The Two Worlds of Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle

When Washington Irving, the first American short-story writer, was born in New York during the Revolution, the city was still in the hands of the British and he died on the eve of the American Civil War. His life thus spanned our first great national era, and as America's first professional man of letters, he produced a wide shelf of essays, histories, biographies, and tales. One of his stories was titled "Rip Van Winkle" and contains much social commentary about the whole era. It is a story about a man who lived in the United States when it was still controlled by England. This man named Rip wandered off and fell into a twenty-year sleep, and when he finally woke up, he found himself living in a new world controlled by a new government. There is great correspondence between the life of Rip Van Winkle and the current happenings of the newly-found land. The contrast is shown before Rip wanders off into the mountains and after he returns.

Before Rip falls asleep, Rip's nagging wife seems to be a symbol of the King of England. Very early in the story, Dame Van Winkle is introduced as a "termagant wife" who "continually dinning in Rip's ears…Morning, noon, and night, her tongue incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence" (Irving 24). At this same time, there is mention of a portrait which conveys the picture of King George the Third along with numerous other references to the ruling of England. The way that Irving portrays these two people seems to show how closely related they are. Rip is described as a "henpecked husband" (Irving 24) and one could conclude that this could also symbolize the condition of the entire nation at the time.

Later in the story, after Rip returns, the author refers to both the death of Rip's wife and the freedom of the country in the same way several times, which demonstrates the strong connection between these two events. Immediately after Rip returns, he sees "a flag, on which, was a singular assemblage of stars and stripes" (Irving 31) and he also notices in place of King George there is a portrait of General Washington. Irving also says that Rip was once a part of a "petticoat government" (36), but was "now a free citizen of the United States (36). All of these examples tell about overthrowing the king and how he is replaced. At the same time he hears the news of the government, he also finds out that his wife had "died a short time since" (34). This statement shows that Rip is also freed from an overbearing power. There are also a few times when the author uses practically the same wording to describe these events. One time he writes, "the country had thrown off the yoke of Old England…and was no longer a subject of His Majesty George the Third" (36). He goes on to describe Rip as "getting his neck out of the yoke of matrimony…without dreading the tyranny of Dame Van Winkle" (36). These two quotes alone show the great correlation between Rip's wife and the King.

As shown, Irving uses a great deal of symbolism to tie a well-known historical event to the life of a common peasant. He uses his writing to tell a story, but also provide some commentary on both marriage and life in the United States. However, he does so in the form of a short story that everyone will read.

Sources Cited

Irving, Washington, Rip Van Winkle.