Work And Responsibility In Washington Irving's 'Rip Van Winkle'

Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” is a short story about a man who is content with avoiding work and responsibility. The main character, Rip Van Winkle, is a carefree and lazy man. Rip often escapes from his wife's nagging by wandering in the Catskill mountains. One day he falls asleep in the Catskill mountains and wakes up twenty years into the future, where he has to adjust to a new society and the loss of his wife. In the short story Rip Van Winkle, Irving makes use of character, setting, and conflict to showcase how Rip's foolish decision to neglect his own responsibilities and his realization of the passage of time has a lasting impact on himself and society.

Rip’s decision to ignore his responsibilities not only creates tension in the relationship with his wife, but suggests he has

The 3rd person omniscient narrator in this short story is key to understanding both sides of Rip and Dame’s perspectives. While Rip opposes profitable work and lives a lazy carefree life, Dame wants him to provide for their family like a responsible husband. Most of the time, Dame is portrayed as someone mean who tries to interrupt Rip’s lifestyle. “...but his wife kept continually dinning in his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family (Irving 614).” From Rip’s point of view, his relationship with Dame is tyrannical as she tries to make him work. Dame could even be related to King George III and his tyrannical rule over America at the time. This symbolism reveals how Rip feels about this relationship. From Dame’s point of view, she is just trying to raise a family in a very demanding time. Even with this POV the story is written in a way that always makes Dame look guilty. Painting a picture that “Dame Van Winkle is no more than a “sharp tongue” and a “tart temper”(Mengeling