Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving | Characters, Summary, Analysis

Hello and welcome to the Discourse. Washington Irving was an American short-story writer, essayist, and biographer who was born on April 3, 1783 and died on November 28, 1859. He began his literary career in 1802 under the pseudonym Jonathan Oldstyle and wrote some observational letters for a news magazine Morning Chronicle. As a biographer, he wrote biographies of Oliver Goldsmith, Muhammad, and George Washington. In 1815, he traveled to England for some family business and there he began writing essays and short stories that he published in a serialized manner under the title The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent from 1819 to 1820. The Sketchbook of Geoffrey Crayon was a huge success in America and it was the first work by an American author to be reviewed well in Europe. Most of the sketches concern his observations as an American visiting England, but six, including the two most famous—“Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” are short stories based in America. Both these stories are adaptations of German folklore retold with New York as the setting and a romantic defense of Native Americans. Rip Van Winkle is one of the most popular sketches or stories by Irving that tells the story of an indolent but good-natured Dutch-American from pre-Revolutionary War New York.

Characters of Rip Van Winkle:

Geoffrey Crayon is the narrator of the story. He is an avid traveler and is highly interested in the stories, people, and cultures of the past. Diedrich Knickerbocker was an old gentleman from New York who was especially interested in the histories, customs, and culture of the Dutch settlers in that state. He was known for his accuracy in historical matters. The account of Rip Van Winkle was found in his notes. Rip Van Winkle is a kind, good-natured, neighborly man who lived at the foot of the Catskills while the United States was still a colony of Britain. His ancestors were great soldiers but Rip is peaceful and indolent. He is a careless man who owns little farmland that he doesn’t tend well. Dame Van Winkle is his wife who continues to chide and berate him for being irresponsible and taking such poor care of the farm and being so idle. Derrick Van Bummel is the schoolmaster of Rip’s village. He becomes a celebrated general in the Revolutionary War and becomes a congressman. Nicholaus Vedder is the richest man and leader of Rip’s village. He owns an Inn in the village outside of which the village men gather to gossip. Peter Vanderdonk is the oldest person in Rip’s village and belongs to a family of historians. Everyone respects him and his approval of Rip’s story leads Rip to be reaccepted upon his late return.

Summary of Rip Van Winkle:

The story begins with an explanation that the account of Rip Van Winkle was found among the papers of a man named Diedrich Knickerbocker, an old gentleman from New York who was especially interested in the histories, customs, and culture of the Dutch settlers in that state. The narrator insists that Knickerbocker's greatest attribute is his accuracy and that the truth of the story is beyond any doubt. Rip Van Winkle lives in a small Dutch village along the Hudson River in the valley of the Catskill Mountains. Rip is a good-natured man descended from gallant soldiers but is a peaceful man himself, known for being a kind and gentle neighbor. Yet, he is careless about his family and is known to be a lazy and indolent person who doesn’t take good care of his little farmland. He is irresponsible towards his wife and children and his son who is also named Rip appears to be following his father’s footsteps. He also has a daughter and a pet dog named Wolf.

Rip often spends his time near the village inn where other men sit and chat about the issues of the day without much enthusiasm. It is a sort of philosophical or political club that meets on a bench outside the village inn. Derrick Van Bummel is the schoolmaster of the village who would often read newspapers and discuss current events with other people. Nicholas Vedder owns the inn and he is the most influential and rich person in the village. He doesn’t speak much but makes his opinions clear based on how he smokes his pipe. Rip Van Winkle is liked by this group of people but his wife Dame Van Winkle continues to berate them for having a bad influence over Rip.

Rip owns a little farmland that doesn’t offer much produce. He doesn’t care for the soil which is continuously depleting. Dame continues to shout at Rip trying to force him to be more responsible but he is indifferent.

One day, he goes into the wilderness with his dog to hunt squirrels. After a while, he decides to rest under a tree. While he is resting, he sees a strange man dressed in old-fashioned Dutch clothes, climbing the hill toward Rip and lugging a keg on his shoulder. The stranger asks for Rip’s help who gleefully helps him. The stranger invites him into a ravine into a hollow and he follows. In the hollow, Rip sees more strange-looking men who are playing nine pins, some old kind of ball game. The strange-looking men get startled by Rip’s presence but the stranger whom he accompanied tells them how Rip helped him. He then offers some drink to Rip from his keg and Rip drinks cheerfully. After more than a few drinks, he falls asleep.

When he wakes up in the morning, he is anxious about what Dame Van Winkle will say about his late return. He reaches for his gun but finds that it is now rusty and worm-eaten—perhaps the men tricked him and replaced his gun. Wolf also is gone and does not respond to Van Winkle’s calls. He gets up and feels quite stiff. When he tries to retrace his steps, the ravine appears to have become an impenetrable wall of rock, and some of the natural features of the area have changed.

He returns to his village but finds that people are wearing a different style of clothing than he is used to, and those who acknowledge him all seem to stroke their chins. When Rip checks his own chin, he finds that he has grown a foot-long grey beard. The children hoot at him and the dogs bark. The village itself has grown larger. He begins to think he must be going crazy, for the natural scenery is the only recognizable thing. The drink from the strangers must have made him lose his mind. Making his way to his house, he finds it in ruins as if nobody has been living there for years. His wife and children are absent. To find some familiar face, he visits the village inn but there is no inn now as it has been turned into The Union Hotel. The large tree that stood outside the inn has been cut down and a flagpost has replaced it. The flag post has an American flag and the poster on the hotel is not of King George but it is of General George Washington.

Seeing the strange-looking old man in old-fashioned clothes, the crowd gathers around Rip. The crowd asks him questions, especially about what political party he belongs to. He is confused and says he is still a loyal subject of the king. They declare him a traitor and a Tory. When he says he has just come looking for his friends, they tell him that Nicholaus Vedder has been dead for eighteen years and Van Bummel is now in Congress. It is also revealed that Nicholas Vedder has been dead for 18 years, indicating Rip has been gone for at least that long. Dismayed, Rip asks if anyone knows Rip Van Winkle. A few in the crowd point out a young man. When Rip looks at him, he finds him familiar and realizes that the young man is his son who was just a child when he went to the wilderness.

A familiar-looking woman appears from the crowd and Rip realizes that she is his daughter. The woman that her father went out with his gun one day twenty years ago and was never heard from since. Rip Van Winkle tells everyone that for him it has only been one night, which makes them think he is crazy. Rip asks about his wife and learns that Dame Van Winkle has passed away. While nobody believes him, Rip insists that he is Rip Van Winkle, the father of that woman. An older woman from the crowd suggests that they should consult Peter Vanderdonk, the oldest and wisest man in the village to verify the veracity of this strange man. Vanderdonk vouches for Rip Van Winkle and says that he has heard tales passed down about the ghosts of Hendrick Hudson and his men appearing once every twenty years; they play bowl and keep a guardian eye on the region that Hudson explored. Finally, the villagers accept Rip’s version and her daughter takes him to her house. He finds that she is married to a wealthy cheerful farmer. Rip eventually learns about the Revolutionary War and everything else that has passed. He continues to spend his time idly and now when he is old, nobody objects to him. Furthermore, since Dame is no more, there is nobody to berate Rip anymore.

The narrator Diedrich Knickerbocker ends the story by vouching for the veracity of the story on personal examination.

The story’s time setting is central: Rip Van Winkle goes to sleep before 1776 when the American colonies are still ruled by the British and wake up after the American War of Independence, which has succeeded in shaking off the British yoke and creating the independent nation of the United States of America.

So this is it for today. We will continue to discuss the history of American English Literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!