The story of Rip Van Winkle was found among the papers of the late Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman from New York who was especially interested in the histories, customs, and culture of the Dutch settlers in that state. It is set in a small, very old village at the foot of the Catskill Mountains, which was founded by some of the earliest Dutch settlers. Rip lived there while America was still a colony of Great Britain.
Rip Van Winkle is descended from gallant soldiers but is a peaceful man himself, known for being a kind and gentle neighbor. His single flaw is an utter inability to do any work that could turn a profit. It is not because he is lazy—in fact, he is perfectly willing to spend all day helping someone else with their labor. He is just incapable of doing anything to help his own household. He also is well-known for being an obedient, henpecked husband, for Dame Van Winkle has no problem shouting insults into the neighborhood and tracking him down in the village to berate him. All the women and children in the village love him and side with him against his wife, and even the dogs do not bark at him.
Indeed, when he tries to console himself and escape from Dame Van Winkle, he often goes to a sort of philosophical or political club that meets on a bench outside of a small inn. Here the more idle men actually gossip and tell sleepy stories about nothing, every once in a while discussing “current” events when they find an old newspaper. Nicholaus Vedder is the landlord of the inn and the leader of the group. He never speaks but makes his opinions clear based on how he smokes his pipe. Even here, Van Winkle cannot escape from his wife, who berates everyone for encouraging his idleness.
His indolence is probably to be blamed for his farm’s bad luck, so Dame Van Winkle has more than a little cause to berate him—which she does, morning, noon, and night. As the years pass, things continue to get worse, and his only recourse is to escape to the outdoors. His one companion in the household is his dog Wolf, who for no good reason is just as badly treated by the petticoat tyrant Dame Van Winkle.
On one trip to the woods, Van Winkle wanders to one of the highest points in the Catskills. Fatigued from the climb, he rests, and soon the sun has started to set. He knows he will not be able to get home before dark. As he gets up, he hears a voice call his name. A shadowy figure seems to be in need of assistance, so he approaches the man, who looks very strange. He is short and square, with thick bushy hair and a grizzled beard, dressed in the antique Dutch fashion. He asks Van Winkle for help climbing higher with a keg. They reach an amphitheatre in the woods, where a collection of similarly odd-looking men are bowling, which makes the environs sound like it is thundering. Although they are involved in pleasurable pursuits, they are silent and grim.
The man starts to serve drinks from the keg and gestures to Van Winkle to help. He eventually takes a drink for himself. It tastes delicious, and he goes back for more and more until he is quite drunk and lies down to pass out.
When he wakes up in the morning, he is anxious about what Dame Van Winkle will say about his late return. He reaches for his gun but finds that it is now rusty and worm-eaten—perhaps the men tricked him and replaced his gun. Wolf also is gone and does not respond to Van Winkle’s calls. He gets up and feels quite stiff. When he tries to retrace his steps, the amphitheatre appears to have become an impenetrable wall of rock, and some of the natural features of the area have changed.
Van Winkle returns to the village but recognizes nobody, which is strange for a small village, and he notices that everyone is strangely dressed. They look surprised to see him, too, and he realizes that his beard has grown a foot longer. The children hoot at him and the dogs bark. The village itself has grown larger. He begins to think he must be going crazy, for the natural scenery is the only thing that is recognizable. The flagon must have made him lose his mind.
At his house, he finds it in complete disrepair and abandoned. His wife and children are not there. The inn where he used to meet his friends has disappeared, and where there used to be a picture of George III there is now one of a certain George Washington. The new group of people at the new hotel there is full of completely different people, and their discussions are more argumentative than he remembers. The crowd asks him questions, especially about what political party he belongs to. He is confused and says he is still a loyal subject of the king. They declare him a traitor and a Tory. When he says he has just come looking for his friends, they tell him that Nicholaus Vedder has been dead for eighteen years and Van Bummel is now in Congress.
Rip Van Winkle becomes still more distressed and confused when he asks if they know Rip Van Winkle and the townspeople point out a different lazy-looking man. He begins to think he is crazy. A familiar woman approaches, and he finds out enough to decide that she is his daughter. She explains that her father went out with his gun one day twenty years ago and was never heard from since. Rip Van Winkle tells everyone that for him it has only been one night, which makes them think he is crazy, too. The one piece of good news is that Dame Van Winkle recently passed away.
