Analysis Of Rip Van Winkle

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In his short story, “Rip Van Winkle, Irving used the literary element of setting to illustrate the changes that occurred. There are examples of each of the three types of setting: historical, geographical and physical. The historical period in which it took place is not given, however though “clues in the story and their knowledge of history” critics have estimated that the tale began between 1769 and 1774 (Galens 229). During that time, the characters in the story have no strong political views, there is nothing to indicate that they “are aware of politics, or concerned about it in any way”, instead they spend time discussing “village gossip, or telling endless sleepy stories of nothing” (229; Irving 5). At the end of the story, Winkle “awakens …show more content…

Some of these changes are minor, as suggested by the change to Rip Van Winkle, himself. He has gotten old, shown by the stiff joints and the greater length of beard, however, there does not appear to be any changes to his attitude, he is still willing to gossip and to tell “endless sleepy stories of nothing” (Irving 5; 8-9). Change is more evident in the differences within the village; his wife has died, his children have grown, his daughter has a family of her own, and “many of his friends” were dead or gone (Galens 228; Viette 132). The change that Winkle may have had the hardest time adjusting to was that he returned to find he was a “citizen of a republic rather than a subject of a king” (Moss …show more content…

At the beginning of the story, “the country was yet a province of Great Britain”; whereas at the end, the “American Revolution has come and gone” (228). Steven Blakemore comments in "Rip Van Winkle." American History Through Literature 1820 - 1870:
Irving highlights the change from colonial America to independent America in the scene where the Union Hotel has replaced Nicholaus Vedder’s colonial inn and the portrait of George Washington has replaced that of George III. That it is now the Union Hotel puns on the new national “union” that is under new management” (991)
Many of the changes that Winkle experienced can be attributed to the transformation of a “peaceful pre-Revolutionary colony” into a “bustling post-Revolutionary America” (Blakemore

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