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Romantic Rebellion (1) It is quite impossible not to notice the fact that Washington Irving's story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is highly allegorical in its essence. In it, author clearly exploits the motifs of medieval romance, within contemporary settings, which add up to storys satiric effect. First of all, Ichabod Crane clearly thinks of Katrina Van Tassel as an embodiment of female virtues, because even her very name implies the notion of virginal purity, which used to be greatly appreciated in medieval times. However, Katrina does not quite fit into the image of medieval dame, because she is being described as woman of flesh and blood who enjoys earthly pleasures. The same can be said about Ichabod Crane, despite the fact that he thinks of himself as being so much better then the rest of village people. Second of all, it appears that Crane lives in his imaginary world and that he strives to even adjust his physical appearance to look like a some kind of knight on the quest for love: The gallant Ichabod now spent at least an extra half hour at his toilet, brushing and furbishing up his best, and indeed only suit of rusty black, and arranging his locks by a bit of broken looking-glass that hung up in the schoolhouse.
That he might make his appearance before his mistress in the true style of a cavalier (Irving). Despite the fact that there is a plenty of evidence presented in the story, which indicate that Ichabod is familiar with Arthurian tales, he clearly misunderstands the semantic essence of these tales. Being a Bible-thumper, Ichabod does not realize that medieval romance stories never had anything to do with promoting Christianity, despite the fact that they contain Christian motives. The notion of purity that is being popularized in these tales, concerns ones blood and not ones existential mode as religious fanatic. In fact, according to Arthurian tales, the purity of blood defines individuals behaviour more then anything else does.
Therefore, Ichabod could not act in knightly manner in principle, no matter how hard he would try, because he is presented to us as being affected by physical inadequateness: He was tall, but exceedingly lank, with narrow shoulders, long arms and legs, hands that dangled a mile out of his sleeves, feet that might have served for shovels, and his whole frame most loosely hung together. His head was small, and flat at top, with huge ears, large green glassy eyes, and a long snipe nose, so that it looked like a weather-cock perched upon his spindle neck to tell which way the wind blew (Irving). Therefore, it is hard for us not to laugh, when we read about Ichabod's delusions of grandeur, while realising that he is nothing but utterly mediocre individual, who is being afraid of his own shadow. Unlike the heroes of medieval romances, Ichabod is absolutely incapable of facing objective reality like a man.
The fact that he disappears, at the end of a story, is being perceived by readers as something that Ichabod had deserved for trying to play the role for which he was neither physically nor mentally fitted. Therefore, it would be wrong to suggest that The Legend of Sleepy Hollow contains parody on medieval romances. In it, Irving simply strives to ridicule individuals who assume knightly posture, while lacking spiritual qualities that would allow them to live up to their own ideals. (2) The movie Shreck is an entirely different tatter. In it, the very idea of what represents knightly behaviour is being made fun of. Shreck contains the classical elements of the plot that can be found in just about any medieval romance tale: cursed princess, knight in shining armour, the fire-breathing dragon, the evil king who does not deserve to be in position of power, the magical mirror etc. However, these elements are being utilized in such a manner that viewers get to laugh, while watching the adventures of a green ogre, who had found himself on the course of knightly quest.
In medieval romance tales, this quest is being discussed of as a tool that allows knight to realize its true calling as individual. However, it could not possibly help Shreck to come in touch with his true identity, because he is already aware that he is an ugly ogre, who was simply not meant to act as a knight. Yet, he reluctantly accepts his mission, but not because he has any feelings for the cursed princess, but because he wants his swamp to be rid of squatters, as they were not allowing him to enjoy his seclusion. In its turn, this effectively trivializes the whole premise, upon which movies plot is based.
Shreck is being driven by purely pragmatic considerations, in his search for Fiona. Nevertheless, throughout the movie, he is being revealed as truly noble character, despite the fact that he tries his best to make it clear for Fiona that he is not the knight in shining armour. In her article The Divining Comedy, Lori Reese quotes movies co-director Andrew Adamson, who suggested that Shreck's satiric properties need to be discussed within a context of producers trying to bring down to Earth the very idea of a fairy tale: We set about to deconstruct the idea of fairy tales and reconstruct it with a new fairy tale. There are a lot of rules in fairy tales It's not really a very realistic picture of modern day romance (Reese). In medieval romance tales, dragon represents the ultimate evil in Shreck, dragons evilness is shown as the side effect of its crave for love. Medieval romance stories always imply the knight to be a handsome man in Shreck, the knights most distinctive feature is its ugliness.
Arthurian tales avoid mentioning the physical aspects of a couple being in love Shreck destroys its stereotype by showing both Shreck and Fiona as ordinary people, who have their own strengths and weaknesses, which nevertheless does not destroy movies aura of romance. For example, we often see Shreck burping, however, it does not make him a less lovable character. The same can be said about Fiona, after she becomes transformed - it does not deprive her of the original traits of her character. Thus, we can say that Shreck really does take away perceptional pretentiousness from the notion of medieval romance, by ridiculing its certain aspects that would not make much of a sense, within a context of modern reality. Bibliography: Irving, Washington The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. 2008. The Project Guttenberg. 28 Jul. 2008.
web Reese, Lori The Divining Comedy. 24 Mar. 2001. Entertainment Weekly. Com. 28 Jul. 2008. web Abstract: This paper discusses how the motifs of medieval romance tales were being trivialized in Washington Irving's story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and in movie Shreck.
Outline: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow Shreck
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Research essay sample on Legend Of Sleepy Hollow Fairy Tale
