Iliyan Kirov

American Settings in Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle

 

"Rip Van Winkle", by Washington Irving is a short story about a man who lives in America before the Revolution, when the territory is still under the command of Great Britain, and after falling asleep for 20 years the same person wakes up in the already independent United States of America. The story is symbolic of the European sentiment towards the new society in America and establishes an identity before and after the American Revolution.

Washington Irving is born in 1783, the year that the American Revolution has formally ended after the Treaty of Paris. His parents are born in England but Irving is among the first generation of people to know from birth that they are not British subjects, but Americans. By that time, the nation is still new, and in many ways unformed. The meaning of the revolution is not clear, neither is the understanding of how the new country will be different from the old colonies. Irving tries to explain the political situation in "Rip Van Winkle," by having his characters hotly debate political changes that have occurred after the Revolution.

Irving does not give any information about the Revolution itself. His hero has slept during that historical period. In fact, Rip Van Winkle becomes aware of the duration of his sleep by seeing many changes in the surrounding world. Judging by the different situation he is surprised to see his village part of an independent country and his town folks free Americans.

In order to fully represent the amazement of his protagonist, Irving fills a good part of his story with descriptions of any kind. He gives a vivid picture of the place of action, colorfully describes his characters and makes plenty of historical and political references by including small details in his writing. The most important part of the description is taken by the big changes that have occurred after such a short, from historical point of view, period of time.

Washington Irving is the first American fictional writer to include description of the American settings in his work. The American reality of that period is shown with the indirect presence of historical figures in the life of the village and the whole story echoes with motives that represent the old settler's culture. Descriptions of the landscape are included several times in the story, showing the admiration of the author to the natural beauty of the country. While giving a picture of the nature the writer expresses his love and belonging to the New World.

In the story, we notice numerous changes in the setting throughout the story. Changes include everything from nature, to the town, and to the people. They force Rip Van Winkle to realize that his sleep has lasted more than it usually does. The story starts out by painting a picture of nature and the surroundings of the village. We get a picture of beauty and grace with explanations such as of the one used to describe the Kaatskill Mountains.

"Every change of season, every change of weather, indeed, every hour of the day, produces some change in the magical hues and shapes of these mountain........" The author goes on beautifully depicting the village itself and gives some background information about it: "It is a little village of great antiquity, having been found by some of the Dutch colonists".

Later in the text several motifs appear to establish the connection of the village with Holland. When Rip tastes the liquor in the cave he finds out that "it had much of the flavor of excellent Holland's." The group of people in that same cave reminds him of a painting in the village "which had been brought over from Holland at the time of the settlement."

The story of "Rip Van Winkle" is based on Dutch folk tales that Irving learned about through a lifetime of reading and years of travel in Europe. One of his goals is to give the United States, a new country, some of the same feeling of tradition that older nations have because of their traditional lore. For several of his stories Irving borrows European plots, but transports them into American settings. In a humorous context, "Rip Van Winkle" deals with issues of politics, as he shows how the American Revolution can change one small village, and gender issues, as he shows the comical relationship between a lazy husband and a bad-tempered wife.

In the beginning of the story the reader understands that "the country was yet a province of Great Britain" and the author gives us insight into the internal personalities of the American colonists and how the passage of time changes a society. "In a word Rip was ready to attend to anybody's business but his own; but as to doing family duty, and keeping his farm in order, he found it impossible," Seeing that Rip Van Winkle's family is deteriorating while the people of the town are profiting from his rebellion against the authority and possible needs of his family shows that the Crown is losing respect while America is gaining the loyalty of its own people.

When the figure of Rip's wife Dame Van Winkle is introduced as the biggest problem of the good fellow we associate her with the presence of Great Britain on American territory. In representing the Crown, Dame Van Winkle nags his husband to death over his duties so much that he seeks refuge from these tirades by going to town to sit in front of the tavern and remain idle with his friends. This furthers the opinion that Americans are just lazy and unproductive subjects of the Crown. Before the revolution, it seems that the townspeople are more complacent and unmotivated. This is a direct parallel to the political situation with the continuing government control of Mother England. This is representative of repression America under British rule when all conversation is idle gossip. "Frequenting a kind of a perpetual club of the sages, philosophers, and other idle personages of the village; which held its sessions on a bench before a small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty George the Third. Here they used to sit in the shade through a long lazy summer's day.... "The sign outside the inn with the portrait of "His Majesty George the Third," who rules Great Britain from 1760 to his death in 1820 is the only indication in the early part of the story that Rip and his friends are aware of politics, or concerned about it in any way.

Then after Rip has slept for 20 years and wakes up, the first change in the surrounding world he familiarizes himself with is nature: "but to his astonishment a mountain stream was now foaming down it, leaping from rock to rock, and filling the glen with babbling murmurs...... At length he reached to where the ravine had opened through the cliffs to the amphitheatre; but no traces of such opening reminded."

Throughout the story, we know that Rip knows most of the people in the village before the sleep. After he wakes up, he walks into town and starts questioning anyone he comes into contact with about where a certain person was, or what happened to someone else he had known. "As he approached the village he met a number of people, but none whom he knew, which somewhat surprised him, for he had though himself acquainted with everyone in the country around". This shows that he had some personal relationship with most of the other people in the town, for if he hadn't, how then could he have known that they were gone in the first place. By showing the reader the very sight of what Rip Van Winkle may have seen, we learn of his surroundings, which give us an understanding of how it all has changed after he wakes up. People are wearing clothes "of a different fashion from that to which he was accustomed." Even the "village was altered; it was larger and more populous. There were rows of houses which he had never seen before." This is a symbol of America's growth and prosperity after the Revolution.

Another big change is that the inn where the people used to gather and spend their time in lazy gossip is not there anymore: "the village inn-but it too was gone." People are now asking questions of political nature. They are wondering "Whether he was Federal or Democrat" which shows America's own political system and people's involvement into it. The townspeople are now filled with a new found energy looking forward to the next elections. The portrait of King George is disguised as 'GENRAL Washington' and a flag, with singular assemblage of stars and stripes, is fluttering to show the independence of America.

The revolution awakes the fire within the American Spirit and the townspeople became alive with anticipation of their new self government. Americans are trying to avoid the tyranny of the Crown, just as Rip does everything possible to escape his overbearing wife. Luckily Dame Van Winkle "had died but a short time since, she broke a blood-vessel in a fit of passion at a New-England peddler". This fact symbolizes the freedom of the whole nation and the personal freedom of Rip Van Winkle.

Our hero meets his son, who is a complete resemblance to his father. However, a major difference is that the son minds his own business instead of helping the people like his father used to do all the time, leaving his own properties unattended. "As to Rip's son and heir, who was the ditto of himself, seen leaning against the tree, he was employed to work on the farm; but evinced a hereditary disposition to attend to my thing else but his own business.

In conclusion, we should say that the story of Rip Van Winkle is giving its readers a colorful picture of the American society by setting a story of foreign origin into American environment in a very important historical period of the formation of the country's identity. All the nature descriptions, landscape pictures and the historical background that echoes from the old settler's culture depict a vivid picture of the American way of life and of the psychological changes that the citizens were going through in a period of such an important change. The American Revolution is represented as a short dream by the author but the changes that it has brought are seen crucial for the formation of the American nation.