Essay on Rip Van Winkle - 1682 Words

The characters in Rip Van Winkle and Young Goodman Brown written respectively by Washington Irving and Nathaniel Hawthorne leave their individual communities and return with radically different perspectives (of their current lives) that change their attitudes and way of life in the remaining of their lives. Both stories are set in early American villages, Young Goodman Brown takes place in the 1700’s New England puritan settlement while Rip Van Winkle takes place over 100 years later in an English colony in eastern New York. Both authors were very clever to use different historical context to illustrate cultural aspects of early American societies in order to make the reader aware of how big of a role gender, politics and religion where to†¦show more content†¦Faiths pink ribbons are a symbol of her virtue, innocence, and purity. The image of the pink ribbons falling from the sky marks the start of the radical transformation of Brown’s feelings towards his wife Faith and his former self towards his society. When Brown returns from his night (dream) in the forest his reaction towards Faith is as if she was a repulsive stranger and is no longer the loving wife he held with high respect and in a pedestal. The story ends with Faith and Brown’s children following Brown’s funeral procession. In the beginning of Rip Van Winkle, Rip is portrayed as lazy husband who would do anything for others except his own husbandly duties. Rip Van Winkle’s wife, Dame Winkle, who is nothing like her husband goes around doing her wifely duties, as a wife and mother, regardless whether her husband Rip meets her needs. Despite been such a likeable person to his friends and neighbors, Winkle makes his wife’s life complicated. Dame Van Winkle is the typical wife that takes care of the obligations she has at home while Rip refuses to be productive around the house. The story emphasis’s how relentlessly Dame nags Rip. However if Rip had assumed his share of household responsibilities perhaps Rip might not have felt an impact. Dame’s life is further complicated by the absence of 20 years of her husband. When Rip returns Dame is dead and he is taken in by his daughter who replaces the maternal role that his wife (dame) hadShow MoreRelatedEssay on Rip Van Winkle1664 Words   |  7 Pages Rip Van Winkle In the late 1700s and early 1800s, literature began to show it was changing thanks to the newly formed democracy in America. As is the case with any young government, many different interest groups arose to attempt to mold the government according to their vision of democracy. Washington Irving, a native New Yorker born in 1783, grew up in a world engulfed in these democratic ideals. He grew up to be, as many would grow up in this atmosphere, a political satirist. This satiricalRead MoreCommentary On Rip Van Winkle 946 Words   |  4 PagesWashington Irving uses humor throughout his short story, â€Å"Rip Van Winkle.† His humor is of a primarily satirical nature. This story is about a man who is fooled by a stranger and falls asleep for twenty years. The man awakens to a world that is completely different. Irving’s satire exists within the details of the ensuing plot; his wit is clever and subtle throughout. Overall, one can examine and analyze the many scenes of â₠¬Å"Rip Van Winkle† that consist of Irving’s intriguing sense of humor. IrvingRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Rip Van Winkle 1868 Words   |  8 Pages For the latter part of the last two centuries, generations of people around the world have read or heard of the tale of the man who slept for two decades known as â€Å"Rip Van Winkle†. 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Knickerbocker tells of the life of old man Rip Van Winkle and how he slept for twenty years among the trees in the Kaatskill mountains and returned one day to a new time, only to find that his home and all his friendsRead MoreEssay on Rip Van Winkle and the Revolutionary War 752 Words   |  4 PagesThe short story, â€Å"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 w orld that he had stumbled into. He found that changes had beenRead MoreAnalysis Of The Book Rip Van Winkle 940 Words   |  4 Pages Rip Van Winkle is a confusing national identity story written in the 1819(IRVING 467). It’s a time in history when America was developing and changing as a nation. The twist of the story makes the dialogue kind of confusing but it all makes sense at the end. It’s very interesting how the story takes place. In the beginning of the story Washington Irving describes the nature in a quote by stating, â€Å"Whoever has a voyage up the Hudson, must remember the Catskill Mountains. They are a dismembered branchRead MoreEssay on The Message of Rip Van Winkle1042 Words   |  5 Pages Rip looked, and beheld a precise counterpart of himself, --[It appears Rip has seen an exact mirror-image of himself--the way others have always perceived him]-- as he went up the mountain--[This was the way he was before his quot;sleep,quot; or journey up the mountain]--: apparently as lazy, and certainly as ragged--[Before he encountered the party on the mountain, he was a casual, rough and lazy person]--. The poor fellow was now completely confounded--[It appears to everyone that Rip Jr.Read MoreRip Van Winkle, By Washington Irving980 Words   |  4 PagesRip Van Winkle The short story, Rip Van Winkle has journeyed through many years of popularity in American literature. This narrative is eloquently written by Washington Irving, a prolific nineteenth century American writer. The Author sets the story in a village near the Hudson River, along the banks of the Catskill Mountains where Great Britain once held reigns. Irving presents the reader with a story that effectively delivers an abundance of connotations representing the era of its origin. Through