Peter Vanderdonk, the town’s oldest inhabitant, vouches for Rip Van Winkle and says that he has heard tales passed down about the ghosts of Hendrick Hudson and his men appearing once every twenty years; they bowl and keep a guardian eye on the region that Hudson explored. The tale seems to fit with Rip’s experience. Rip goes to live with his daughter, who is married to a cheerful farmer. He lives much happier than he ever was with Dame Van Winkle. Also, he is now old enough for his idleness to be socially acceptable, and he returns to the hotel and is again well-loved in the village. He eventually learns about the Revolutionary War and everything else that has passed, but the only yoke of government that he cares about having thrown off is that of Dame Van Winkle.
Knickerbocker closes the story with an impassioned declaration of its veracity on personal examination. He also gives a brief history of the magic and fables associated with the Catskills, suggesting that even the Indians tell of similar experiences in the area in their own stories and myths.
Analysis
“Rip Van Winkle” is one of the most famous stories of The Sketchbook ofGeoffrey Crayon. It is one of the few that take place in America, although it is believed to be a retelling of an Old World folktale. The setting of the tale, in the Catskills by the Hudson, gives the story a fairly precise location that grounds it in America.
The passages that begin and end the story frame it to separate it from the other sketches. Here our narrator is no longer Crayon but Diedrich Knickerbocker, who is quite adamant in vouching for the authenticity of the tale, which serves not to satisfy the reader but instead to make the reliability of the tale and its narrator even more ambiguous. This distance of Crayon from the tale touches on the theme of veracity in storytelling and its importance.
The story itself is an escapist fantasy; Rip Van Winkle is an ineffectual male hero who cannot support his farm or family. Instead of facing the consequences of his idleness and facing his wife, who certainly makes the problem worse instead of better, he sleeps for twenty years. Finally, he is of such an age that his idleness is excusable and allowed. This makes him an antithesis to the American dream. He has no ambition, he does not work hard for himself, and he does not rise above where he began. He just likes to chat and have friends.
He also sleeps through what was the defining moment of American history, and upon waking, he does not even care. This develops him as the American anti-hero, for he takes no part in the country’s founding or history. His story makes sense as more of an Old World story, one that the Dutch settlers, in their relatively old village, can retell. The story also shows that great historical events are often less important than the daily happenings in an individual’s life. The only oppressor Rip Van Winkle cares about having overcome is his wife.
Dame Van Winkle is certainly the antagonist in this story. She is constantly berating Rip Van Winkle, whom everyone else in the neighborhood adores. She is a completely flat character—we only ever see her worst side, except for the one comment made after she has died that she always kept the house in good order. Her criticism of her husband, if far too strong, is nevertheless deserved. He has completely failed in his role as husband, father, and breadwinner, leaving his family in near ruin. The husband is an extreme form of deadbeat and the wife an extreme form of nagging and henpecking, a state of affairs which appears to be a lesson and warning for Irving’s male and female readers alike. The husbands should learn to be more industrious and attentive, and the wives should learn to be less antagonistic and more understanding lest they drive their husbands further away.
Rip’s night in the woods symbolizes the fantasy of escape through one’s imagination, which is in itself a form of storytelling. Once he is freed of his duties to his family, he becomes the town storyteller, and it is this story which has freed him from his domestic duties—he literally and figuratively dreamed them away. In this way the imagination, or one’s creative life, is presented as a way to deal with the less pleasing duties of everyday life. At the same time, it is not without its dangers. Although Van Winkle finds a happy ending, he is very close to being labeled insane or dangerous and being thrust out of the town.
Rip Van Winkle
By Washington Irving (1783-1859)
A Study Guide
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Setting, Characters, Type of Work and Source, Publication Information
Themes, Climax, The Game of Ninepins, The Catskills as a Character
Author Information, Study Questions, Essay Topics, Free W. Irving Texts
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Plot Summary
By Michael J. Cummings...2006
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.......At the foot of the Catskill Mountains of New York was a picturesque village founded by Dutch colonists. Approaching it, one would see gabled homes with smoke curling up from the chimneys and shingle roofs reflecting the sunlight.
