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Rip Van Winkle Literary Analysis

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The story “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving is a moral allegory; a story that represents an abstract or spiritual but is portrayed in a literal way. “Rip Van Winkle” is a tale that is comprised of multiple abstract and hidden meanings, which are all cloaked by material forms. Irving’s use of setting, symbolism, and characterization help to produce a tale that intertwines mysticism with history. Together these create a deeper meaning behind the life of a simple man oppressed by his wife, truly standing as a symbol for the ruling of the British crown over the Thirteen Colonies. The story “Rip Van Winkle” relies heavily on the use of setting in order to facilitate readers with the process of understanding how the story connects to the American Revolutionary War. Washington Irving originally sets this tale in an antiques Dutch community right off the Katskill Mountains during the time of British rule. Because it is set in such a time and because of Irving’s use of words such as “noble” and “crown of glory” readers are set up to comprehend the dual meaning of this fable. The setting also portrays the Katskill region as so majestic and awe-inspiring that it verges on magical. It is described, through Rip’s eyes, when it is stated that “… but to his astonishment a mountain stream …show more content…

The story “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving is a moral allegory that conceals America’s prolonged struggled for freedom from Great Britain’s tyrannical rule by telling the fable of a henpecked husband who falls asleep to wake up and find that the nightmarish marriage he was enduring has seemingly come to an eternal end. Through the use of symbolism, setting, and characterization, Washington Irving truly allows readers to recognize that Rip’s life was much more fulfilling once he could “… go in and out whenever he pleased, without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle”. (Irving,

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Washington Irving’s, The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. is a collection of thirty-four of his essays and short stories. Attributed to the fictional Dutch historian character, Diedrich Knickerbocker, are two of Irving’s most popular stories, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle. Rip Van Winkle is the story of a Dutch villager, living at the foot of the Catskill mountains before and after the American Revolutionary War. Van Winkle is genuinely loved by the people of his village, especially by the children whom he tells ghost stories to, plays with, and gives toys. However, this simple, easy-going man has one great error in his character: he is incredibly lazy, despising work in all forms.

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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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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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