Washington Irving Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Washington Irving, considered the father and creator of the American short story, writes symbolically about American society through his characters and themes. He is credited with introducing short stories into the Dark Romantic movement. Irving uses elements of dark-romantic writing to highlight humanity's flaws in most of his early works, particularly in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "The Devil and Tom Walker." These works display immoral traits to show the characters' dark sides, a trope of the Dark Romanticism movement. They focus on the evil aspects of everyday life and people, as well as highlighting the flaws of society. Irving was one of the few dark romantic authors who used stories to expose society's flaws so they could be fixed. In "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "The Devil and Tom Walker", the motifs of greed and loveless marriage are featured prominently in the satire mode of satire. The motif of greed shows up in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" specifically in Ichabod. Crane's desire for Katrina Van Tassel. Crane desires to be with her not because of true love or destiny, but simply because of his greed and her luck. “Ichabod Crane was soft-hearted and foolish about sex; and it is no wonder that so tempting a morsel should soon find favor in his eyes; especially after he had visited her in her father's home” (7). Crane was not attracted to her romantically until he visited her and saw what she possessed. After seeing the size and beauty of Katrina's home, Crane assumes that she comes from a wealthy family. He imagines this kind of life for himself. “While the enraptured Ichabod imagined all this. . . his heart longed for the damsel who would inherit these dominions” (Bily 150). Crane's selfish desire for wealth becomes his obsession with Katrina. In Irving's eyes, greed is a morally wrong trait and the act of marrying someone just for their wealth or social status is evil. He uses the character of Crane to symbolize greedy Americans, placing him within the Dark Romantic movement. Irving also uses greed to portray the flaws found in the characters in “The Devil and Tom Walker.” Tom Walker, the greedy and selfish husband, will do anything to save himself. When the devil, also known as Old Scratch, approaches Tom with a proposal that would increase Tom's wealth, he initially refuses: "If she had the money, she would try to take a share of it, and if the devil took away her mate ... well, there were things that he had decided to put up with, when he had to... demonstrating that he wanted to spare both his soul and his money... he was not a man who limited himself to foolish things when it came to money” ( 1; 1).When the devil first makes the offer to Tom, he rejects it because he should share his profits with his wife evil ultimately leads to his gruesome murder. The devil takes Tom's wife away, Tom is not upset but rather thrilled to have gained money from the affair he realizes that without his wife around, he no longer has to share the profits James Lynch, writer for the New York Folklore Quarterly, explains: “Greed is one of the most important [motifs] in “The Devil and Tom Walker.” Tom is approached by Old Scratch and offered wealth beyond his wildest dreams” (Lynch 58). Furthermore, Irving chooses to use thisgreed and lack of sadness over losing his wife to negatively portray the couple's greed-filled relationship. Greed not only causes harmful and scary things to happen, but it also proves that it can destroy relationships. Greed, a negative characteristic of life, directly contributes to the dark and romantic qualities that Irving displays throughout the story. Irving uses the story and motif of greed to demonstrate the flaws and evil things that come from greed, therefore connecting it to the concept of Dark Romance. Irving also links greed to the Dark Romantic movement through his use of the motif of loveless marriage. This motif is present in many of his stories because he uses it to represent Americans and the shortcomings of their marriages. In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving uses the relationship between Ichabod Crane and Katrina Van Tassel to show the evil side of a marriage without true love. Their relationship is not one of love, but rather of material needs and selfish reasons. “Ichabod Crane was soft-hearted and foolish about sex; and it is no wonder that so tempting a morsel should soon find favor in his eyes; especially after visiting her in her father's home" (21). Crane did not marry Katrina because of the immense love he has for her, but because she is a very rich person who comes from a very privileged family. Additionally, Katrina never mentions how much she loves Ichabod. This shows the lack of love between them. “Ichabod is immediately won over by her flirtatious charm, but it is when he first visits her father's bountiful farm that he considers himself truly in love with her, or at least with her probable inheritance” (Nelson 151). Once again, it is shown that Crane couldn't care less about loving Katrina. He only cares about what he has; it's not true love, there is no love within the relationship. Irving uses this motif to highlight the flaws in American