Comparing Washington Irvings Rip Van Winkle and...

Parallels in Washington Irvings Rip Van Winkle and Americas War of Independence The story of Rip Van Winkle is well known throughout American culture. As one of Americas most popular short stories, few school children have not heard of Rip Van Winkles twenty-year slumber or imagined his long, gray beard. In the telling and re-telling of this mysterious tale, the original context of the story itself has, for the most part, been forgotten. Few Americans are aware of how the story originated, and in what context it was first presented to the public. Rip Van Winkle first appeared as a part of Washington Irvings The Sketch Book. This was a collection of various short works, ideas, thoughts, and pictures. Rip van Winkle†¦show more content†¦She becomes frustrated, and at times unbearably irate, when Rip fails to meet up to her expectations. Her verbal lashings are of such an intolerable nature as to drive Rip out of the house, wanting only to escape. Dame Van Winkle can be compared to Great Britain in that Great Britain also had certain expectations o f the colonies during this time. For the colonists to deny their obligations to the Crown was not only highly frustrating but also insulting. The anger of Great Britain, however, eventually manifested itself in something more than just a verbal lashing. Irvings portrayal of Rip Van Winkle was most likely written with his English audience in mind. Rip is lazy and undisciplined, constantly avoiding his duties to his wife and family. One interpretation of Rip is that he is ...just as unsophisticated and vulgar as the British reading public required him to be (Barbarese 601). Irving was certainly trying to impress English readers, and Rips part in the story as a symbol of the colonies role in the British-American relationship definitely fits the English perception. Another characteristic of Rip, however, seems to give a more favorable account of the attitude of the colonists. Rip Van Winkle is also portrayed as ...one of those happy mortals, of foolish, well-oiled dispositions, who...if left to himself, he would have whistled his life away in perfect