Why do the women in the countryside think Ichabod is an important person? How do the young girls respond to him?

We learn from the narrator that the women in any rural village generally think of the schoolmaster as an important person. A school teacher is considered to be a gentleman because of his education.
The women of Sleepy Hollow admire schoolmaster Ichabod Crane because he has read "several" books all the way through and is learned in the works of Cotton Mather on New England witchcraft, in which, we learn he "firmly" and "potently" believed. In other words, the narrator is poking fun at the women for looking up to a superstitious man who is not all that well read.
The women like to invite him over for tea and cakes, and he enjoys gathering grapes for the young "damsels" or girls who cluster around him. As the narrator describes it, Crane

would figure among them [the damsels] in the churchyard . . . gathering grapes for them from the wild vines that overrun the surrounding trees; reciting for their amusement all the epitaphs on the tombstones; or sauntering, with a whole bevy of them . . .

The key point is that Crane is described as womanly and effeminate, pictured among teapots and cakes or "sauntering" with the young ladies. He is a contrast, therefore, to the virile, strong, and manly Brom Bones, who is usually surrounded by his male "gang."


Ichabod Crane is considered an important person in Sleepy Hollow. This idea might seem strange, as Ichabod is undoubtedly ridiculous and comical by turns, but the fact remains that he's a school teacher, and school teachers were generally considered important people during Washington Irving's day. After all, school teachers were far more highly educated than the average person, and a teacher's life seemed to be filled with more leisure than the average farmer's. As such, Ichabod appears to be something of a gentleman to the humble inhabitants of Sleepy Hollow.
By extension, the women of Sleepy Hollow regard Ichabod as an ideal husband for their daughters. Along the same lines, the girls of Sleepy Hollow see the school teacher as an eligible future spouse. The exception to this rule is Katrina Van Tassel, who also happens to be the woman Ichabod is most interested in. Katrina is ultimately interested in Brom Bones, so Ichabod's expression of affection late in the story is met with a stinging rejection.

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