawed, good ol' male child charm. He was besides pretty jealous of Ichabod as he once bragged to his Sleepy Hollow Boys, "I'll double that school chief upwards and lay him on a shelf of his own schoolhouse!" Ichabod was besides clever to become into a flake with Basic. As such, fifty-fifty though the entire story (in 1 interpretation) hinges on the consequences of a prank he pulls, the reader never loses sympathy with him.
Offscreen Moment of Awesome: He tells a story of how he raced the Headless Horseman one night for a bowl of dial and won. He claims that he didn't even anticipate that he would win and that information technology was simply luck that the Horseman couldn't cross the covered bridge.

Katrina Van Tessel

The love involvement of both Ichabod and Brom Bones. Every bit a beautiful and wealthy heiress, she is the most desirable woman in town, and she definitely knows it.

Apartment Character: She'southward given little characterization beyond being the third corner in a Honey Triangle with Crane and Van Brunt. Almost stories based on Sleepy Hollow aggrandize her graphic symbol just will almost ever have her equally Crane's Dear Involvement.
Operation: Jealousy: Katrina uses Ichabod to pull this on Brom.
Satellite Love Interest: She isn't given much label other than being the object of affection for Ichabod and Brom.
The Tease: She's repeatedly described every bit a "coquette." It means she'southward this trope, and what we run across of her behavior would seem to back upwardly that label.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Her role depends on the how you interpret the ending due to her endeavor to apply Crane to make Abraham jealous.
- Leading Crane on and then denying him lead the schoolteacher to go out the party they were attending early and thus his fateful run into with the Horseman.
- If the Headless Horseman was really a prank by Van Burden, then he went after the man in out of jealously.

The Headless Horseman

The villain of the story. He is apparently the ghost of a Hessian trooper who lost his head in a boxing in the American Revolutionary State of war, and rises from the grave in search for his head.

Big Bad: The main villain of the story, for what fiddling role he has in it anyway.
Breakout Villain: The Horseman only had a very brief scene in the already short story just near the finish, and it's implied that it might not even be a real ghost. In spite of this, the sheer mystique and inherent scariness behind the grapheme concluded up making information technology a horror icon on par with Dracula and Frankenstein, with numerous moving picture adaptations and mod solar day takes on the character coming out in the years since Washington Irving'due south story was published.
Cannot Cross Running Water: Brom claims this is how he beat the Horseman in a race—information technology can't cross over the church building bridge adjacent to the Old Dutch Burial Ground. This turns out to be false in the end, as the Horseman is described equally having passed past Ichabod later throwing the pumpkin head at him, meaning he probably did cross the bridge unharmed.
Flat Grapheme: The Headless Horseman is frightening, but it isn't really given any characterization beyond "Scary Headless ghost who chases Ichabod on horseback". Justified, every bit its appearance may or may not accept been a ruse cooked up past Brom Basic to scare off Ichabod. The closest personality trait assigned to it is equally being an "bare-faced jockey" when Brom tells his story of racing the horseman, but this meet may or may not but be a story he made up. Ironically, this ends up adding to the mystique and terror behind the character.
Ghostly Goals: Either discover his lost head or decapitate someone then he can employ their head to replace his own so he can finally pass on.
Headless Horseman: The Trope Codifier. While far from the first appearance of this kind of grapheme (with appearances of headless horseman dating back to European folklore of the Middle Ages) it is definetely the about iconic.
Hellish Horse: His horse is described as having a powerful frame which, combined with the silhouette of the horseman atop, looks like a "gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveler", even before Ichabod realizes its passenger is headless.
Holy Burns Evil: Subverted. Brom's story claims the Horseman can't cross the Church bridge, and that he bolted and vanished in a wink of burn down. Ichabod tries to exploit this supposed weakness by running across the bridge. Information technology doesn't work—the horseman throws his pumpkin head at Ichabod and gallops off by him unharmed.
Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The story makes it ambiguous whether the apparation is real or is simply Brom Bones playing a trick on Ichabod.
Named After the Injury: The Trope Codifier of Headless Horseman. The horseman in question was beheaded by a cannonball during a war and is currently searching for a new head.
No Name Given: His name when he was live (assuming he's existent) is never given.
Off with His Head!: He's given some backstory; he's believed to be the ghost of a Hessian trooper that had his head shot off past a devious missive during "some nameless boxing" of the American Revolutionary War, and who "rides along to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head".
Pumpkin Person: The horseman carries a pumpkin head by his side, which he throws at Ichabod in the end.
The Speechless: He has no dialogue at all. Justified, as he's headless.