.......A simple, easygoing man named Rip Van Winkle lived in this village, in a weather-beaten house, at the time when New York was an English colony. He was a descendant of the Van Winkles who served with distinction under Peter Stuyvesant in his struggles against Swedish settlers at Fort Christina (in present-day Delaware).
.......Because he was kind and gentle, Rip was popular with all of his neighbors. Children especially loved him, for he would play with them, make them toys, and tell them stories. No one had a cross word for Ripu0096except his wife, who, taking advantage of his meekness, regularly nagged him. Her treatment of him earned Rip the sympathy of other wives.
.......His only weak point was his inability to work for profit. It was not that he lacked patience or perseverance; for, as the narrator points out, u0093He would sit on a wet rock, with a rod as long and heavy as a Tartaru0092s lance, and fish all day without a murmur, even though he should not be encouraged by a single nibble.u0094 Moreover, he was always ready to help a neighbor with hard work and frequently ran errands and did odd jobs for housewives. But when it came time to tend his own farm and keep up his own property, he was of little use. Fences would collapse, a cow would run off, and rain would fall at the very moment he decided to work. The only plants that thrived on his farm were weeds. Consequently, he had the least productive and least attractive farm in the area.
.......One of his children, little Rip, seemed to take after his father. Not only did he look like the elder Rip but he also wore Ripu0092s hand-me-down clothes, including a pair of galligaskins (loose-fitting trousers) which he would continually hitch up with one hand.
.......Dame Van Winkle ceaselessly browbeat Rip for his failings, saying he was bringing the family to ruin. Rip would shrug and go outside, out of range of her scoldingtongue. She treated his dog, Wolf, the same way, and Wolf began to resemble Rip in submissiveness. Rip often sought refuge with a village group that convened on a bench in front of an inn to gossip, tell stories, and on one occasion discuss events reported in a newspaper left behind by a traveler. The village schoolmaster, Derrick Van Brummel, would read the newspaper accounts. Old Nicholas Vedder, the owner of the inn, was the gray eminence of this group, guiding its thought and conversation even though he did little more than smoke his pipe and shift his position on the bench to remain in the shade of a tree. Unfortunately for Rip, Dame Van Winkle would sometimes come to the inn for him and haul him off, all the while her tongue lashing him and his compatriots, including Vedder.
.......To escape his wife and the drudgery of his farm, Rip would sometimes head into the woods with Wolf and his gun. One day, high in the Catskill Mountains, he hunted squirrels, firing one shot after another. Hours later, tired from all the activity, he decided to lie down for a rest on a green knoll overlooking the rich forests and the Hudson River in the distance. When evening neared, he got up to return home, heaving a sigh at the thought of Dame Van Winkle and the terror of her tongue. At that moment, a man came up the mountain, calling out Ripu0092s name. Rip and Wolf both came to attention. As the man neared, Rip noticed that he was short and squat, with a beard and bushy hair, and wore old-fashioned Dutch clothes with buttons down the sides of his breeches. He was carrying a kegu0096probably liquor, Rip thoughtu0096and beckoned for Rip to help him. Always ready to assist others, Rip did so. As they ascended the mountain, Rip heard rumbling, like thunder, coming from a ravine. After they passed through it, they came to a hollow bordered by cliffs with overhanging trees; it resembled an amphitheater. There, Rip saw bearded menu0096all dressed like his companion and all of odd appearance, one with a large head and one with a large noseu0096playing ninepins. They neither spoke nor smiled. When they rolled their balls toward the pins, Rip again heard peals of thunder.
.......Upon the arrival of Rip, the players stopped and stared at him, unnerving him. His companion opened the keg and emptied it into flagons, then motioned for Rip to serve the players, which he did. After the strange men resumed their game, Rip began to feel at ease and decided to sample the brew. It was excellent. He drank another, then another and another. By and by, the liquor had a heavy effect, and he drifted into a deep sleep.
