Rip Van Winkle Essay

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Rip Van Winkle essay

Washington Irving’s short story “Rip Van Winkle” is one of the first works written during the Romantic Movemnet in America. The story follows a Dutch-American villager in America named as Rip Van Winkle. It is a simple tale of an unhappyily married man whose carefree and happy attitude makes him the centre of attention for many village women, children and animals. As the story is a unique production of Romantic Movemnent, one can see different elements of Romanticism in it. The use of Roamntic hero, nature and supernatural elements are among those characteristics.

Rip is an epitome of a Classic American romantic hero who portrays all the elements through his youthful qualities, sense of humor, innocence, his interaction with nature, innocence and his quest for truth in his life and in the lives of those around him. Apparently, he is an old man but he does have youthful qualities like in the story it say “The children of the village to would shout with joy whenever he approached. He assisted at their sports, made their playthings, taught them to fly kites and shoot marble and told them long stories of ghosts witches and Indians”. This shows that he enjoys acting like an energetic youth by playing with the kids ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"YoG0VEzx","properties":{"formattedCitation":"({\\i{}Irving_Winkle.Pdf})","plainCitation":"(Irving_Winkle.Pdf)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":30,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/RBNYwj78/items/X7YXZIQ9"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/RBNYwj78/items/X7YXZIQ9"],"itemData":{"id":30,"type":"article","title":"Irving_Winkle.pdf","URL":"https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Irving/Winkle/Irving_Winkle.pdf","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",11,8]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Irving_Winkle.Pdf). His innocence and pure puposes also make him a romantic hero who is willing and ready to do anything to help someone and refuses to get something in return as a reward. For instance, in the story it states that “ the great error in Rips composition was an insuperable aversion to all kinds of profitable labor”.

Nature has also played an important role in the story. Irving uses nature to establish the setting of his story and as visualization tool for the readers. The distant Hudson river which is far from the civilization of the east and the mountains provided a perfect scenry for a modern American fairy-tale. As in the strory nature has been described as “They (The Kaatskill Mountains) are a dismembered branch of the great Appalachian family and are seen away to the west of the river, swelling up to a noble height, and lording it over the surrounding country”. The artistic abilities of the author makes him develop perfect imagery for the story as in the story one can witness this through this specific quote “When the weather is fair and setteled, they are clothed in blue and purple and print their bold outlines on the clear evening sky”. By creating a natural scene like that through his stories, he not only provides a more interesting view of the world but also compels readers to look at their world in the same way.

Then we have the element of supernatural as the setting of the story is supernatural in itself. The story takes a turn for the supernatural when the main character meets strange men who are dressed in traditional Dutch attire and holding musical instruments. All these people reminded Rip of “the figures in an old Flemish painting”. As in the story it says “they maintained the gravest faces, the most mysterious silence and they were, withal, the most melancholy part of pleasure he had ever witnessed”. One can also witness the supernatural scene of Rip drinking the men’s liquor which has magical properties because it puts Rip to sleep for twenty years. This magical event is a turning point of the entire story as everthing in the world has changed when Rip awakes.

Worksited:

ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Irving_Winkle.Pdf. https://www.ibiblio.org/ebooks/Irving/Winkle/Irving_Winkle.pdf. Accessed 8 Nov. 2019.