Anti-Heroes: Ichabod Crane vs. Olivia Pope

On the popular TV show, Scandal, character Olivia Pope (a well respected crisis management attorney in Washington DC) is portrayed as strong, independent, brilliant, and honest. However, if one looks beyond that, she can seem to be just the opposite. It’s hard not to like Liv, but she’s not always as good as she may seem, she will do whatever it takes to help “fix” her clients problems. Though it may seem hard to believe, Olivia Pope has some shocking similarities with the classic antihero, Ichibod Crane, from Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

First of all, both Ichibod and Olivia are attracted to seemingly unattainable people. Ichibod, a poor schoolteacher, is infatuated with Katrina Van Tassel, or rather the idea of her. He wants her for her wealth and land. Olivia, on the other hand, is having an affair with the president, a very powerful and wealthy man. Not to mention the fact that he’s married with children. She has hopes of breaking up the family for her own benefit. Also, Olivia has had a history of only dating men who are rich, powerful, and older than her. Clearly, both characters are flawed, and frankly, gold diggers.

Another similarity between Olivia and Ichibod is that they both are willing to completely cut off anyone in their current life if they attain what -or whom, rather- they hope to. Ichibod imagines just how quickly he would abandon any colleague or friend of his if he won the hand of Katrina. Similarly, Olivia would leave her firm, along with all of her blindly loyal associates, if/when the president decides to go live with her (in the luxurious home he had built for her in Vermont). Evidently, both characters are so caught up in their selfishness that they have total disregard for those around them.

Finally, both characters have issues when regarding the subject of morality. Ichibod Crane is somewhat of a tyrant in the classroom. He is cruel to his students, unless he thinks their mother will prepare food for him, in which case he spares the child. Olivia Pope employs some very interesting people, one of them being a CIA trained killer, who is addicted to torturing people. Whenever she has dirty work, or needs something to be “handled”, she has him take care of it. This is acceptable to the viewer because she “rescued” the man after the CIA dumped him and made him homeless, indebting him to her forever. Both characters have their positive traits too, but I have focused on their questionable attributes. This sheds these characters in a different light, showing them as anti-heroes rather than heroes.