A Characterization of Geoffrey Crayon


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		A Characterization of Geoffrey Crayon

			08 February 1999

	Washington Irving's travelogue The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. includes many stories and descriptions of the narrator's trip to Europe. However, more is included in the novel than just an overview of the continent; Irving has provided the reader with great insights into the personality and interests of his narrator, Geoffrey Crayon. By examining the choices and treatment of the material presented in The Sketch-Book, one can discern the imagination, respect for literature, and occasional melancholy that Geoffrey Crayon exhibits.

	The imaginative aspects of the book are apparent through both the writing and the subject matter that Crayon uses. One has only to look at a few of the titles to find a vivid imagination behind the stories presented in The Sketch-book. "Rip van Winkle" (33) is a rather fanciful story about a man who falls asleep for twenty years only to find that his hometown has completely changed, along with all the rest of the world. Crayon explains that Henry Hudson and his crew supposedly comes back to haunt the area every few years, and they must have enchanted the hapless Rip. Crayon also delves into the world of fantasy with his stories "The Spectre Bridegroom" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." While both of these stories end up being completely devoid of supernatural aspects, the characters in the stories attribute many of the events to macabre shades and murdered ghosts. Within the text of other stories, Crayon makes repeated reference to his active imagination. On page 15, as he embarks on his voyage, he writes, "My imagination would conjure up all that I had heard or read of the watery world beneath me." Later, in "The Widow and Her Son," Crayon says, "At such times I have almost fancied the winds sunk into quiet, and that the sunny landscape, with its fresh green tints melting into blue haze, enjoyed the hallowed calm" (93). It would of course require one to have imagination to be able to imagine that any landscape could enjoy a calm, simply because landscapes are not alive and thus can not enjoy anything. Crayon admits his love of the imagined on page 103: "A hero of fiction that never existed is just as valuable to me as a hero of history that existed a thousand years since." Later, he describes his various imaginings in "The Mutability of Literature:" "There are certain half-dreaming moods of mind, in which we naturally steal away from noise and glare, and seek some quiet haunt, where we may indulge our reveries and build our air castles undisturbed" (112). As one can see, the active imagination is an important facet of Geoffrey Crayon's overall personality.


	Likewise, Crayon exhibits a fastidious respect for literature. The fact that he begins every story with an excerpt from a famous writer or poet is enough to show that he believes these additions from well-written works can only add to his own work. Several of the stories in The Sketch-book deal with great writers or with the process of writing, including "Roscoe," "The Art of Book-Making," "A Royal Poet," "The Boar's Head Tavern, Eastcheap," and "Stratford-on-Avon." All of these treat art with extreme veneration and respect. "Books were written to give pleasure and to be enjoyed," (114) wrote Crayon in "The Mutability of Literature." Later in the story, when Crayon was conversing with the talking book, he says, "When I contemplate a modern library, filled with new works, in all the bravery of rich gilding and binding, I feel disposed to sit down and weep." This love of books and literature can only be defined as powerful and respectful, yet another interest of Geoffrey Crayon's that is hard to overlook.

	Through his imaginative works and his consistent praise of good works of literature, a melancholy note occasionally creeps in. This, too, is an integrated part of Crayon's personality. Some of the titles of his stories reflect this somewhat somber mood: "The Widow and Her Son," "Rural Funerals," and "The Broken Heart." On page 95, Crayon breaks from his usual uplifting mood and writes, "I could see no more - my heart swelled into my throat - my eyes filled with tears - I felt as if I were acting a barbarous part in standing by and gazing idly on this scene of material anguish." This happens after he witnesses the lowered coffin of the widow's son. It was not necessary to include this story in The Sketch-book, but Irving through Crayon obviously felt that is was important enough to include. On page 113, in "The Mutability of Literature," Crayon shows a quite respect for "the solemn monastic air, and lifeless quiet of the place" (113). Later, on page 163, Crayon writes of the "dreariness and desolation of the landscape, the short gloomy days and darksome nights" that "circumscribe our wanderings, shut in our feelings also from rambling abroad." By using words such as "dreariness," "desolation," "gloomy," and "darksome," Crayon creates a decidedly melancholy atmosphere. On a more macabre note, Crayon has his hero Philip of Pokanoket end up as a "wanderer and a fugitive amid darkness and tempest - without a pitying eye to weep his fall, or a friendly hand to record his struggle." This also denotes a very pessimistic and melancholy mood.

	By considering the material that Washington Irving presents in The Sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., one can find several personality traits and interests of narrator Geoffrey Crayon. Some of these include a vivid imagination, a penchant for the melancholy, and a deep respect for literature. While this sparse list hardly does justice to the fully-shaped character of Crayon, it does reflect some of the more interesting details of the person that presents Irving's own travels to Europe.

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