.......When he woke up to a sunny morning, he was on the same green knoll upon which he rested when he first saw the man with the keg. His mind reviewed the events of the night beforeu0096the men, the ninepins, the liquor. Dame Van Winkle would give him a severe scolding this time. He reached out for his gun but was surprised to find that its barrel was rusted and its stock eaten away by worms. Perhaps those bowlers had stolen his gun and replaced it with a sorry old firelock. Wolf was nowhere to be found. When he arose to return to the place of the previous nightu0092s revels to look for Wolf and retrieve his gun, he discovered that he was stiff in the joints.
u0093These mountain beds do not agree with me,u0094 thought Rip, u0093and if this frolic should lay me up with a fit of the rheumatism, I shall have a blessed time with Dame Van Winkle.u0094
.......However, the path he had walked with the strange man was now a mountain stream. Moreover, at the place where he entered the ravine, there was now only a wall of rock. Dumfounded, he returned to the village but was further puzzled when he saw people he did not recognize, all wearing strange fashions. Stroking his chin in bewilderment, he discovered that he had a beard a foot long.
.......The village was larger than when he left it, with more people. He saw strange houses with strange names over the doors. Dogs barked at him and children made fun of him. When he reached his house, he saw an old, deteriorating dwelling with broken windows and a collapsed roof. An old dog outsideu0096was it Wolf?u0096growled at him. Inside, he looked about but found only emptiness. Immediately, he walked over to the innu0096but it was gone. In its place was a ramshackle building with these words painted on the door: u0093The Union Hotel, by Jonathan Doolittle.u0094 There were men outsideu0096but none that he recognized. One man was speaking loudly about u0093rights of citizensu0096electionu0096members of Congressu0096libertyu0096Bunkeru0092s Hillu0096heroes of u009276u0096and other words, that were a perfect Babylonish jargon to the bewildered Van Winkle.u0094
.......The men gathered around him and eyed him, for he was a strange sight to them. Women and children from the village also came to look at the peculiar man with the long beard and odd clothes. One man asked him how he voted. (Apparently, it was election day.) Another asked whether he was a Federal or a Democrat. A third man with a cane, seeing the old gun, asked whether Rip had come to the village to start a riot. Rip told them, u0093u0093I am a poor quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the king, God bless him!u0094 At that, they declared him a Tory and a spy.
.......The man with the cane calmed the others down and inquired again why Rip had come to the village. Rip assured him he meant no harm, then inquired where his neighbors were, naming them one by one: Nicholas Vedder, Brom Dutcher, Van Brummel the schoolmaster. Vedder has been dead 18 years, Rip was told. Dutcher went off to war and never returned. Van Brummel, too, went off to war, attained the rank of general, and got himself elected to Congress. All these replies puzzled Rip.
.......Then he said, u0093Does nobody here know Rip Van Winkle?u0094 One man replied, u0093Oh, to be sure! that's Rip Van Winkle yonder, leaning against the tree.u0094
.......The fellow looked exactly like Rip and even wore ragged clothes. When a man asked Rip his name, he said he did not know, for he now doubted his own identity. A woman named Judith Gardenier came up just then holding a child named Rip. When Rip asked her who her father was, she replied, u0093Ah, poor man, his name was Rip Van Winkle; itu0092s twenty years since he went away from home with his gun, and never has been heard of sinceu0097his dog came home without him; but whether he shot himself, or was carried away by the Indians, nobody can tell. I was then but a little girl.u0094 She also mentioned that her mother had died when she suffered a broken blood vessel shouting at a peddler. Rip then identified himself.
.......u0093I am your father!u0094 cried heu0096u0093Young Rip Van Winkle onceu0096old Rip Van Winkle now!u0096Does nobody know poor Rip Van Winkle!u0094
.......An old woman stepped forward for a closer look at him and confirmed that he was indeed Rip Van Winkle. When she asked where he had been for twenty years, Rip told his story to everyone. The people, skeptical, winked at one another or shook their heads. It happened that the oldest inhabitant of the village, Peter Vanderdonk, was coming up the road, and he was asked for his opinion. He immediately identified Rip. In addition, it was a fact, the narrator reports him as saying, that strange beings had always roamed the Catskills and that Henrdrick Hudson, the discoverer of the region, visited the area every twenty years with the crew of his ship, the Half-Moon, to u0093keep a guardian eye upon the river.u0094 The narrator further reports that Vanderdonku0092s father once observed Hudson and the crew playing ninepins in the mountains and that Vanderdonk himself once heard the thunderous sound of their rolling balls.
