Rip Van Winkle
Rip Van Winkle
After reading Wshington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" I believe his point was merely to show how the American Revoultion changed one small village and gender issues, and shows the comical relationship between a lazy and careless husband and an over-domineering wife. It was written to be a political symbolism and historical alusion of colonial life under British rule to the democracy of the young United States, before and after the American Revoulutionary War. During the time the story took place, American colonist were growing frustrated and angry with British taxation and impossitions on their freedom just as, Rip was growing tired and frustrated with his nagging wife. The arguments the colonies had with the British Parliment ran parallel with the arguments Rip and his wife often had. As the "colonist argued that they had already spent much through local government to maintain their places in the British Empire" (Wikipedia, rev. 8May2013). Dame Van Winkle, would continually complain and nag Rip Van Winkle because of her dissatisfaction in him and his idleness, carelessness, and ruin he was bringing on his family" (p.473). Irving intentionally placed a massive "jump" in time, in this piece, represented by Rip's slumber for over twenty-something years. In the story his awakening to the change in his village, to himself in the aspect that he was aged "As he arose to walk he found himself stiff in the joints, [...] These mountain beds do not agree with me, [...] lay me up for a fit of the rheumatism" (p.477). When he realized that his wife was deceased and his children were grown runs parallel with that of the American Revolution. Rip Van Winkle was free from his obligations and responsibilities as a husband and father as he saw it and in the American Revolution, the Americans were free from British Parliment's jurisdiction.
References:
1. American Revolutionary War, Revised 8May2013,
After reading Wshington Irving's "Rip Van Winkle" I believe his point was merely to show how the American Revoultion changed one small village and gender issues, and shows the comical relationship between a lazy and careless husband and an over-domineering wife. It was written to be a political symbolism and historical alusion of colonial life under British rule to the democracy of the young United States, before and after the American Revoulutionary War. During the time the story took place, American colonist were growing frustrated and angry with British taxation and impossitions on their freedom just as, Rip was growing tired and frustrated with his nagging wife. The arguments the colonies had with the British Parliment ran parallel with the arguments Rip and his wife often had. As the "colonist argued that they had already spent much through local government to maintain their places in the British Empire" (Wikipedia, rev. 8May2013). Dame Van Winkle, would continually complain and nag Rip Van Winkle because of her dissatisfaction in him and his idleness, carelessness, and ruin he was bringing on his family" (p.473). Irving intentionally placed a massive "jump" in time, in this piece, represented by Rip's slumber for over twenty-something years. In the story his awakening to the change in his village, to himself in the aspect that he was aged "As he arose to walk he found himself stiff in the joints, [...] These mountain beds do not agree with me, [...] lay me up for a fit of the rheumatism" (p.477). When he realized that his wife was deceased and his children were grown runs parallel with that of the American Revolution. Rip Van Winkle was free from his obligations and responsibilities as a husband and father as he saw it and in the American Revolution, the Americans were free from British Parliment's jurisdiction.
References:
1. American Revolutionary War, Revised 8May2013,