Were the detailed descriptions of the people around the two main characters equally important in the two stories Washington Irving wrote? The two stories that Irving wrote were The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, and Rip Van Winkle. These two books are well known throughout America. Let’s begin with an overview of these two books. 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is about a schoolmaster of a small town names Sleepy Hollow. His name was Ichabod Crane. Ichabod Crane is very interested in the towns ghost stories and was very superstitious. One of these stories was about the headless horseman. It is said that during the Revolutionary was, a man lost his head. Now, every night a headless horseman searches the forest of sleepy hollow searching for his head at the church. Very soon after Ichabod Crane became the schoolmaster, he met a young woman named Katrina Van Tassel. She was the only child of a very rich man named Baltus Van Tassel. Ever since Ichabod met Katrina, he tried to win her heart. It was difficult though, because Katrina had many suitors. One of them being a man named Brom van Brunt. He was the prank master of the town and  an expert horse rider. Brom tries to get rid of Ichabod and humiliate him, but none of his pranks work. One day, Katrina invites Ichabod to a party and he accepts. For the entire party, he dances with Katrina while Brom just sits in jealousy. As Ichabod goes home, he passed the supposedly haunted church. He sees a rider on a horse and calls to him to identify himself. Instead, the rider starts to chase Ichabod through the forest. Ichabod notices that the rider has no head and there is a sack on the horse, that he supposed is the riders head. Ichabod turns his horse to the bridge, because it is supposed that the horseman cannot cross the bridge. Ichabod crosses the bridge and the horseman stops. Ichabod believes he is safe, but instead the horseman throws his head at Ichabod and knocks him off his horse. The next morning, Ichabod’s horse shows up at the Van Ripper house, but Ichabod was never found. 

Rip Van Winkle: Rip van winkle is about a man named Rip van winkle. One day, Rip van winkle went for a walk in the Catskill mountains. He sees a man carrying a barrel of liquor and follows him. Winkle is led to a group of men playing ninepins who don’t say anything. Winkle drinks some of the liquor and falls asleep. When he wakes up the men are gone and he is old. He walks back to town, but doesn’t recognize anyone. He talks to them, but none of them know what happened. Soon he meets his daughter, but much older. Winkle realizes that he was asleep for twenty years. the story is confirmed by an old villager. 

Were the detailed descriptions of the people around the two main characters equally important in the two stories Washington Irving wrote? Yes. The stories were much better because of the descriptions of the main characters.