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Rip Van Winkle

            
             Washington Irving was one of the first American writers to win fame outside of his own country. Many believe that Rip Van Winkle was one of the first short stories to be in a local American setting, the Kaatskill Mountains. Irving wrote with great humor and imagination, which in part is why Rip Van Winkle is still read today. It is a timeless story of far away places and magical people. Rip Van Winkle is a leisurely tale as was Washington Irving.
             Rip Van Winkle was written in the Romantic Period, which explains many of the themes throughout this short story. During this time it was believed imagination was greater than logic and a better solution to finding truth and beauty. Rip falls asleep and imagines that he meets a dwarf who leads him to what he thinks is an amphitheatre. Where he sees many strangely dressed people playing a game of ninepins they offer him something to drink and he falls asleep again. It is not possible for someone to sleep for twenty years, which is where the "imagination is greater than logic" part comes into play. It takes a great imagination to think a story like this up and you have to use your imagination to picture the story and the places inside your head. Romantic writers also believed that nature was a haven and cities led to corruption. Washington Irving sets the story up in a small village where Rip lives with his constant nagging wife. Rip leaves to escape from the verbal abuse of his wife and goes into the mountains, which was a haven for him and his dog, Wolf.
             Rip Van Winkle also has a moral. The moral is to have your priorities in order. Rip helped his neighbors whenever possible, yet was reluctant towards his own family. His house and yard was a mess and his family was falling apart because of it. The story also teaches unconditional love. Rip was gone for twenty years and when he came back nobody knew who he was or why he was there. Yet his only daughter recognized him and took him in when the rest of his family and friends where gone.


Essays Related to Rip Van Winkle

1. Washingtons Irvings Rip Van Winkle

... tearful sentimentality (though he made fun of it too) and exhibiting romantic interests in landscape, folklore, and the past" (2072). Irving wrote "Rip Van Winkle" while he was in Europe along with "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". However, Hedges says, " both stories, with their evocative American settings, ... when she says "the marriage between Rip Van Winkle and Dame Van Winkle represents the union between the American colonies and Great Britain." The American colonies rebelled against Great Britain and Rip Van Winkle did the same. When his wife began to scorn him, Rip Van Winkle ran o...

  • Word Count: 1213
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

2. Rip Van Winkle

... moved to London and began to study German literature, scribbling original short tales based on his translations. On one inspired day he produced "Rip Van Winkle," which most scholars describe as the first American short story. In "Rip Van Winkle,"" Washington Irving creates his masterful story by using imagery, irony, moralism, mysticism, and symbolism. To begin, Washington uses imagery to help ... produce his masterpiece, "Rip Van Winkle."" Irving uses many descriptive adjectives while describing Rip's voyage into the Kaatskill mountains. Just before Winkle encounters the strange being...

  • Word Count: 1583
  • Approx Pages: 6
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Rip Van Winkle

... treatment so organized, a single impression results. To expose that impression, the reader explores the workings of seven basic criteria. One particular criterion character effectively supports the central idea in "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving. The character's type develops with the personality development throughout the story. Three types of characters: round, flat, and stock, appear in most stories. The ... -sixLines one and two S S Jonathon Doolittle Paragraph thirty S S The author uses one main character, at most, two; only the protagonist and the antagonist exist as major ch...

  • Word Count: 1162
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

4. Rip Van Winkle

... others while his home remained pretty well run down. In the short story "Rip Van Winkle", Washington Irving uses simple, henpecked, lazy and friendly to describe the main character Rip Van Winkle. The first thing that is used to describe Rip Van Winkle is simple. Rip is a simple man that just enjoys life. Irving says this by saying "Rip Van winkle was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who ... and nagging he gets for his ways. He gets terrified on his way home and does not want to go home. These examples show how Rip Van Winkle is a henpecked husband. The t...

  • Word Count: 932
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving

... by the British authority. I really do think the entire first half of the short story was dedicated to this tyranny endured by the "American's". Dame Van Winkle symbolizes that very tyranny, while Rip is the abused American settlements and their necessity to cut ties with the English. If you read the short story with that premise in mind, to me it ... colonies to protect their claimed land. Fed up with how he is being treated at home (or the colonists tired of the British rule), Van Winkle decides enough is enough. With his trust dog Wolf and his gun, Rip decides he is to go hunting in t...

  • Word Count: 1834
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Dame Van Winkle

... , yet he continues to ignore his wife's pleas and ventures into the wilderness. In 18th century America, the sole provider of money in the family was the man, thus making Rip Van Winkle's responsibilities much more important. The gender roles of this time made it so women could not own property, control her wages, or have access to high education. The woman of ... whereabouts of his wife. To the dismay of womankind, our protagonist is relieved to find that his wife had died. The surrounding, low quality, town confirms Rip Van Winkle's fears he had of his wife. Dame Van Winkle "nagged " R...

  • Word Count: 600
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

7. Rip Van Winkle

... his wife and children. The disoriented old man is confused and doesn't understand how and why everything is changed. His life may be forever altered. Rip encounters some man named Rip Van Winkle. This man is a mirror image of Rip, who happens to be his son. Now his confusion extends beyond the bizarre sequence of events that have confronted him. He begins to question his ... . These repeated ideas lead to a better understanding of his emotions as he attempts to find his true identity. Truth is what will eventually set Rip free. He is finally introduced to his daughter and her son, Rip. V...

  • Word Count: 1111
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

8. Irving "Rip Van Winkle"

... Irving "Rip Van Winkle" The short-story "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving can be looked at from many aspects. "Rip Van Winkle" is the protagonist of this short story. In the short story "Rip Van Winkle" by Washington Irving, it seems as though "Rip Van Winkle" has slept through the American Revolution. Its as though Washington Irving has established an identity before and after the American Revolution. In Washington Irving short story "Rip Van Winkle" was ... , and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and every thing he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloq...

  • Word Count: 437
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Rip Van Winkle

... story as adults, all sorts of hidden meanings and messages could be found. The focus of this paper will be "Rip Van Winkle" as a Revolutionary War text. This story was written using frame narrative. Irving opens the story by saying that the story of "Rip Van Winkle" was, " found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker-(pg. 428). Then Irving begins to describe a little village ... at the foothill of the Catskill Mountains where a man by the name of Rip Van Winkle lives. After the description of the village comes the reader's first glimpse of Rip Van Winkle's wife who, in the ...

  • Word Count: 900
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

10. Rip Van Winkle

Analysis of Dame Van Winkle In Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle", Dame Van Winkle is described as "a termagant wife" (p. 574) with "a tart temper" and "and sharp tongue" (p. 575). In fact, Dame Van Winkle was so domineering that Rip frequently sought solace outside of his own home. However, his wife could have simply been completely frustrated by his lack of initiative to assist in the upkeep of his home ... and family and stunned by the depth of laziness. Perhaps this was Dame Van Winkle's attempt to get Rip to actually do something useful for his own family. Rip's response to being confr...

  • Word Count: 958
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Grade Level: High School

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