marriages. Essentially, Irving uses it as a symbol to help point out how morally wrong a loveless marriage is so that it can be changed. He does this to highlight Americans' imperfect marriages. The same motif is used to show how deceptive marriage is in "The Devil and Tom Walker". Irving uses the relationship between Tom Walker and his wife to show how the lack of true love in a relationship will ultimately destroy the marriage. The marriage ends after the apparent disappearance of Tom's wife. “Tom was a tough-minded fellow, not easily discouraged, and had lived so long with a shrewish wife, that he did not even fear the devil” (1). Tom Walker has not felt love for his wife for many years. In their marriage, love is a low priority. Love is not the real reason for their relationship. Their marriage is one of dishonesty, greed and selfishness. As found in Irving's other stories, characters bound together within marriage have no compassion for the other person, ultimately showing the lack of love in marriage. “Irving criticized the marriage by showing how Tom Walker was perfectly fine after his wife had apparently died” (Plummer 209). of a spouse or loved one occurs in a loving relationship, the other person is devastated After the death of his wife, Tom does not mourn her death to show how this type of relationship is harmful to society. This has a direct correlation to American society when marriage is not based on love. When people are involved in a loveless marriage, the affair will erode the marriage vow and lower society's views and expectations of marriage. Irving incorporates satire into his works to describe the flaws of Americans and the way we live. Use satire andridiculous essentially to make fun of Americans and what they do. In “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” Irving uses humor to show the negative effects of relationships in the story and how horrible they can become. Through satire he expresses his beliefs about the flaws in many aspects of American life. In the story, Ichabod Crane is so obsessed with Katrina that whatever she does, he likes it: “…a sweet anticipation flooded his mind of delicious slapjacks, well buttered and garnished with honey or molasses, from Katrina Van Tassel's delicate little dimpled hand ” (3). Irving's use of satire and humor highlights the thin line in human society between fiction and nonfiction. Crane is so fixated on Katrina Van Tassel that all he can do is look at her and worry about her and of everything he does. Irving does this to convey to people that not everything is true and good. This is an important message that Irving conveys to people through the story. “This is a story about storytelling and the limits of imagination, and Irving carefully constructs his satire to focus on the dangers of believing too much in stories and the boundaries between fiction and nonfiction through Ichabod Crane, who is presented as a man who does not understand the limits of imagination. He is haunted by his dreams of marrying Katrina Van Tassel” (Bily 152). Crane has no limits on his imagination or what is real and what isn't. He dreams of marrying Katrina and does everything to make it possible. There is no mention in the story of Katrina's desire to marry him. This directly shows Irving's satire in relation to a common occurrence found in American society and life. Many times people have fantasies about marrying others and what they would do to do so, but they often don't come true. Irving conveys this message in his story to show the effects of that belief. Irving's purpose in using satire is to confuse what is reality and what is not, which can ultimately leave us exposed, just as Crane was in the story. Irving uses satire as he shows what the effects of believing things that are not true are. People get hurt when they do this, ultimately demonstrating how satire can be an element of dark romantic writing. Satire is a dark romantic element also found in "The Devil and Tom Walker", and marriage is the most satirized topic. Irving uses the marriage between Tom and his wife to show how terrible relationships can be and the effects they can have on other people. In the story, people see their relationship and are immediately grateful that they are not married: “the lonely wanderer has shrunk into himself. the horrible clamor and the clawing clapper; he looked askance at the den of discord, and hurried on his way, rejoicing, if a bachelor, in his celibacy” (1). When people see an argument within a relationship, they understand how terrible the relationship truly is and how grateful they are that they don't have such a terrible relationship. Another thing that is satirized in the story is when Tom turns to religion for a new start and then becomes an arrogant and critical man towards everyone. Irving does this to show the irony of the situation where one turns to faith and what is right and as a result does the wrong things. “Furthermore, Irving satirizes the way Tom turns to religion and becomes extremely critical of his neighbors, despite the fact that his soul was damned… Irving manages to satirize several elements of his own society as he narrates the kind of story that many people were already familiar with” (Piemonte-Marton 212). Irving uses satire as a humorous element of writing to show flaws and problems, 1997.