“Rip
Van Winkle”
Washington Irving
Possible
Themes:
- Loss
and discovery of identity; the identity crisis as a staple of American
literature.
- The
work ethic—how much does the new country depend on it?
- How
much true change has resulted from the Revolution:
- King
George and George Washington
- The
confusion of most colonists, for whom the Revolution did seem to happen
“overnight.”
- How
long will it take to understand the true significance of the Revolution?
- The
new country is like Rip—uncertain, confused, doubted, accused of being
crazy. But eventually it earns
the respect of others and a certain amount of confidence and authority.
- The
impermanence of identity in the New World.
- Rip
becomes the town storyteller.
America needs to tell its own story now.
- Rip
is no longer just a crazy drunk—now he has a role and a place. America needs to create a role and a
place for itself.
- The
American Dream (before that term was coined) and the American Dreamer as a
staple of American life and culture.
Rip
as an American Type:
- A
simple, good-natured guy; an obedient, hen-pecked husband.
- A
loser that we like to see “win.”
- Not
exactly thrilled about work.
- An
anti-model to the American ideal proposed by Benjamin Franklin (“a penny
saved is a penny earned”; “early to bed and early to rise…”). Rip would rather “starve on a penny than
work for a pound.”
- Franklin
wrote of the great luck of being American. Irving is one of the first to explore the difficulties and
anxieties of being American.
Dame
Van Winkle—Another American Type:
- Rip’s
wife is Irving’s invention; there’s no counterpart to her character in the
German legend on which this story is based.
- She is
the villain. The real “victory” in
the story is Rip’s ability to escape her and gain independence from her.
- The
first in a long line of stories about American men escaping women and
civilization by retreating to the wilderness.
- Men—have
a simple, good nature; free spirits; creative
- Women—represent
everything that inhibits these characteristics of men
- The
“American Dream” as a world with a diminished role for women, or a world
with no women at all.
- The
irony that in the end, Rip is taken in and supported by his daughter.
- Consider
the story from Dame Van Winkle’s perspective…