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Washington Irving Research Paper

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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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One of the most important of these is his thoughts on fate and destiny. He shows that he believes that people are all put on earth with a certain purpose. John Irving shows his belief in fate throughout A Prayer for Owen Meany as displayed by “the shot.” John

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Overall it can be assumed that Irving doesn’t have a positive viewpoint of society. In the story of “Legend of Sleepy Hollow” Ichabod, who probably represents the author the most, had a less than preferable outcome by the end of the book. He spends most of the story chasing after Katrina, but so is everyone else in the town. At one point it would look as if they truly have a good thing.

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Irving views the political and social state of America to be unsatisfactory. This is proven correct in the fact that just as the character John Wheelwright did, Irving moved to Toronto, Canada. Irving often interprets the popular beliefs and views about the Reagan Administration as well and the constant death of significant people. During the 1960s to the 1980s, Marilyn Monroe dies, President Kennedy is assassinated, Bobby Kennedy is assassinated, and Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated. Another historical event that caused both John Wheelwright and John Irving to move to Canada was the dislike of the Reagan Administration.

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The Devil and Tom Walker is inspired by the German folktale of Faust. Irving takes the legend of Faust meeting the devil and selling his soul to him and transplants it into a New England setting. Washington Irving is one of the earliest known writers in the American Romanticism period. American Romanticism

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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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Irving’s Character Alikeness Biographical and short story writer, Washington Irving is known for his works “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.” However, he does have additional short stories. Between 1819 and 1820, Washington Irving published The Sketch Book, which was made up of approximately 30 short stories. Within those works were characters such as John Bull, Rip Van Winkle, Ichabod Crane, the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, and several other unnamed characters. Now, the nameless characters in Washington Irving’s tales had just as deep impacts in their stories as named characters; from those deep impacts came about noticeable character resemblances between those characters.

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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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Irving provides imagery in the way that the reader can picture the hard work Winkle is doing on the farm, only to be constantly nagged by his wife. Winkle then feels the need the “escape” from everything, just as most people do during their own stressful times (_). Consequently, this helps the audience connect with the main character on a personal level. Had the author not provided this section of imagery, the story likely would not have been as engaging for the reader.

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While Washington Irving was writing “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), it was the time when Great Britain reached independence and all over the world were going many changes. In this story, he described the small village with its rural life where everything remained the same far from the immigration and improvement of the

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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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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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Unfortunately for Mr. Henry Irving, Henry James had plenty of negative feelings towards Mr. Irving’s production, but rather than simply stating them, he utilizes strategies such as juxtaposition and oxymoron to allow for his diction to disguise much of the negative emotions and display it in a more friendly manner. For instance, Henry James utilizes the figurative language, juxtaposition, when describing how Mr. Irving isn’t an effective actor to the readers when he states, “Mr. Irving has several points in common with Edwin Booth, and belongs to the same general type of actor; but I may say that if, to my thinking, Edwin Booth comes nearer to being a man of genius, I find Mr. Irving more comfortable to see” (lines 41-44). This quotation exemplifies that Mr. Irving does encompass some characteristics, in which an actor in his category needs; however, he can’t fully be assigned the status of an “actor” due to the lack of such criteria. James depicts this by comparing Mr. Irving to Edwin Booth, a famous 19th-century American actor, as well as differentiating them by explaining that he believes that Edwin Booth is considered a man of genius,

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The approach of Irving to the creation of national literary icons which will be accepted and read by every new generation could not be estimated. The activity of Irving in this direction almost always makes him different from the other authors. In “Rip Van Winkle” among the features which could be able to attract the attention of the reader we can point out the tone of the story. Indicating

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