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Struggling with distance learning? Themes All Themes. Symbols All Symbols. Theme Wheel. Everything you need for every book you read. The way the content is organized and presented is seamlessly smooth, innovative, and comprehensive. 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. 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… read analysis of Rip Van Winkle.
So sleep is still your best friend. Who was the antagonist in Rip Van Winkle? Lesson Summary Rip Van Winkle is a good-hearted, kind man who loves children.
I consider, that you are not right. I can prove it. Write to me in PM, we will communicate. How long was rip van winkle asleep. Post navigation Is Rip Van Winkle a good man? What happened to Dame Van Winkle after Rip left?
His wife died from an aneurysm while screaming at a peddler. She had not changed any. What Is The World Record For Sleeping He would carry a light gun on his shoulder and spend hours in the woods to shoot a few squirrels or wild pigeons. Advertisement Does just laying in bed give you rest?
His unwillingness to work. How long is Rip Van Winkle asleep in the woods? We could look at Rip as being a symbol of the past. He represents the world of 20 years ago. He is much happier than he ever was with Dame Van Winkle, and nobody minds him being lazy now, because he is so old. Diedrich Knickerbocker adds a postscript to emphasise the truth of the story, and gives a brief history of the magic and fables associated with the Catskill Mountains. This structure of a story within a story now feels as if it dates from an earlier time.
It was a popular style in this early part of the 19th century, and a little later too. An elaborate sort framing was common in American fiction up to about the middle of the nineteenth century; another author who used it was Nathaniel Hawthorne. Presumably it is designed to add an air of authenticity to the work.
Washington Irving chose a pseudonym for much of his early writing. This made me laugh, and at this point I suspected that Washington Irving might have his tongue firmly in his cheek. Still, it made me giggle. The story is very droll and enjoyable, addressing timeless issues, although firmly set within a traditional rural family set-up within a Western society.
These caricatures of a henpecked husband and a petticoat tyrant of a wife, or alternatively viewed, an overworked resentful drudge and a layabout husband, are still with us today. Since modern relationships are now far more diverse, it is interesting that this seems to be such a recurring theme. It has an ineffectual male protagonist who cannot support his farm or family, as is expected in the community where he lives.
He just runs away and sleeps for twenty years. In the end he is so old that nobody cares any more about his laziness. Moreover, although he has slept through the defining moment of American history, he is not interested. He does not embody the American dream, but quite the reverse.
He has no ambition to better himself, and he does not work hard for himself and his family. All he wants to do is to chat inconsequentially with his friends. In a way, this is more fitting as an Old World story; one which the Dutch settlers would like to retell.
Washington Irving writes in a colloquial and familiar style, using simple and straightforward dialogue. It does not seem to be imparting any profound truths.
This apparent simplicity is quite deceptive, because he does seem to suggest more than he seems to say. We see that great historical events are often less important to an individual than the daily happenings in their life. By the very act of passing over a significant event in American history, the story draws attention to it. On his return, Rip Van Winkle finds people talking of the heroes of the late war, including one of his friends. The only oppressor he cares about having overcome, is his tyrannical wife.
Rip Van Winkle achieves universal significance because of its simplicity. For all our progress, and our increasingly complex society, people have a kernel of romantic nostalgia, and may yearn for pastoral contentment. The price Rip himself paid for this of course, was to never achieve full manhood and maturity. He lost any opportunity to participate in the great events of his lifetime, and slept away much of his adult life. It is tempting to wonder whether there was an element of the author himself in Rip Van Winkle.
The reader is clearly amused by both the husband and the wife, who are drawn with a very light touch, yet perhaps more lassitude is given to Rip Van Winkle. He wins through in the end, simply by outlasting his wife. After all, on his return he is lauded and happy, whereas we are left to construe that his wife became increasingly poverty-stricken and embittered. Washington Irving was a nostalgic, conservative man who enjoyed the old ways.
He was happiest when he juxtaposed old and new; tradition and change. He was encouraged by his friend Sir Walter Scott to explore European folklore, and both these famous stories are based on German tales. Although simply written and amusing, this fantasy is a salutory tale. In the end Rip Van Winkle is freed from his duties to his family, and he becomes the town storyteller.
