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Rip Van Winkle Essay

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“Rip Van Winkle” is a tale by Washington Irving that describes a passive man who travels in the woods. This was written during the Romantic Period, when things were heading into the American Revolution. Rip, the protagonist, is an easy going, lazy, and the type of man who never takes care of his own family or farm. Irving pictures Rip as an awful husband that is unhappy with his life. The story is based of Rip is avoiding domesticity and never doing what is necessary for him and his family to prosper. There are a lot of characteristics of Romantics in this piece: the deep love of nature, adventuresome personalities, and the interest in mysterious and strange details.
Irving places an overwhelming amount of love for nature in this story. Irving wrote in “Rip Van Winkle” about how important nature was, “Every change of season, every change in weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountains, and they are regarded by all the good wives, far and near, as perfect barometers” (p. 310). Rip acts as if …show more content…

This is another example of how Irving writes with Romantic Characteristics by showing the adventuresome side of Rip and his trips into the mountains. “It could not be from the want of assiduity of perseverance; for he would sit on a wet rock with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartar’s lance, and fish all day without a murmur” (p. 311). He liked being alone so he could sense the freedom. Even though he had so much to do at his own home and farm, he choose to help others with their farms instead. This is how Irving wrote with the adventuresome side of Rip’s personality. Rip was free to come and go as he pleased. Irving did not only describe Rip as a man who loves his freedom, but Rip’s children were also described as “ragged and wild”. With Rip roaming in the woods and doing as he pleased, he finds these odd characters in the

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Transformation of the Tale: Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” and Robert Coover’s Rip Awake An American folklore that established Washington Irving as one of the first American authors, “Rip Van Winkle” is a short story about a local Dutch-American villager and the mysterious event that kept him away from home for twenty years. Narrated in the third person omniscient, the narrator depicts a panoramic view of the natural landscape as well as provides an objective view of the main character’s thoughts. To provide a closer view of his personal thoughts, Robert Coover reintroduces Rip Van Winkle with his own monologue in Rip Awake to give him a voice to describe the aftermath of his experience when he returns home.

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“Rip Van Winkle” and the Emergence of an American Mythology. By Danise Bachman Rip van winkle in indeed a classic piece of American mythology. Washington Irving set this story in the past and filled it with exaggerated and sometimes, strange characters. It also features a mysterious and magical occurrence that put the main character to sleep for twenty years!

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Washington Irving is a famous short story author commonly known for his stories Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. In Washington Irving’s short stories he tends to focus on one individual instead of the community. When Irving writes his, stories he takes more interest in one character over others. In all of Irving’s stories, he puts a focus on one main character. Whether it be Tom Walker in The Devil and Tom Walker, Rip in Rip Van Winkle, or Ichabod in Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

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In Rip Van Winkle, Irving uses the countryside and supernatural elements as an escape for Rip Van Winkle from the constant nagging of his wife and demand of labor, where he is finally happy and at peace. Does this reveal an insight into Irving’s character? II. As Rip wanders from his wife up the mountains with his dog, he eventually approaches a strange group of men playing nine-pins in a hollow.

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Pitiful Ichabod and his scrawny horse are the opposite of the usual strong hero and his handsome steed portrayed in the typical Romanticism literature of Irving’s day. Washington Irving pokes fun at Romanticism by making a ridicules “knight” who is unable to defeat the “monster”, or win the hand of his girl. The frightening “headless horseman” encounter that Ichabod experiences is an example of an imagination gone wild when there was a perfectly rational explanation. Why would Washington Irving want to poke fun of Romanticism? He did this in order to create a story that would give the reader the opportunity to laugh.

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Rip Van Winkle pursues a very seldom lifestyle with no pursuit and no ambition. He displays almost no willingness to change from his traditional ways after realizing the American colonies were independent from British Tyranny. He even still accepts the rule of King George III when he enters the town greeting the towns people with saying he is a loyal subject of the king. The reader can see his total disembodiment from the situation when the narrator says “instead of being a subject of his Majesty George the Third, he was now a free citizen of the United States. Rip, in fact, was no politician;

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Hugh S. Dawson also added some thoughts to the ideas of Young, Fetterley and Fiedler about Rip Van Winkle that Rip Van Winkle being Gothic story once more shows the advantage of marriage to avoid from wasting life in impenetrable forest [6, 14/08/2015]. Another bestseller work of Washington Irving is “The Spectre Bridegroom” that also included in “The Sketch Book by Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.”. If Irving in “Rip Van Winkle” headed to mix the physical and metaphorical dream reflecting the sigh of freedom in colony, in this work he brought the new American breath to the old Europe. Unlike other works, Irving described the happened events in Germany. All these hinted at that Irving wanted to ruin the old fences around Europe that formulated for many years.

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She only nags at him for not doing anything around the house or at all. Rip Van Winkle was something of a lazy husband and father. Once he awakes from his slumber, he finds that everyone is dressed differently and there is a large appreciation for George Washington. He eventually finds his son who is named exactly like him, but is twenty years older. He is explained that officially, he was labeled as a missing person, and it stayed that for twenty-years.

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1. Introduction This research paper deals with Washington Irving's most famous short story Rip Van Winkle, which tells the story of a man, who falls into a magical sleep during the English colonial time and wakes up twenty years later as a citizen of the United States of America. It will be looked into the characteristics that make Rip Van Winkle a Romantic piece of literature and how Washington Irving's intentions are reflected in his writing. 
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In novels focusing on parody of European attributes of romanticism Washington Irving created the unexampled masterpieces. “Rip Van Winkle” being one of the unexampled works of Washington Irving combines gentle and perfect humor. This story is Irving’s imaginative reworking of an old German tale in which his valuable parody professionally covered. In the story Washington Irving gave the national shade to the description of events and outlandish beings for America.

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