Round
characters increase in development and complexity as a literary work progresses, and this is
true of Irving'sof Ichabod Crane.
In the story's , Crane is described as an
exacting schoolmaster who metes out punishment to recalcitrant students in the belief that they
will one day "remember it, and thank him for it." He lives as an itinerant educator,
boarding for weeks at a time with the families of his students and eating voraciously, though
remaining exceedingly thin. He's a bit of a hustler, ingratiating himself with families by
helping on their farms, helping to care for their children, and offering singing lessons, as
well. The narrator deems him "an odd mixture of small shrewdness and simple credulity"
and notes his belief in witches after reading the works of Cotton Mather as well as his fondness
for the ghost stories the Dutch housewives tell him.
Ichabod sets his sights
on Katrina Van Tassel once he sees her beauty, and more importantly, the bounty of...
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