How Does Rip Van Winkle Affect Society

In an English interpretation, one could see Rip Van Winkle as the mother country or England. Rip is “a kind neighbor, and an obedient hen-pecked husband .” (430) To an English citizen reading this story, it could easily represent the English monarchy. For years before the

He ‘s a lazy and obedient hen-pecked husband. “In a word, Rip was ready to attend to anybody’s business but his own; but as to doing family duty, keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible.” His idleness to his responsibility can be seen as American’s unwillingness to be a servant of England. “There is phlegm and drowsy tranquility” around the town before the revolution war. However, after Rip awakes from his sleep for twenty years, everything in the town has changed. “There was a busy, bustling, disputatious tone about it, instead of the accustomed phlegm and drowsy tranquility.” Also, the sign outside the tavern where he spent much of his time has changed from King George to General Washington. After seeing all of these changes, at first Rip doubts his own identity, especially when he sees his son who is” a precise counterpart of himself.” However, before long, “he resumes his old walks and habits,” because he doesn’t compelled to change himself into a post Revolutionary American. Since it never happens as an event in his life, it makes no drastic change in Rip’s life. Because he has no indent to fit in the new society to be who he has to be at the new age, he tries to retreat or stay in the past which is what the Americans need to lead their cultural life.

At its most basic level Rip Van Winkle is a humorous story of a man who sets off into the mountains to find so much needed peace and quiet, then sleeps for twenty years. Washington Irving uses a combination of satire, imagery, and irony, intertwined with symbolism, to paint an allegorical image of the American Revolution. Irving particularly focuses the tale of Rip on America’s political struggle during the latter half of the eighteenth century while highlighting the role of England as a colonializing society. The use of symbolism helps in creating a vivid mental picture and a physical sensation of the subject without directly referring to the details of the revolution itself. Understanding the symbolism helps in deriving the full meaning of Irving’s writing and the themes it addresses. Ultimately, an analysis of the symbolism will help in understanding the American struggle against England, and how the American Revolution shaped the future of America.

In Washington Irving’s “Rip Van Winkle” there is many occurrences of change in Rip’s economy and government whilst he is asleep for twenty years. He goes out one day to go hunting and runs into Henry Hudson’s crew. He drinks with them and then falls into a deep sleep. When Rip awakens he returns to his old Dutch village to find that nothing is the same. Facing the fact of his wife’s death, he must also deal with many drastic changes around him.

Washington Irving’s short story “Rip Van Winkle” is a way to understand how society had evolved at the time of the American Revolution. At this time the American people, were struggling with finding their own identity. Irving uses his main character, Rip Van Winkle, to symbolize the struggle of early America. Irving uses many symbols in the story “Rip Van Winkle” to display the changes the society in America went through before and after, Rip fell asleep.

“Rip Van Winkle” published in May 1819 by Washington Irving who was an out of the box author whose work was mostly humorous and in that time, it wasn't very accepting. This story shows how America was under the influence of King George and how this man lived most of his life under the rule of King George and he goes out into the woods and wakes up twenty years in the future a free man. His wife is a whinnying woman who just criticized him morning, noon, and evening and if it weren't for her he would live his live freely and happy. However, this story symbolizes the Revolutionary War and his wife, Dame Van Winkle, represents King George the third and Rip Van Winkle represents the United States.

After seeing all of these changes, at first Rip doubts his own identity, especially when he sees his son who is" a precise counterpart of himself." However, before long, "he resumes his old walks and habits," because he doesn't compelled to change himself into a post Revolutionary American. Since it never happens as an event in his life, it makes no drastic change in Rip's life. Because he has no indent to fit in the new society to be who he has to be at the new age, he tries to retreat or stay in the past which is what the Americans need to lead their cultural life.