.......The crowd then disbanded. Rip went to live with his daughter and her farmer husband. Ripu0092s sonu0096the man leaning against the treeu0096had been hired to work the farm but spent all his time on his own interests. Rip went for walks, took up his old habits, and even found a few of his old friends. However, he preferred the company of the younger generation.
.......At an age when he could do as he pleased, which was to say nothing, he began sitting on the bench in front of the Doolittle's Hotel. There the villagers looked upon him as one of their patriarchs. In time, he learned that their had been a revolutionary war in which the country broke from England and that he was now a citizen of the United States. Overall, he was a happy man and was especially pleased to be free of the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle.
.......From time to time, he told his story to strangers and eventually everyone in the village knew all the details by heart. Some inhabitants still doubted the tale, but old-timers swore by it and even claimed, whenever they heard a thunderstorm, that Hendrick Hudson and his crew were playing ninepins again.
Setting
The story begins about five or six years before the American Revolution and ends twenty years later. The action takes place in a village in eastern New York, near the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains. The river was named after Englishman Henry Hudson, who explored it in 1609. The Catskill Mountains were named after Kaaterskill, the Dutch word for a local stream, Wildcat Creek. The Catskills contain many other streams, as well as lakes, waterfalls, and gorges.
Characters
Rip Van Winkle: Meek, easygoing, neu0092er-do-well resident of the village who wanders off to the mountains and meets strange men playing ninepins.
Dame Van Winkle: Ripu0092s nagging wife.
Nicholas Vedder: Owner of a village inn where menfolk congregate.
Derrick Van Brummel: Village schoolmaster.
Wolf: Ripu0092s dog.
Man Carrying Keg Up the Mountain: Spirit of Englishman Henry Hudson, explorer of the Hudson River.
Ninepin Bowlers: Henry Hudsonu0092s crewmen from his ship, the Half-Moon.
Brom Dutcher: Neighbor of Rip who went off to war while Rip was sleeping.
Old Woman: Woman who identifies Rip when he returns to the village after his sleep.
Peter Vanderdonk: Oldest resident of the village. He confirms Ripu0092s identity and cites evidence indicating Ripu0092s strange tale is true.
Judith Gardenier: Ripu0092s married daughter. She takes her father in after he returns from his sleep.
Mr. Gardenier: Judithu0092s husband, a farmer.
Rip Van Winkle II: Ripu0092s neu0092er-do-well son.
Rip Van Winkle III: Ripu0092s infant grandchild. Its mother is Judith Gardenier.
Van Schaick: Village parson.
Jonathan Doolittle: Owner of the Union Hotel, the establishment that replaced the village inn.
The Catskill Mountains: See Personification.
Various Men, Women, and Children of the Village
Type of Work, Source, and Publication Information
"Rip Van Winkle" is a short storyu0096one of America's most belovedu0096based on German folk tales. It was first published in a collection of Irving's works called The Sketch Book (1819-1820).
