In Washington Irving’s short story “Rip Van Winkle” the setting takes place in the beautiful Hudson River Valley overlooking the Catskills Mountains which the author attributes a fairy-like vista, equating it to a mystical view, this can be seen as a foreshadowing of the importance of the mountains and the supernatural event that will take place there. “Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains…” (Irving 471-472). Irving describes the old village as one founded by the early Dutch colonists with quaint homes but amongst these he describes one that stands out for the wrong reasons. “In that same village, and in one of these very houses, …show more content…
With his description the reader can deduce that all is not well with the inhabitants of the Van Winkle home. Irving continues to describe Rip as a happy go lucky type he is very helpful to others and is looked upon kindly by the towns people. Rips problem however is that what he does for others he won’t do for himself. “…his wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence” (Irving 473). The reader can construe that the domestic life for Rip Van Winkle is unbearable due in part to his nagging wife and his lack of effort when it comes to working on his own property, he apparently has no problem running errands for people or playing and spending time with kids that weren’t …show more content…
“Poor Rip was at last reduced almost to despair; and his only alternative to escape from the labour of the farm and the clamour of his wife, was to take gun in hand, and stroll away…” (Irving 474). Rip admires his surroundings observing the beauty of the Hudson River Valley and is dreading the thoughts of having to go back home as nightfall approaches, until he hears his name being called. Immediately the reader sees the change in setting. “Rip now felt a vague apprehension stealing over him; he looked anxiously in the same direction, and perceived a strange figure slowly toiling up the rocks, and bending under the weight of something he carried on his back” (Irving 475). Rip proceeds to help the stranger up the mountain with a keg, taking note of distant thunder every now and then; this setting infers to trouble ahead. When Irving describes the entrance into the amphitheater we are given a somewhat detailed description of the men that were playing nine-pins. “The whole group reminded Rip of the figures in an old Flemish painting, in the parlour of Dominie Van Schaick, the village parson, and which had been brought over from Holland at the time of the settlement” (Irving
In “Rip Van Winkle,” Rip, without hesitation is always known for helping others in his hometown. Rip Van Winkle, is the kind of good natured man that would bend over backwards for anyone in any kind situation. Rip helps people of all ages tremendously, so much that he often doesn’t have anytime to tend his farm or his family. Irving makes note of this by saying, “The women of the village too used to employ him to run their less errands and to do such little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would not do for them-in a word Rip was ready to attend anybody’s business
In the short story "Rip Van Winkle" , Washington Irving tells a story of a man who sleeps through the revolution. This story demonstrates two ways of looking at Revlutionary history, one of myth and one of fact. The mythical representation wins out, through popularity, over the factual representation.
“Rip Van Winkle” written by Washington Irving, took place during a time when America was going through a momentous change known as the American Revolution. In Irving’s short story, Rip Van Winkle goes through drastic changes after leaving his town to go hunting as well as avoiding his wife that had got him on his nerves. Rip drinks a little too much on his trip and ends up in a 20 year nap and once he returns to his village, he was a changed man. The shifts that Van Winkle endured are very similar to the changes of that in America had gone through. Irving uses Van Winkle to parallel the transformations that occurred in America after its revolution.
