There are no completely "good" characters in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Every character has his or her agenda and acts out of selfish motives. Ichabod Crane is the protagonist of the story, but he has several flaws-- he enjoys food too much and "mooches" off the families of his students. When he meets Katrina Van Tassel, he is attracted to your physical beauty, but more so to the wealthy estate she stands to inherit as her father's only child. He is scared and skittish to the point of paranoia. His rival suitor for Katrina, Brom Bones, resorts to embarrassing Ichabod and playing practical jokes on him. He very well may have been disguised as "The Headless Horseman" when this figure literally scares Ichabod out of town. Katrina herself plays the two suitors against each other and leads Ichabod on only to ultimately choose Brom. I can't say that any of them are exactly heroic characters. I think Washington Irving, the author, meant them to be caricatures and the story a satire.
(I am an English teacher and actually just read this story with my 7th-grade class last week!)
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