Themes
Change With Continuity and Preservation of Tradition
After Rip awakens from his long sleep and returns to the village, he does not recognize the people he encounters. But not only their faces are new but also their fashions and the look of the village: It is larger, with rows of houses he had never seen. His own house is in shambles now with no one living in it, and the inn he frequented is a hotel. His wife and old Vedder are dead. Others left the village and never came back. Everything is different, it seems; nothing is as it was. There has even been a revolutionary war in which America gained its independence from England and became a new country. However, when Rip looks beyond the village, he sees that the Hudson River and the Catskill Mountains are exactly the same as they were before his sleep. He also begins to encounter people who knew him long ago: first, the old woman, then the old man, Peter Vanderdonk, who testifies to the truth of Ripu0092s strange tale about the ninepin bowlers he met in the mountains. At this point in the story, Irvingu0092s main theme begins to emerge: Although wrenching, radical changes are sometimes necessary to move society forward, such changes must not eradicate old ways and traditions entirely. Real, lasting change is an amalgam of the old and new. New builds on the foundations of the old. There must be continuity. So it is that old Vanderdonk, in confirming Ripu0092s tale, says he himself has heard the thunder of ninepin bowlers, who are the crewmen of The Half-Moon, the ship Henry Hudson captained in his exploration of the Hudson River. It seems that their spirits return to the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains every twenty years to keep a u0093guardian eyeu0094 on the river and its environs. Hudson was an Englishman, yes, but his association with his overthrown country does not mean the values he represents must die with the revolution. Rip also sees his son, Rip II, now a grown man, who looks just like him, and is reunited with his daughter, now a grown woman, who is holding an infantu0096Rip III. Thus, though, change has come to the village, their remain links with the past; there is continuity. New generations come along that bring change, but old values and traditionsu0096as well as family linesu0096remain alive and thriving. And, every now and then, thunder rumbles in the Catskills when Hudson and his crew play ninepins.
The Magic of the Imagination
Irvingu0092s story suggests that human imagination can can give society charming, humorous stories that become part of an enduring, magical folklore. Today, the Catskill and Hudson Valley regions well remember Rip Van Winkle and Ichabod Craneu0096the hero of another Irving story, u0093The Legend of Sleepy Hollowu0094u0096as if they were real persons. A bridge across the Hudson has even been named after Rip. Sunnyside, Irvingu0092s Tarrytown home between 1835 and 1859, is a major tourist attraction in the Hudson Valley.
Climax
The climax of the story occurs when the townspeople recognize Rip after he returns to his village.
The Game of Ninepins
Ninepins is a game (or sport) in which a participant rolls wooden balls on a lane in an attempt to knock down nine bottle-shaped wooden pins arranged in the shape of a diamond. The participant may bowl up to three balls to knock down all the pins. Ninepins is similar to the modern sport of bowling.
Personfication: The Catskills as a Character
At the outset of his story, Washington Irving uses personification to invest the Catskill Mountains with human qualities. Irving tells us in Paragraph 1 that they are part of a u0093family,u0094 the Appalachian family. And they are a proud, majestic member of that family, u0093lording it over the surrounding country.u0094 They are also active rather than passive, reacting to the weather and the seasons with changes in their u0093magical hues and shapes.u0094 In fair weather, u0093they are clothed in blue and purple.u0094 But sometimes, even though the sky is cloudless, they will gather a hood of gray vapors about their summits, which, in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory.
Making the mountains come alive enables them to become mysterious and unpredictable; they may even play tricks on those who venture within their confines.
Author
"Rip Van Winkle" was written by Washington Irving (1783-1859), a lawyer who pursued a writing career after he discovered that practicing law did not interest him. At a time when most Americans read British authors almost exclusively, Irving proved that American writers could compete with their British counterparts. He was among the first American writers who gained an international reputation by writing short stories. Irving had a special talent for creating a magical, fairytale quality in his talesu0096notably "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"u0096and thus helped shape the folklore of early America. His elegant writing style, full of gentle humor and vivid descriptions, continues to enchant modern readers. It is likely that his engaging stories will remain popular for ages to come.
Study Questions and Essay Topics
Even though he was a failure as a farmer, Rip Van Winkle was a success as a human being. What were the most praiseworthy qualities that he possessed?
In what way does Irving's portrayal of Dame Van Winkle help to illumine Rip's character?
Write a short essay (or a paragraph or two) that uses personification and/or other figures of speech to invest with a personality the natural surroundings where you live, as Irving did in "Rip Van Winkle." (See "Personification: The Catskills as a Character.")
If you fell asleep today and awakened 20 years from now, what questions would you ask the first person you saw?
When Rip returns to his village, he learns that Dame Van Winkle has died and that his fellow Americans liberated themselves from English rule in a revolutionary war. What do the war and the death of Rip's wife have in common in terms of how Rip will live the rest of his life?
Although "Rip Van Winkle" is a fictional tale, it presents truths that can teach the reader. Write an essay that focuses on the truths presented in the short story.