“... Rip's composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor...would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound....would have whistled life away in perfect contentment...” His laziness was one of the most exaggerated characteristics in the story, a characteristic even more exaggerated by his 20 year long

Washington Irving, author of the short story “Rip Van Winkle,” writes, “In a word, Rip [Van Winkle] was ready to attend to anybody’s business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible” (10). Rip Van Winkle is the protagonist in this short story, narrated by Diedrich Knickerbocker, which first appeared in 1819 in Irving’s collection of stories, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent (2). Irving sets the story in a small Dutch colonial village near the Kaatskill Mountains and the Hudson River pre-Revolutionary War under King George III of England (5, 26-28). Van Winkle lives with his wife, Dame Van Winkle, and his son and daughter, Rip Van Winkle, Jr. and Judith, respectively. Dame Van Winkle is an extremely henpecking wife; however, Van Winkle is very careless when it comes to caring for his family and farm, which leads to his wife’s nagging. Van Winkle eventually leaves home and meets strangers in the woods, with whom he drinks liquor with; consequently, he ends up falling asleep for what he will ultimately learn was twenty years. At this point, the setting changes to an independent United States city post-Revolutionary War under a new flag and a new leader, President George Washington (Irving 7-24). A negative person is someone who has a multitude of unpleasant traits; contrarily, a positive person is a person who has mainly admirable characteristics. Judging a character’s attributes in a novel is tough, even if they

Washington Irving was born on April 3, 1783 just as the British recognized the United States’ independence. “Rip Van Winkle” is one of the most famous stories from the post- revolution period in American literature. Rip and his wife Dame Van Winkle, have a bit of a problem. Dame keeps nagging and Rip is still sitting and sleeping all the time. Rip is good nature but he is also very lazy. Rip’s idleness is viewed by the neighbors and his wife.

However, in “Rip Van Winkle”, Irving tells a story of a man who slept through the Revolutionary

The character of Dame Van Winkle plays an important role in her comparison to England during the American Revolution. Throughout the story, Irving attributes all the hardship that Rip faces to her. He is described as “an obedient, henpecked husband,” while she is described as “termagant” and a “shrew” (p.472). Because of his “insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor” (p.472), Dame Van Winkle “kept continually dinning in on his ears about his idleness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family,” (p.473). However, her constant nagging and ridicule doesn’t seem to bother Rip, as his frequent response was that he “shrugged his shoulders, shook his head, cast up his eyes, but said nothing” (p.473). She, in return, blames everyone but herself for his failures, including his dog, Wolf, who is “as much henpecked as his master” (p.473). The narrator explains that she “regarded them as companions

“Rip Van Winkle was inspired by German legends the general plot of the story was a man who mysteriously sleep for twenty years find himself in a changed world. It has all the fixings of a great story a nagging wife, dogs, gun, ghost, liquor and long graybeards. The story starts before the American Revolution when King George’s ruling the colonies, Irving explains that Rip was a pretty good men he is friendly and people in town tend to like him if someone needs an extra hand Rip was always ready to lend one”. The quote “ The appearance of Rip, with his long grizzled beard, his rusty fowling piece, his uncouth dress, and the army of women and children that has gathered at his heels, soon attracted the attention of the tavern politicians. They

The resemblance between Rip and his wife and America and England cannot be coincidental. Rip jaunting off into the forest to fraternize with drunken ghosts and subsequently sleeping

Rip’s wife always hammering in his ears about his sluggishness, his carelessness, and the ruin he was bringing on his family. It’s kind of funny because it was really hard to think of people with the Rip Van Winkle stereotype, but then it finally came to me Homer Simpson from the Simpson. Homer is lazy and ignorant to what is going on in the world. His wife marge is always nagging him about taking care of things at home and his son Bart is taking on his dad bad habits. One episode that comes to mind is where marge is nagging homer about talking to Bart because is put himself and other in danger by playing with construction vehicles. Also the Simpson movie comes to mind also because Homer didn’t empty out his pig seller the right way, and marge constantly nagged homer about emptying the seller the right way. Since Homer didn’t listen to his wife it ultimately ended up bringing destruction to his home. Next person that comes to mind is Ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes who was thought to be homeless. He begged or stole for what he needed, which is like Rip who would starve than work pound for