work—the puritan attitude as opposed to the American desire for leisure; • 3) the theme of escape from one’s responsibilities and even one’s history; • 4) the loss of identity. Each of these themes is woven together throughout the tale.
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6) How many major characters are mentioned in the “legend”? Who are they? And what’s the relationship between them? Who is the protagonist? And who is the antagonist?
• Familiar landmarks were gone, his house were deserted and in ruin, and strangers were everywhere. Gradually, it was revealed to him that he had slept for twenty years. He was reunited with a married daughter, who took him to live with her.
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3) What does “this legendary superstition” refer to? (Para. 2) 4) What is “the general purport of this legendary superstition”? (Para. 3—Para. 4)
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5) Is the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” the story of the Headless Horseman? If not, what does the “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” deal with?
Lecture Six “Rip Van Winkle” and“The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow”
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• I. Summary and Analysis of “Rip Van Winkle”
• Rip lived in an old Dutch village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains, within view of the Hudson River, in the period when “the country was yet a province of Great Britain.”
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• Approaches to Rip and the story’s theme: • 1) the story of man who has difficulties facing his
advancing age; • 2) the contradictory impulses in America toward
• He was “a simple, good-natured man; he was, moreover, a kind neighbor and an obedient henpecked husband.”
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• Yet Rip was lazy and this kept him in constant trouble with his wife. His two favorite pastimes were sitting in front of the inn, talking about life with his friends, and wandering through the mountain with his dog, Wolf. On one of these trips he met a strange dwarf of a man who invited him to join him and some other strange companions in a drinking party and a game something like bowling—in a remote valley. Rip drank too much and fell asleep.
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• Rip adjusted to his altered world where, “instead of being subject of his Majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen of the United States,” who contentedly assumed the role of the village patriarch.
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• When he woke up, he noticed that his joints were stiff and that his beard had grown a foot long. Returning to his village, he found it changed almost beyond recognition.
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II. “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow”
• 1) Where is “Sleepy Hollow” located? • (Para.1) • 2) Why is the valley cБайду номын сангаасlled “Sleepy Hollow”?
What are the predominant characteristics of the Hollow? • (Para.1-3)