In “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving he writes about a simple man, Rip Van Winkle, who does just enough to get by in life. He lives in a village by the catskill mountains, and is loved by everyone in the village. He is an easy going man, who spends most of his days at the village inn talking with his neighbors, fishing all day, and wandering the mountains with his dog to refuge from his wife the thorn on his side. On one of his trips to the mountains Rip Van Winkle stumbles upon a group of men who offer him a drink, and that drink changes everything for Van Winkle. He later wakes up, twenty years later, and returns to his village were he notices nothing is the same from when he left. He learns that King George III is no longer in charge,
For the adults He helped the children in the village in a variety of ways “He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marbles…” (31). He was liked by everyone for all the generous things he would do for others. This was not the situation he had in his home though. The first section of the story symbolizes the personal depression of Rip Van Winkle by introducing his daily life in the Hudson river town place. Always seemed like a likable character to other except his wife. His son was exactly the same as him. His daughter wasn’t. In his personal life Van Winkle did not display any motivation to work for himself. his wife Dame Van Winkle would always scold him for practically any decision he made. She could be seen as the greatest instigator for his lack of motivation. Which leads to believe that deep down Rip Van Winkle could have been going through a form of depression and that could be what Irving was trying to describe inadvertently and possibly be a cry for help from himself. Irving wrote the story in a way that it could be narrated by a fictional character Diedrich Knickerbocker, who acts as the narrator for other tales from the same book, which could entail why there are not direct sources for the sadness Van Winkle was probably having thus giving the reader a bigger gap to think with their imagination on what could really be
One of the most meaningful event in America’s history is the American revolution. The thirteen colonies separate from the imperial ruling of England and together create the free and independant United States of America. One of the colonies to rebel and join America is New York, where a village is founded by the Dutch near the Kaatskill mountains. In this village, lives Dutch native Rip van Winkle. Rip goes on a hike in the mountains and - after passing out- he wakes up twenty years later, past the American revolution. Once he goes back to his village he realizes that people and places have dramatically changed. These
After Rip Van Winkle returns from his twenty year slumber in the mountains, he obtains knowledge that he has slept through a war and a couple of his loved ones deaths. This news comes as a shock to the man, naturally, but these changes will allow Rip to continue his life without Britain and his termagant wife, and just be a free man. From the very beginning of the story, Rip’s wife has been the type of person to criticize him for every little thing he does wrong, like Irving explains here, “His wife kept continually dining in his ear about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family. Morning, noon, and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence.”(Paragraph 12) Undoubtedly, there have been times when Rip has been held back and confined by the relationship. Therefore, when he arrives back at the town and hears word of his wife’s passing,
Rip Van Winkle was written by Washington Irving in 1819 and was originally published in a book of shorts called “The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Rip Van Winkle was a popular story from this book then and remains so today. When Irving penned this story, the United States was less than 40 years old and there were still remnants of British sympathizers in the new country. This short story is full of historical content and allegorical references that make it a story for the ages and a lesson in prose that has remained relevant to this day.
In RIP Van Winkle, Dam Van Winkle is abusive, nagging, and sarcastic. In Rip Van Winkle, Washington Irving states that “but what courage can with stand the ever-during and all besetting terrors of a woman’s tongue.” He seems to imply that he did not like women who gave their opinions and spoke their mind. It seems that Rip is going into the woods to escape his wife.
Alcoholism leads to a reduction of personal hobbies, a lack of motivation to work, child neglect, and marital conflict. The first instance of Rip’s lack of interest in the workings of his farm and family is seen when Irving declares that Rip finds “family duty” and “keeping his farm in order” impossible (42). Rip’s once considerable estate has “dwindled away under his management”(43). Rip refuses to do work around the farm, or to find work in the village, due to his lack of interest. He would rather spend his time at the inn, drinking with his friends and gossiping. Another effect of alcoholism is child neglect, which is illustrated through a brief description of Rip’s children. Rip Van Winkle’s offspring are described as being “ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody”(43). He doesn’t care enough to ensure his children’s wellbeing, he is indifferent. Also, there are numerous examples of marital conflict. Rip describes his wife as being a tyrant, but this is only because she is constantly nagging him to go out and care for the farm, his children, or to do something with his life. Rip, if left to himself, would have “whistled life away in perfect contentment” (43). But his wife, Dame Van Winkle, keeps “dinning his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family”(43). What was his response? He would shrug his shoulders, roll his
