Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Corrupting Nature of Gluttony and Greed

The ways in which Ichabod’s gluttony and greed corrupt his character is a central theme of the story. The narrator devotes lengthy portions of the story to Ichabod’s preoccupation with food. Ichabod chooses to lodge with students whose mothers are known to be excellent cooks. When he sees farm animals and crops, he falls into daydreams about how they could be cooked into a dish. Even his love interest, Katrina, is described as plump, ripe, and melting, and is compared to peaches and a tempting morsel. Ichabod’s preoccupation with food represents his desire for a life of abundance. But Ironically, when given the chance to indulge, Ichabod’s loses himself in his gluttony, and this keeps him further from is goal of a wealthy life. At the Van Tassels’ party, he skips socializing to eat and becomes drunk on food. As a result, he makes a fool of himself and fails to develop a better relationship with the very neighbors that might help him climb the social ladder.

Similarly, Ichabod’s greed for material comfort makes him crave success, but it also hinders his achievement by distorting his reality. Even though he has very little to offer the wealthy Katrina, his desire for the Van Tassels’ wealth blinds him to how unlikely a prospect this is. His greed causes him to shoot for the moon instead of working his way up through more sincere means. Notably, Ichabod is very thin despite being a voracious eater. This suggests Ichabod has been corrupted by his greed and that no matter how much he eats it will never be enough. In other words, Ichabod’s gluttony will never satiate his greed.

The Blending of the Natural and the Supernatural 

Irving fortifies Sleepy Hollow’s reputation for supernatural activity with rich descriptions of the natural landscape. The narrator describes the setting in great detail as a place of peaceful green valleys and glens, magnificent bodies of water, chittering wildlife, and frequent comet sightings. This creates an idyllic atmosphere which often becomes mystical and sometimes spooky, making Sleepy Hollow the perfect backdrop for its ostensible hauntings. Ichabod’s belief in the supernatural is often influenced by his natural surroundings. He fears his evening walks home in the dark, where he perceives ghosts with every snow-covered shrub and gust of wind he encounters. The older residents of Sleepy Hollow reinforce this symbiotic relationship between the supernatural and natural with stories of haunted trees, fields, and brooks. 

The supernatural and natural also harmonize for dramatic effect. On Ichabod’s ride home from the Van Tassels’ party, he is forced to pass both a supposedly haunted stream and the grove of chestnuts trees where General André was captured. These natural places are linked to the hauntings in Ichabod’s mind to such an extent that he is unable to think rationally. When he encounters the Headless Horseman, he bolts to cross the stream, assuming its natural properties offer some sort of magical protection from his supernatural pursuer. The smashed pumpkin left behind the morning after is a natural symbol for the supernatural horseman’s missing head. The effect of the melding of the supernatural and the natural is to elevate a simple folktale about the residents of Sleepy Hollow to a legend, as the title suggests. 

Competing Versions of Masculinity

Ichabod and Brom both represent different versions of masculinity, one based on gentlemanliness and another on physical strength and ruggedness. Ichabod values education and refinement over hard labor, and he looks down on the men of the farming community. He views himself as a gentleman and compares his struggle to win Katrina’s hand to the battles of knights long ago. For Ichabod, manliness is power, and power is measured by education, wealth, and acculturation. Ichabod demonstrates this belief in his classroom. He chooses to overlook the misdeeds of the boys he perceives as weaker, but freely uses corporal punishment against the boys he perceives as strong and robust. This shows Ichabod’s bias against the value of physicality and manual labor in favor of the value of the strength of one’s mind. Ironically, Ichabod’s use of force against his physically strong students is a perverted version of the masculinity he despises. While he actively avoids getting into a physical altercation with Brom over Katrina, he uses brute strength against the defenseless children in his charge. Ichabod’s use of corporal punishment highlights his resentment towards a version of masculinity that is not in line with his own. 

By contrast, Brom is well known for his physical prowess, and he celebrates his own version of masculinity by being loud and boisterous. Brom also uses his masculinity to assert his power and physically intimidates other men away from courting Katrina. Ichabod and Brom’s feud over Katrina exemplifies a battle between competing versions of masculinity. While Brom wins the girl in the end, Ichabod goes on to achieve professional success, which aligns with his value system and implies that both versions of masculinity are valid. In both men’s versions of masculinity, a man uses his power to get what he wants.