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Washington Irving Research Paper

908 Words4 Pages

Washington Irving can be described as a happy fool, who couldn’t even recognize his own self-being as he was awoken from a long sleep. Winkle was a very passionate man, but what else can we know about him and his unknown identity? Irving appeared to be a very caring and giving person, he was a person who was willing to help out anyone in need. Does Irving’s personality play a role in him being a reminder to the revolutionary past? Is this a good or bad thing? Is this a question to understand this given character of “Rip Van Winkle”?

Washington Irving, better known as “Rip Van Winkle, was born on April 3, 1783 in New York City; being the youngest of 11 children to Scottish-England immigrant parents: William Sr. and Sarah Sanders; however Irving …show more content…

Irving shortly went on to practice law for a short amount of time until 1810, “Irving had more social grace than knowledge of law. “(Bradley, article for American Literature)”. During 1807-1808 chief occupation he collaborated with his brother William and James K. Paulding during the writing of a series of 20 essays entitled “Salmagundi”, these essays were a significance to the social milieu. Washington’s Satire “A History of New York…” by Diedrich Knickerbucker in 1809, was written as a comic history of the Dutch regime in New York by a mock pedantic – (Encyclopedia Britannica, paragraph 3) account of the world from creation onward. This book was a humorous parody developing into a tale about a Dutch colonization in which Irving …show more content…

The business that they’ve eventually went bankrupt, so Irving stayed in Europe in 1818. “(Irving)” While in Europe, Irving had an opportunity to serve for the U.S Navy which sadly he declined, but Irving decided to write to support and help him compile his thoughts into his small journal; throughout his writing, he corrected his short stories and tried to make connections that encouraged and inspired his own stories. A person that influenced Irving greatly was Sir Walter Scott, who introduced him to German Literature and Romantic History.
Both of his stories, such as “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” showed an interesting example of Irving’s style.”(Paul Reuben)”, “Most critics agree that these stories served as models for the modern American short story and that both stories introduced imagery that helped the national literature (American literature article, section 6). Irving was the first young author to produce a piece of American Literature that was very popular with many

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His true passion from the beginning was writing. Perhaps Edgar Allan Poe had been inspired by Irving 's Gothic short stories.”

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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. 
Hereby Washington Irving’s life itself will be taken into consideration together with the Romantic period to demonstrate how these two domains are combined in Rip Van Winkle. 2.

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