Rip Van Winkle’s as a metaphor for American experience during the Revolutionary period

By: Brian Freeman

Washington Irving wrote Rip Van Winkle with the American people in mind. Written at time when society had changed drastically due to the American Revolution. The American people, after the revolution, were struggling with forming their own identity. Irving wrote Rip Van Winkle in order to inspire Americans to form an identity that would set them free from English rule and culture. Irving uses his main character, Rip Van Winkle, to symbolize the struggle of early America. Many of the struggles Rip went through can be compared to the same struggles that America was going through at this time before and after the Revolution. Irving uses metaphors in the story Rip Van Winkle to describe the changes that the American society went through during the Revolutionary period. The metaphors of Irving’s Rip Van Winkle cover a variety of Revolutionary experiences: America before English rule, early American colonies under English rule, and America after the Revolutionary War.

Washington Irving’s tale Rip Van Winkle is about a man named Rip Van Winkle, who lived in a small town along the Hudson Valley. Everyone in the town was very fond of Rip Van Winkle because he would help anyone who needed help and he would play with the children. Others see Van Winkle as “a kind neighbor, and an obedient henpecked husband” (456). Van Winkle’s kindness is seen by all, even animals as the author states, “and not a dog would bark at him throughout the neighbourhood” (457). Everyone is universally happy with Rip Van Winkle except his wife. The author states, “Morning, noon and night, her tongue was incessantly going, and everything he said or did was sure to produce a torrent of household eloquence” (458). His wife, Dame Van Winkle, would get angry at him for everything he did, and over the years of matrimony, her, “sharp tongue is the only edge tool that grows keener by constant use” (458). Dame Van Winkle would nag Rip to death over his duties so much that he would seek refuge from these tirades and run away. Irving uses the character of Dame Van Winkle as a metaphor for Royal England and its treatment of the Colonies. Rip Van Winkle's character depicts the society of America being forced away by England.

Dame Van Winkle, however, may have had some right to nag her husband, much like Royal England. Royal England taxed the early American colonies in order to pay for the costly Seven Years War and its future protection. This action caused a major uproar among the American colonies. Dame Van Winkle’s right to nag comes from the fact that Rip takes such poor care of his farm. As the author states, “His fences were continually falling to pieces; his cow would either go astray, or get among the cabbages.” The author goes on to say that even, “his children, too, were as ragged and wild as if they belonged to nobody” (457). Rip Van Winkle willingness to tend to his neighbor’s farm and not tend to his own farm can be seen as possible right for his wife to be angry with him. Nevertheless, maybe this can be seen as metaphor in the fact that Rip Van Winkle's family was deteriorating while the people of the town were profiting from his rebellion against the authority and the needs of his family, much like the Crown was losing respect while America was gaining the loyalty of its own people.

As the story continues, Rip Van Winkle decides that he has one option to get away from his nagging wife and the farm, which was to take his gun and dog and go into the woods and hunt squirrels. The reader can view this as a metaphor for the American Revolution war in the story. Van Winkle can no longer take it and is forced to take up arms and get away in order for the nagging to stop. Van Winkle goes hunting and spends all day looking for squirrels, but couldn't find any. So he lied on the grass and after awhile he noticed it was getting dark, so he started back. As he did this, he heard someone calling his name and then meets this dwarf-like stranger. Rip helps him carry a keg of liquor down the hill, where he shares with him a drink. Rip Van Winkle drinks too much, falls drunk, and enters into a deep sleep.

When Rip awakens after a 20-year nap, unaware of how much the world around has changed, he is startled to find that not only did the world around him changed but he changed as well. When Rip arrives to the town his only worry on his mind is the mouth lashing he will receive from the wife. Rip arrives in the town shocked when he finds the image of King George III replaced by George Washington. As Rip continues through the town he becomes baffled and confused, unable to comprehend the current election process that is occurring, when he is questioned by towns people as to “which side he voted?” (463). The author states, “ ‘Alas! Gentlemen,’ cried Rip, somewhat dismayed, ‘I am a poor quiet man, a native of the place, and a loyal subject of the king, God bless him!” (463). The townspeople, on hearing that Rip Van Winkle was a loyalist feared the old ways and become extremely angry with Rip Van Winkle. The revolution awoke the fire within the American Spirit and the townspeople became alive with anticipation of their new government. One main issue of the story was one of identity, especially at this time in history. The people of America, twenty years after Rip Van Winkle fell asleep, found their identity. The American people after receiving their freedom celebrated and became excited by holding elections. Rip, having difficulty finding himself throughout the story, finally finds his identity when his daughter finds him and takes him home to live with her. Rip Van Winkle finds his wife has long been dead. With the overbearing authority Dame Van Winkle gone, Rip Van Winkle is able live the rest of days happy. Rip Van Winkle, much like America, could now enjoy the new freedom that he deserved.

The entire story Rip Van Winkle, by Washington Irving, is full of metaphors directed at the new society in America, in how it needs to establish an identity before and after the American Revolution. The metaphors of Irving’s Rip Van Winkle cover a variety of Revolutionary experience: America before English rule, early American colonies under English rule, and America after the Revolutionary War. Rip Van Winkle's character depicts the society of America as seen by England; whereas, his wife, Dame Van Winkle, portrays England. The townspeople represent American society at large and how it changed with the realization of becoming an independent country. Americans were trying to avoid the tyranny of the Crown, just as Rip would do everything possible to escape his overbearing wife.

Work Cited

Irving, Washington. "Rip Van Winkle ." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. New York: Norton & Company, 2008.