Rip Can Not Find Dame Van Winkle

In the story, Rip Van Winkle, Rip is seen by many of his peers as a person they can always go to for help, he is incredibly dependable. The story states, “the women of the village ,too used to employ him to run their errands, and to do such little odd jobs as their less obliging husbands would not do for them.”(10). Meaning Rip is always there to give a helping hand, even when others do not want to. Robin too is persistent, he spends hours upon hours looking for Major Molineux, until he is successful. In the story, Robin states, “I pray you tell me the whereabouts of is the dwelling of my kinsman, Major Molineux.”(2). Which shows that even from the beginning, Robin will do anything to find him. Another similaritiy the two share are the many setbacks they go through to acheive their goals. For example, Rips goal was to simply enjoy some time away from Dame Van Winkle, his horrendous wife, but falls asleep in the mountains, and wakes up in distress and shock due to his changed town. However Rip does gain a sense of peace by telling his story to whoever will listen, and the almost comforting death of Dame. Robin’s goal in My Kinsman, Major Molineux, is simply to find the location of his relative Major Molineux. Robin goes through a great deal of trouble, because he is seen as an outsider in this foreign town. Robin too reaches his goal, and finally finds Major Molineux, that is, after he is sleep

Rip Van Winkle desires to leave his nagging wife, driving him into the woods revealing a gorgeous, woodland landscape and a

Rip Van Winkle is described as a man who “was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound” (46). He was a stubborn man

Thus he recapitulates the country’s heady release from British rule, and consequent complications” (218). Rip Van Winkle was faced with the same situation as America, he now had to find his place in this unfamiliar world. He saw the whole world past quickly past him and now he had to deal with the repercussions of the choice that he had made.

The Dutchman that Rip meets on the mountain. “He was a short square built old fellow, with thick bushy hair, and a grizzled beard.” Nicholas Vedder. “A patriarch of the village, and landlord of the inn, at the door of which he took his seat from morning till night, just moving sufficiently to avoid the sun, and keeping the shade of a large tree, so that the neighbors could tell the hour by his movement as accurately as by a sun dial. His dog wolf. “True it is, in all points of spirits befitting an honorable dog, he was as courageous an animal as ever scoured the woods-but what courage can withstand the ever-during and all-besetting terrors of a women’s tongue?” George the third. “Here they used to sit in the shade, of a long lazy summer’s day, talk listlessly over village gossip, or tell endless sleepy stories about nothing. Derrick van Bummel. “The schoolmaster, a dapper learned little man, who was not to be daunted by the most gigantic word in the dictionary, and how sagely they would deliberate upon public events some months after they had taken

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

The short story, “Rip Van Winkle”, is a tale of a man who went up into the mountains and after a long string of odd events went to sleep. He woke up twenty years later. He went from being use to what the world was like before the Revolutionary War of the United States to how things changed after the war. When he came back from the mountain he found that his wife and friends were gone. His children were grown up and living in this new world that he had stumbled into. He found that changes had been made to clothing and how people acted; buildings that used to be in the town were now gone or changed, and a government that he had no idea about. In this short story the author used the differences between pre-Revolutionary War and

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.

Before the American Revolution, people used to have determined beliefs, traditions and government, but after the war, society was confused. For example, the website saylor.org stated, “Politically, the American Revolution carried significant and historic consequences … established a republican form of government out of what had been a monarchical and colonial political system. It altered the position of American people from being subjects of the British crown to citizens and political participants of a republic” (How Revolutionary Was The American Revolution?). Now, people had more freedom and the ability to express their thoughts on what they wanted for their country. As a result, people was struggling to leave old habits. The symbolism in this quote emphasizes how America had to adapt: “Rip now resumed his old walks and habits; he soon found many of his former cronies, though all rather the worse for the wear and tear of time; and preferred making friends among the rising generation, with whom he soon grew into great favor” (Irving, 1014). This quote is of great importance because it shows the reader that Rip Van Winkle himself represents the old country. Since all the news about the revolution and his family happened so fast to him, he does not know how to deal with them. For this reason, he kept his “old habits”, while at the same time, he adapted to his environment. Given these points, “Rip Van Winkle” can be analyzed as a story about the struggle for identity because of the

Furthermore, Rip Van Winkle’s identity itself represents America’s journey before and after the American Revolution and the difficulties that were faced. When the reader is first introduced to Rip Van Winkle, he is a well-known man. The community loves him and he has made a name for himself based off the needs of others. He is very dependent on the community and the community is dependent on him. The following citation how well-liked Rip Van Winkle is before he takes his trip to Kaatskill mountains. “Certain it is, that he was a great favorite among all the good wives of the village […] The children of the village, too, would shout with joy whenever he approached.”(https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Irving/Winkle/Irving_Winkle.pdf, Page 8) When Rip returns, he is faced with the reality that he has lost any form of identity he once had. Nobody recognized him, the children laughed at him, and even the dogs barked after him, none of these were the case before his trip. Irving used Rip Van Winkle to represent America

Robert Desmarais is no ordinary caretaker, living as he does in a ghost town 8200 feet above sea level. He is also an historian, story teller, geologist, chemist and licensed blaster. He speaks of the people who inhabited this place as if he’d known them all personally, which due to the eerie nature of this town, he might well have. Robert is in the process of putting together a book on the history of the town. Hopefully it will be available before long, as just the few stories he told us made me want to learn more.

Next, the characters enter the scene of mythology. In order for mythology to come across as supernatural, the characters must lend themselves to mystery. In Rip Van Winkle, not only do other intriguing characters appear, but Rip himself tends towards strange behaviors. After all, Rip did sleep for twenty years without waking. That in its self begins to reveal the underlying interest of the story. Perhaps the most strange and exaggerated characters would prove to be the bowler in the forest. In the text it says, “He was still more surprised at the singularity of the stranger’s appearance.” It goes on to

The story “Rip Van Winkle” is about a man that is loved and cared for in his town, known as Rip. He would help everyone around the town, but when it would come to doing work on his farm he wouldn’t. It was because he believed that everything he did was wrong and useful. The only person that understood Rip was his dog, Wolf, he would take his dog everywhere he would go. On the other hand, there was this person that Rip would not get along with and this person was his wife Dame Van Winkle. Dame would always be arguing and nagging to Rip. As Washington mention in “Rip Van Winkle”, “Morning, noon and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence” (32). Rip Van Winkle

When read at first glance, Washington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" seems to be a tale of a lazy man who just wanted some peace and quiet, and ended up with almost too much of it. When analyzed at a deeper level however, "Rip Van Winkle" is more a symbolic story about the changes in the world going on at the time the story was written. Irving wrote "Rip Van Winkle" to show the world the struggle of the newly independent Americans trying to cope with life after English rule.

The turning point of the story occurs when Rip walks deep into the woods and encounters a mysterious band of oddly dressed strangers with foreign customs. These strangers represent the tribes of Indians who dwelled in villages outside the colonial settlements. In the short conscious time Rip spends with them, he takes the time to notice a great deal about how their small town works. Throughout their entire party, the group remained completely silent, although they were definitely happy. This portrays the Indians apprehension to interact with the settlers. Rip also takes note of a leader of the group. This leader wears a large, outlandish headpiece, and is shown to be a respected elder of the group. The entire scene where Rip waits on them out of fear, parodies the capturing and enslavement of the settlers by the Indians. This part of the story is a bit vague to the reader. The little men