Week3Irvingdiscussion欧文讲义.pptVIP

What story does Brom Bones tell about his encounter with the headless horseman at the party? Rather than being intimidated when he encounters the “midnight trooper”, he brazenly challenges the specter to a race. He even claims that he and Daredevil would have beaten the headless horseman whose “rushing speed” had earlier been described as “midnight blast” if the Hessian had not vanished as they approached the end of the race. What mood is Ichabod in when he leaves Katrina’s house that night? “Something, however, must have gone wrong, for he soon came out, quite desolate.” It’s clear that Ichabod has been disappointed in his attempt to win Katrina as she had never seriously been interested in him. The evidence of the frustration of his hopes comes from the fact that he takes no notice of the “scene of rural wealth on which he had so often gloated.” On his way back, what does Ichabod see that makes him so terrified that he sends his horse into full flight? Ichabod sees a “misshapen,” “towering” figure that looks like “some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveller”; when he finally catches a full view of the horseman silhouetted against the sky and realizes that he is headless, “his terror rose to desperation”. What four traces of the chase do the searchers find the next day? People find the saddle, “trampled in the dirt,” and tracks of horses which “deeply dented the road, evidently at furious speed.” on the bank of the brook over which the bridge crosses, the hat of Ichabod is found near a shattered pumpkin. The body of Ichabod is not discovered. What did the people of the town believe about what happened that night? Rather than coming to the logical conclusion that we as modern readers do that this was all just Brom’s joke played on his rival, the “old country wives” clearly prefer to believe that supernatural forces were at work. Irving playfully asserts that they are “the best judges of these matters”, but clearly it is more their desir