Dieu Tran
ENGL 2010
Prof. Gobbell
Feb 14, 2016
“Rip Van Winkle”
Following the success of new classical theme, Romanticism was born and brought a new breath of fresh air to literature. The application of this theme in works bring a certain success for some authors and bring them to the pinnacle of their writing short stories career. Washington Irving is one of those successful authors, named as a genius of short story along with his famous short story “Rip Van Winkle”. With a creative mind Washington Irving blows a soul into his “Rip Van Winkle” to make it mysterious and interesting to readers through some elements such as characters, setting, and tone.
Characters are the most important element in this story. Each character plays different…show more content… It brings to readers variable rhythms from happiness and optimist although Rip Van Winkle never satisfies for the marriage with Dame Van Winkle. Through end of story, it become more sadness and dramatic but it gets happy again even much happier. The climax of his emotion at when Rip steps in the village and villagers are surrounding him to find out how he is, so he was frightening, “They crowded around him eyeing him from head to foot, with great curiosity” (Irving 303). This is impact the story because he is known as a good man in his previous village, then no one in current village can recognize him. According to Irving, “Having nothing to do at home, and being arrived at that happy age when a man can be idle with impunity, he took his place once more on the bench at the inn door, and was reverenced as one of the patriarchs of the village, and a chronicle of the old times ‘before the war.’” (Irving 307). Later on Rip Van Winkle has found his peaceful and happiness back, he starts telling people about his fairy…show more content… “Whoever has made a voyage up the Hudson must remember the Kaatskill mountains.” Obviously, Irving tries to give the specific location that Kaatskill mountains is where the story take place and narrator is the one take readers to places (Irving 296). Location is getting closer to where the main characters live at “In that same village, and in one of these very houses (which, to tell the precise truth, was sadly time-worn and weather-beaten) …” (Irving 297). Living in a small village so Rip easy to make neighbor and become popular there because he always like to help everyone but himself. Rip Van Winkle takes readers to very single angles of the village and to where he finds his entertain after his wife is being rule to him, “a small inn, designated by a rubicund portrait of His Majesty George the Third” (Irving 298). Before Rip leave the village to go to forest for his unexpected journey, he still lives in the American Revolution, “It is a little village of great antiquity, having been founded by some of the Dutch colonies in the early times of the province..." (Irving 276-277). Waking up after 20 years, everything in the village completely change; especially he recognizes that there was a new revolution takes place, when he keeps asking about his friends to an old man, “‘Where’s Brom Dutcher?’…, and now in congress.’” (Irving 304) With a sudden appearance after 20 years Rip has been gone without noticing, he