He has lost a big part of his life. Ironically it is this story which has freed him from his domestic duties — he has both literally and figuratively dreamed them away. Dame Van Winkle too has lost what she most desired. She did not gain a hardworking husband or an efficient well-run farm, and suffered an early death. It is strange, that such an entertaining slice of humour can be so bitter, when reflected upon. Such is the wisdom of Washington Irving.
View all 22 comments. Connie G Wonderful review and illustrations, Jean. I associate the name "Knickerbocker" with the Dutch settlers in New York. When I was a child, Knickerbocker Wonderful review and illustrations, Jean. When I was a child, Knickerbocker was a popular brand of beer brewed in NYC so we heard commercials for the beer often.
The brewery is now closed. Bionic Jean Connie wrote: "Wonderful review and illustrations, Jean. When I was a child, Connie wrote: "Wonderful review and illustrations, Jean. So many different associations I also remember a "Knickerbocker Glory" being an ice cream sundae, with fruit at the bottom and a cherry on top. I have no idea how that name started!
An entertaining short story by Washington Irving, this was a pleasure to read! I would sit with my little sister and listen in pure bliss to this classic tale over and over again.
The narration and the sounds effects had something of a dream-like feel to it. Now, ahem, decades later, I reacquainted myself with Rip in printed form. I am happy to say that the story still holds the same enchantment it did so many years ago! Perhaps this is partly due to my sense of nostalgia while reading; but nevertheless, there is a reason it remains a classic and one which merits revisiting from time to time.
View all 35 comments. Sep 19, Jason Koivu rated it really liked it Shelves: fantasy , fiction. Oh Magoo, you've done it again! Magoo animated version. I couldn't find that old nearsighted thespian's take on the Irving classic, but here's his rendition on Frankenstein.
Bloody masterpiece! Perhaps basing your knowledge of literature on a super-condensed, 20 minute version of a novel hundreds of pages long isn't a sound idea, but in the case of the q Oh Magoo, you've done it again! Perhaps basing your knowledge of literature on a super-condensed, 20 minute version of a novel hundreds of pages long isn't a sound idea, but in the case of the quite short Rip Van Winkle it actually was just fine.
Having reread it and matching it up with my recollection of the cartoon, which admittedly I haven't seen in about 30 years, I think it holds up well. To have his enduring work reduced to its questioned quality in condensed cartoon form; "My god," I imagine him saying, "what an honor!
It's nice to see them transplant so well to the wooded reaches of colonial on the cusp of post America. View 2 comments. Doing stuff. And he has an evil wife who is always nagging him to do bothersome things; like come h i, is for Irving 3 Stars When I was a child I always thought the story of Rip Van Winkle was harmless; some guy gets really tired and falls asleep on a mountain only to wake up 20 years later, the end. And he has an evil wife who is always nagging him to do bothersome things; like come home, get a job, be useful.
How horrible! So he ventures up a mountain one day, and falls asleep for those same 20 years. And after he awakes, all the world is better and he can go about being a now useless old man who no one expects anything from except stories and pipe-smoking The end. Although the writing is lovely, the description ranges from overly long to non-existent.
Beyond that, I found the end of the story a bit rushed feeling and I wished it had carried on to explain a bit more of what exactly had happened to the town in those twenty- years. View all 14 comments. Rip Van Winkle lived in a village of Dutch colonists at the foot of the Catskills, described as the fairy mountains, when New York was a colony of Great Britain.
Rip was a kind neighbor, and a friend to all the villagers. But he was also a hen-pecked husband who avoided doing any work around his farm. One day he goes into the mountains for a walk with his dog.
He encounters a strange looking man carrying a keg, and Rip helps him carry it into a ravine to a drinking party. After tipping back a fe Rip Van Winkle lived in a village of Dutch colonists at the foot of the Catskills, described as the fairy mountains, when New York was a colony of Great Britain. After tipping back a few, Rip falls asleep.
