What Makes Witchcraft So Horrifying, and How Does It Work?
Stories of witchcraft and magic have been written down and verbally passed on for hundreds of years. A reader is enthralled by it, for it is mysterious and foreign to them for those who do not practice the Craft. From Shakespearian age to today, readers enjoy books and films about witchcraft. Witchcraft is an unknown concept to most readers, and the majority is frightened by it which further enhances their curiosity. Authors, such as Irving, write stories about magic and witchcraft because people enjoy the mystery, learning about something they know nothing about, or try to get over their fear of something they don’t need to be afraid of.
What makes witchcraft so successful is the fact that people believe in it. If readers and practitioners of the Craft believe in magic, then magic comes to life and really works. When someone doesn’t believe in witchcraft or magic, it doesn’t work. Because Ichabod believed in the Craft and the stories of the Old Dutch, it made his fear come alive and the headless horseman appears and comes after him. When it comes to witchcraft, it is all about believing in it which makes the reader so enthralled by it, gaining interesting responses out of the readers.
Ichabod is described as a man who isn’t very masculine or good looking. Many other mediums have changed Irving’s description, making it more appealing to the audience. Irving describes him as a gangly type, and quite ridiculous looking. In the 1999 film adaptation, director Tim Burton cast “quirky hunk Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane,” which changed the audience’s view of Ichabod. Johnny Depp is now viewed as one of the sexiest men in Hollywood, which gave the audience something pleasant to view while watching a gruesome horror film.
With film adaptations of literary works, the goal is to please the audience rather than be a purist and stick strictly to the text. The new TV show adaptation aptly named Sleepy Hollow has Ichabod in the present day, back to stop the Headless Horseman’s serial killing spree along with the help of the town’s Lt. Abbie Mills. The show involves magic, the Hessian having been brought back from the dead by an Occult dealing with dark magic. Ichabod was also resurrected since he has the blood of the Hessian mixed with his from the beheading during the war.
The TV show itself is also geared to appeal to the audience today, through television media since over the years books have lost their appeal. The original storyline has also been changed for audience response. Ichabod has killed the Hessian in battle during the Revolutionary War when originally Ichabod was never in the war and his story takes place many years after the Hessian’s death. He is also portrayed by a good-looking actor in the series, which appeals to the audience and the storyline is also appealing for anyone who isn’t a literary purist.
Since the original storyline from the novel is changed, the TV series adds a lot more elements of magic than before. In Tarry Town, there are two Occult groups, one for the forces of evil and the other for good. Ichabod is forced to join forces against the dark Occult to stop them and the headless horseman. Witchcraft has come a long way from the Middle Ages where people were burned for the belief in magic and herbalism, to being more accepted and seen as a normal way of life and often intrigues others. There are rare cases in other 3rd world countries where witches are burned for their beliefs and still ridiculed.
Where did we find this stuff? Here are our sources:
Primary
Irving, Washington. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. New York: C. S. Van Winkle, 1805. Print.
Secondary
Anthony, David. “Gone Distracted”: “Sleepy Hollow,” Gothic Masculinity, and the Panic of 1819.” Early American Literature 40.1 (2005): 111-44. Print.
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Bruner, Marjorie W. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: A Mythological Parody.” College English 25.4 (1964): 274-83. Print.
Daigrepont, Lloyd M. “Ichabod Crane: Inglorious Man of Letters.” Early American Literature 19.1 (1984): 68-81. Print.
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Greven, David. “Troubling our Heads about Ichabod: “the Legend of Sleepy Hollow”, Classic American Literature, and the Sexual Politics of Homosocial Brotherhood.” American Quarterly 56.1 (2004): 83-110. Print.
Hoffman, Daniel G. “Irving’s use of American Folklore in “the Legend of Sleepy Hollow”.” PMLA 68.3 (1953): 425-35. Print.
Insko, Jeffrey. “Diedrich Knickerbocker, Regular Bred Historian.” Early American Literature 43.3 (2008): 605-41. Print.
Nissen, Axel. “Men Beyond Desire: Manhood, Sex, and Violation in American Literature”. 63 Vol. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008. Print.
Piacentino, Ed. “Sleepy Hollow’ Comes South: Washington Irving’s Influence on Old Southwestern Humor.” The Southern Literary Journal 30.1 (1997): 27-42. Print.
Plummer, Laura. “Girls can Take Care of Themselves”: Gender and Storytelling in Washington Irving’s “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” Studies in Short Fiction 30.2 (1993): 175. Print.
Smith, Greg. “Supernatural Ambiguity and Possibility in Irving’s “the Lengend of Sleepy Hollow”.” The Midwest Quarterly 42.2 (2001): 174. Print.
Vetere, Lisa M. “The Malefic Unconscious: Gender, Genre, and History in Early Antebellum Witchcraft Narratives.” Journal of Narrative Theory 42.2 (2012): 119-48. Print.