Literary Analysis Of Rip Van Winkle

Have you ever wondered why American Mythology became so popular in the United States? Mythologies were important during this era because it highlighted the nation's values and ideals. It also celebrated its heroes. As the United States began to break away from Britain, they wanted to feel a sense of independence. In the story “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving, a national mythology is created through the experience of the, the main character, Rip Van Winkle. Irving’s national mythology “Rip Van Winkle” greatly impacts its readers through his use of extraordinary settings, intriguing characters, and mythical events.

Rip van winkle in indeed a classic piece of American mythology. Washington Irving set this story in the past and filled it with exaggerated and sometimes, strange characters. It also features a mysterious and magical occurrence that put the main character to sleep for twenty years! These characteristics make for an enchanted story that has charmed readers for two hundred years.

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm” (Churchill). Irving was a very successful writer in his time and still well known today. Washington Irving is firmly planted into the tapestry of American literature because of his use of mood and symbolism in his short story, “The Devil and Tom Walker”.

In the short story “The devil and Tom Walker”, Washington Irving uses satire to ironically criticize the institution of marriage, avariciousness and the consequences of greed at this time period, which is shown and represented by the protagonist’s marriage and his selfish desire for wealth in the story.

Edgar Allan Poe’s frightening gothic style poetry and short novels about fear, love, death and horror are prominent to Gothic Literature and explore madness through a nerve-recking angle. The incredible, malformed author, poet, editor and novelist is recognized for his famous classical pieces such as “The Raven”, “Berenice” and “The Tell-Tale Heart”, pieces of work that mystically yet magnificently awakens readers with a gloomy spirit. Awakening the subject of madness through written work was viewed as insane during Poe’s times. Yet Poe published some of the worlds most magnificently frightening pieces of literature throughout history. In the following essay I will examine and cautiously analyze Edgar Allan Poe’s most prominent works of madness, as well as his personal life to a certain extent. “The Tell Tale Heart” and “The Raven” will be examined as they reveal his inner dementedness. Exclusive, powerful insight will be shared from the Edgar Allan Poe Museum

Although Rip Van Winkle was immature, idle, irresponsible, and despised his wife, I believe that he was pure at heart. Rip was well liked by his kids which says a lot about his character. Along with the fact that he has a bunch of friends, and he is very friendly in general to people around him. After he is humiliated by his wife in front of his friends he goes to the mountains with his dog and drinks a mysterious type of liquor which causes him to sleep for 20 years. After his sleep he goes back to the town and finds himself in a new country and finds out his wife is dead. He is relieved to hear the news of his wife, and shows little care in the new politics. This shows the readers that despite having

In Rip Van Winkle, Irving uses the countryside and supernatural elements as an escape for Rip Van Winkle from the constant nagging of his wife and demand of labor, where he is finally happy and at peace. Does this reveal an insight into Irving’s character?

Hugh S. Dawson also added some thoughts to the ideas of Young, Fetterley and Fiedler about Rip Van Winkle that Rip Van Winkle being Gothic story once more shows the advantage of marriage to avoid from wasting life in impenetrable forest [6, 14/08/2015].

An American folklore that established Washington Irving as one of the first American authors, “Rip Van Winkle” is a short story about a local Dutch-American villager and the mysterious event that kept him away from home for twenty years. Narrated in the third person omniscient, the narrator depicts a panoramic view of the natural landscape as well as provides an objective view of the main character’s thoughts. To provide a closer view of his personal thoughts, Robert Coover reintroduces Rip Van Winkle with his own monologue in Rip Awake to give him a voice to describe the aftermath of his experience when he returns home. Irving and Coover demonstrates

It will be looked into the characteristics that make Rip Van Winkle a Romantic piece of literature and how Washington Irving's intentions are reflected in his writing. 
Hereby Washington Irving’s life itself will be taken into consideration together with the Romantic period to demonstrate how these two domains are combined in Rip Van Winkle.

The romanticism was the response to the Industrial Age. That movement began in America from 1820 ’s to 1870’s. Washington Irving was part of that movement which began in America after Revolutionary War. They tried to separate them from the rest of the world and create a country as a nation. They used their chance of individuality and creativity, and they addressed economic social and many other concerns by their writings. While Washington Irving was writing “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” (1820), it was the time when Great Britain reached independence and all over the world were going many changes. In this story, he described the small village with its rural life where everything remained the same far from the immigration and improvement of the

In gothic literature, emotion is one of the biggest parts of any author’s work. The shorts stories written by Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Black Cat”, Richard Matheson’s “Prey”, Washington Irving’s “The Devil and Tom Walker”, Horacia Quiroga’s “The Feather Pillow” all incorpórate violence and supernatural in their works. The authors present the common themes in order to give a sense of how the characters feel emotionally. Also the common themes allow the readers to feel sympathy for the characters.

The Great American Dream is an ideal that states through hard work and dedication, every American citizen has the opportunity to accomplish personal goals and achieve success. The amount of effort put forth to obtain these goals, and achieve individualized success is decided upon by that citizen. Some of the more common goals and successes are ownership of property, obtaining wealth, enjoying liberties, experiencing patriotism, and raising a family. In “Rip Van Winkle” by Washington Irving, the main character Rip is able to obtain the Great American Dream through laziness. Washington Irving satirizes the Great American Dream in his short story, and in this paper I will analyze how “Rip Van Winkle” can be read as a parody.

Does Rip Van winkle’s decision to go up the mountian to be free from his wife later affected him in the future? Rip Van Winkle, written by Washington Irving, was published in 1819 and was written around the time of the American Revolution. The american Revolution which took place from 1765 to 1783, was a revolt of thirteen colonies who wanted independence from Great Britain. They gained their independence and defeated England and became the United States. The American Revolution caused many changes in society, the culture, and literature, the people had to try new things like going from having a king to now having a president and living with things they had never experienced in their life before. The Literature during the Revolution usually was trying to get the citizens to join the revolution and fight for Independence. Washington Irving shows this concept of change in his book which shows how the main character, Rip Van Winkle, gets to see how life was before and after the American Revolution. Rip was a very lazy kind of stay at home husband, he did not enjoy working and preferred to live his life talking and having a good time sharing stories. Rip’s wife, Dame constantly reminded Rip of his laziness and dishonor he was bringing to the

The classic short story of “The Tell-Tale Heart”, written by one of the all time masters of horror, Edgar Allen Poe, has always been used as an excellent example of Gothic fiction. Edgar Allen Poe specialized in the art of gothic writing and wrote many stories that portrayed disturbing events and delved deeply into the minds of its characters. In "The Tell-Tale Heart," Poe revolves the plot around a raving individual who, insisting that he is sane, murders an old man because of his` “vulture eye”. The three main gothic elements that are evident in this story are the unique setting, the theme of death and decay, and the presence of madness.