A common idea throughout the United States is that a person is to work their hardest, notably, with some type of aspiration within their mind that they would like to achieve. With that being the case, even a virtually inescapable predicament is not considered to be a justification for the inability of achieving a personal goal or subjective goal that was passed to themselves from another person. Subsequently, within the short story “Rip Van Winkle,” the titular character has an absence of ambition within his life. Rather to hard work, he spends his days casually lazing about in the forest with his dog Wolf. As well as these actions resulting in frequent derision from his wife. Hence that Rip Van Winkle is antithetical to popular
Rip Van Winkle In post-revolutionary America, literature began to show influence of the newly created democracy. As is the case with any young government, many different interest groups arose to attempt to mold the government according to their vision of democracy. Washington Irving, a native New Yorker born in 1783, grew up in a world engulfed in this democratic fanaticism. He grew up to be, as befitted his childhood atmosphere, a political satirist. This satirical nature of Irving’s shines brightly in Rip Van Winkle, as he uses historical allusions and symbolic characters to mockingly compare colonial life under British rule to the democracy of the young United States. The first historical satire occurs attached to the name Peter Stuyvesant, whom is mentioned twice with exaggerated praise. Stuyvesant, a harsh and strongly disliked governor, was in power when the English seized New York. Irving uses a false respect for Stuyvesant to humor the Dutch of New York, who blamed him for the loss of the land to the English. Having set the scene as a Dutch-friendly narrator, Irving introduces Dame Van Winkle, Rip’s stern wife, who maintains contempt for Rip’s laziness and carefree attitude. Dame Van Winkle’s harsh control over her husband represents King George and the English rule of the colonies. Whereas the colonies were mistreated by George, yet felt faithful and attached to the Crown, Rip stood by his demanding wife. The irony lies in Rip’s indifference to Dame Van Winkle. He was chided and bossed, but he was content. Nicholas Vedder, the owner of the inn, who dominated the conversations and opinions of the junto represents the colonial governors appointed by the Crown. While he rarely spoke, his influence was always present. This mirrors the inactive role the governors took in political affairs, and the colonists considerable respect for them. The relationship between the governors and Britain is illustrated perfectly by Irving when Dame Van Winkle comes to the inn to collect her husband. “Nicholas Vedder himself, scared from the daring tongue of this terrible virago, who charged him outright with encouraging her husband in habits of idleness.”(Irving 901) While a characteristically influential man, Nicholas is no match for the intimidation of Dame Van Winkle. The turning point of the story occurs when Rip walks deep into the woods and encounters a mysterious band of oddly dressed strangers with foreign customs.
In the story, Rip Van Winkle is classified as a great Romantic fiction. Rip wants to be free by this wife that is always irritating him and wants to be able to talk to his neighbors without them feeling sorry for him because of his wife always wanting him to work on their farm. But in the end of the story, his wife dies and he was able to be free at last from her complaining all the time. In the story, an example of personal freedom is,“I left to himself, he would have whistled life away in perfect contentment; but his wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the run he was bring on his family” (524). The story was mostly about a person wanting personal freedom. Also, in the story nature was an important
In Washington Irving’s Rip Van Winkle, the main character Rip represents the United States. Throughout this entire story Mr. Winkle is having a tremendous amount of trouble struggling to find himself. He left home and came back to the same problems he was dealing with before he left. One of his main reasons for leaving was to get away from his nagging wife. Rip’s biggest problem was that he was very lethargic. While Mr. Winkle was a pleasant man, his laziness affected many areas in his life such as his family, the farm, and also society.
Along the reaches of the Hudson River, not far from the Catskill Mountains, there is a small, Dutch town. The mountains overshadow the town, and there are times when the good Dutch burghers can see a hood of clouds hanging over the crests of the hills. In this small town lives a man named Rip Van Winkle. He is beloved by all his neighbors, by children, and by animals, but his life at home is made miserable by his shrewish wife. Though he is willing to help anyone else at any odd job that might be necessary, he is incapable of keeping his own house and farm in repair. He is descended from an old and good Dutch family, but he has none of the fine Dutch traits of thrift and energy.