RIP Van Winkle

RIP Van Winkle

1. MainCharacters

   • Diedrich Knickerbocker
     • Knickerbocker is the fictional historian who narrates the story of Rip Van Winkle. We learn that Knickerbocker has died shortly after composing this history. Formerly an “old gentleman of New York,” Knickerbocker fostered a keen interest in the history of the Dutch settlers of New York, and preferred to do research by obtaining first person accounts as opposed to turning to books. He had the capability and intelligence to concern himself with “weightier labours” but nevertheless focused on enjoyed his hobby thoroughly until his death, and is generally well remembered by common people in his community, if not by critics.
       • Summary
         • The story of Rip Van Winkle is set in the years immediately before (the early to mid-1770s) and after the American Revolutionary War (the early to mid-1790s). Rip Van Winkle, a villager of Dutch descent, lives in a nice village at the foot of New York's Catskill Mountains. An amiable man whose home and farm suffer from his lazy neglect, he is loved by all but his wife. One autumn day he escapes his nagging wife by wandering up the mountains. After encountering strangely dressed men, rumored to be the ghosts of Henry Hudson's crew, who are playing nine-pins, and after drinking some of their liquor, he settles down under a shady tree and falls asleep. He wakes up twenty years later and returns to his village. He finds out that his wife is dead and his close friends have died in a war or gone somewhere else. He immediately gets into trouble when he hails himself a loyal subject of King George III, not knowing that in the meantime the American Revolution has taken place. An old local recog
           • Theme
             • even though change in society is necessary, it doesnt have to get rid of old traditions completely.
               • Several other themes could be discussed about this story. It could be about Rip Van Winkle's loss of himself and then having to find others who remember him to explain his identity to the new generation. Maybe Washington Irving wanted to show the importance of work ethic and if you don't keep up with society, you get left behind. The theme could have just been about American life after the Revolution. The switch of the King above to tavern to George Washington was a significant part of the story. Rip Van Winkle could have even been a symbol representing the new country (http://www.123helpme.com/view.asp?id=18848). The change seemed to happen over night and Rip was unsure how to deal with the change and uncertain about the future. The country and Rip Van Winkle enjoyed the progress but were both still reluctant to give up all of their traditions (http://people.morrisville.edu/~pisiakr/English203/RipVanWinkle.htm).
                 • When Rip Van Winkle returns to his village after his super long sleep, everything had changed. There were more buildings in the town and they all looked different. The main topic of discussion was politics. Before Rip Van Winkles went into the forest, the village was small and simple. People weren't concerned with politics and they were content with the rule of the King. All this change was brought about after the Revolution. Perhaps Washington Irving's theme was that with progress comes change. Although there are drastic changes, many traditions are kept such as the gossip at the tavern and idle people can always be idle. Progress may seem overwhelming at first, but it's worth the change. At first, Rip Van Winkle was concerned with all of the change, but as time went on, he was able to accept it and live happily
                   • Type of Writing
                     • Fairy Tale
                       • Dame Winkle represents society and how she is courrruping nature and abusing nature and the dog. Society abuses nature through Dame Winkle .(how society can corrupt a person as she is cruel and has a corruptive nature) She dies by high blood pressure and stress(died because of the peddler and this is important b/c she is dying at the hands of capitalism and she is being corrupted through capitalism
                         • How do we know time has changed
   • Rip Van Winkle
     • The protagonist of the story, Rip Van Winkle is a genial, passive man living in a small Dutch province in the Catskills, who spends his time engaging in work that is not useful or profitable, such as hunting squirrels and doing odd jobs in houses and gardens that aren’t his own. He is the “henpecked husband” of his constantly nagging wife, Dame Van Winkle, from whom he is often hiding, and who is the cause of most of Rip’s unhappiness. Rip ventures up to the top of a mountain one day while squirrel hunting and encounters strange beings who bewitch him with liquor such that he sleeps for 20 years, missing the American Revolution and the dramatic transformation of both his town and the country around it.
   • Dame Van Winkle
   • Rip Van Winkle, Jr.
   • Derrick Van Bummel
   • Nicholas Vedder
   • Hendrick Hudson / the crew of the Half Moon Hudson