He awakens with a long gray beard, and finds that everything has changed when he returns to the village. His wife has died, his house is in ruins, and a picture of George Washington has replaced the painting of King George III at the tavern. He had been asleep for twenty years. The short story of "Rip Van Winkle" has a lot of humor, as well as touches of the magic of Indian fables about the Catskills.
Washington Irving's story was originally published with other stories and essays in "The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon" in This particular edition of the story is wonderful because it contains 51 full page illustrations by Arthur Rackham--the villagers, the troll-like mountain men, the magical creatures in the forest, and Rip Van Winkle with his dog. It's a beautiful book! View all 8 comments. Nov 10, Sara rated it it was amazing Shelves: breakfast-club , catching-up-classics , classics , short-stories-novellas , the-author-cards-list.
Wonderfully vivid tale of a man who loses 20 years of his life overnight in the Catskill Mountains. Irving is a delightful narrator, who employs some irony and humor along with his powerful sense of place, to enthrall his reader. I had, of course, read this long ago in my youth. I found it was a bit different than I had remembered and well worth taking the time to read again.
View all 3 comments. Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound.
If left to himself, he would have whistled life away, in perfect contentment. It's good that ole Rip was a happy-go-lucky sort, because the knowledge that he passed out on a mountainside, and woke twenty years later might have killed a more Rip Van Winkle, however, was one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who take the world easy, eat white bread or brown, whichever can be got with least thought or trouble, and would rather starve on a penny than work for a pound.
It's good that ole Rip was a happy-go-lucky sort, because the knowledge that he passed out on a mountainside, and woke twenty years later might have killed a more cautious man.
This is a story told so many times it seems almost folklore, though it was published by Irving in Rip is a man who is well liked by his fellow villagers, but doesn't do much to help out around the house. Is it because he can't stand his nagging wife, or is it his laziness that made her a scold? We're never quite sure, though since Irving himself never married, you may draw your own conclusions as to the author's intent. Irving based his tale in the Kaatskill Mountains, describing with loving detail how the mountains in the last rays of the setting sun, will glow and light up like a crown of glory.
The old trickster admitted later that he had never been to the region when he wrote the story. I'm sure you've heard some version of this tale - how Rip, to escape his wife's badgering, heads to the highest part of the mountains accompanied by his faithful dog, Wolf, intending to do a bit of squirrel-shooting.
After partying heartily with some oddly dressed gentlemen, he wakes to find his dog gone, his gun rusty, and his whiskers nearly a foot long. He stumbles into the village, where he is unrecognized by the townsfolk. Even Wolf now snarls at him. I've always been amazed at the longevity of this canine, and wished my beloved pets had such long lives.
Though there are countless children's books available that tell Rip's bizarre story, I urge you to read Irving's original classic - a uniquely American fairy tale undoubtedly based on ancient legends. This is still a wonderful story dealing with the fair folk. Jun 29, Kon R.
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. As usual I read this story with no prior knowledge of it. This was only further confirmed as Rip Van Winkle stumbled upon the man with the liquor and the strange group.
I was on the edge of my seat waiting for the horror to begin. As soon as Rip started talking to the town folk and they claimed he was a British spy I was thinking "This is it! They're going to lynch him! I don't expect every reader to go on this emotional rollercoaster, but man was it fun.
Mar 14, Nicole rated it it was ok Shelves: , 2-stars. The feminist in me really hated this story. I wonder if everything I ever remembered about this short was from actually reading it, or because it's a New York folk-tale. I thought - oh yes, this is the very fun story about the guy who falls asleep and when he wakes up his beard is long! But really, it's the story of a lazy ass man named Rip who is unhappy because his wife is mean because he's so freaking lazy the family has actually lost a considerable amount of wealth because he can't seem to The feminist in me really hated this story.
But really, it's the story of a lazy ass man named Rip who is unhappy because his wife is mean because he's so freaking lazy the family has actually lost a considerable amount of wealth because he can't seem to bring himself to work his land.
He gets lured away by the ghost of Henry Hudson and some other Dutch ghosts, drinks their Dutch wine, and falls asleep for 20 years. When he wakes up, the colonies are no longer under English control and everybody is free and American. Also, Rip's wife is dead.
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